In November I had the mad idea that I wanted to extend my layout from its current length of 2m to a layout that extended entirely round the room - (non scenic) Purely as somewhere where I could run trains up to their full scale speed and have break from the shunting which had been the practice from 2004.

I had a room that measured 11ft by 7ft with alcove for the door. Items that could prove to me a bit of an issue included a tall bookshelf, computer desk, workbench, tool drawers and a few other boxes. I ended up moving half the furniture out and the rest went in the loft. Management had forbid me from drilling any holes in the wall at 800mm height (pictures hooks only allowed at head height) which meant I had to build the layout freestanding. I also did not want to spend too much with the aim to use spare wood and fixings that I already had.

I started by buying two lengths of timber for table legs from homebase and then had the problem of getting them back home. Instead I borrowed a saw from a bemused homebase employee and proceeded to saw up the wood using a shopping trolley as workbench enabling me to fit 3m of wood in my small car and being able to close the boot.

The plan was to be able to build a layout that when dismantled would be fairly portable but also rigid. The first section I built was the corner in front of the doorway an L shape section - The board is 4mm ply and the bracing is 9mm ply, this is then attached to two legs which are also braced at the bottom creating a fairly rigid structure.

The second section is a baseboard that was part of an older layout - usefully this had a corner shaped section on one end and all that was missing was the legs.

For the other end I made two large L-shaped pieces out of 4mm ply and braced them with 9mm ply for rigidity. I joined these together with metal joiners similar looking to fishplates and added some more timber legs.

With the baseboards complete it was time to add the track... and an hour later I was playing with a 30 wagon train

With the loop in place I am now able to benefit from the full potential of DCC. I have managed to get 4 different trains moving all at the same time on a single line and shunt a 5th in the sidings. For this you need eyes in the back of your head!