gnairn23

yeah I think I might have to wait until I get home when I can build a larger circular layout on the kitchen floor. That will give me plenty of space to start the incline on the long straight, continue up the curves and then put the bridge at the smaller straight in-between the curves. It will be a little boring to just have the oval on Christmas Day but it's about enjoying how good the Tornado looks and how nicely it performs. The dramatic inclines can come later.

yeah totally. It will be fun playing with it on Christmas with a nice movie on in the background. It would be cool though if I could manage to build an incline with the track supports and have a little bridge but I'm thinking the oval track you get with the set won't be big enough to go up to 80mm! Maybe I could build an incline up to about 40mm and then back down!

I wonder if I would be able to use the Hornby R909 track supports on the oval of track you get with the train set, having a small bridge and then coming back down on the incline. Or is the oval too small to do this? I'll give it a try at Christmas anyways.

While I can respect that having only 2 carriages might annoy become but It doesn't bother me. I very rarely run a large train with many carriages and that's because I only had a very small layout before, The Tornado train looks almost perfect to me, as I said I'am happy with finally owning a large steam locomotive model. The pullman coaches look great in pictures with wee tables and lamps inside the carriage for some nice detail.

I think on paper it is a very good value set from what I see and hear. It's actually the 3rd time I've got a train set for Christmas. I got the Sentinel train set when I was 10 and then the brilliant Spirit of the North train set at 12 So, 20 years later and its the Tornado. My childlike excitement is no lesser than when I was 10. I'm sure it will be a sweet model.

I just think the set seems very good value for money. The railroad model of the Tornado locomotive would be about £100 on it's own, so to get two carriages, track, controller etc is brilliant. I don't currently have any larger steam locomtive models in my collection so this will be a welcome addition indeed.

Just a wee thread asking if anyone has one of these train sets It is my Christmas present from my parents and would love to hear from people who have or have played with one. How good is the quality on the Tornado? How good is the quality of the Pullman carriages? Does it run well? Thanks.

Anyone else used the R909 supports for there paper application?

I wonder what it might be like to have a large loft with a layout going all the way round the walls, there must be so much to model and scenic that the project is basically never finished. Maybe one day I'll get room like this but for now you have to do what you can do and that is impermanent layouts on the kitchen floor! The amount of joy you get from that is just the same feeling as a having that massive loft railway.

This is going to be epic

yeah I bought 6 double straights a month ago in order to Make the layout longer, so I have the track and the space, just to see now if I can place the gradients correctly and make it go over the bridge and back down again.

I put the track down in a room that's roughly 9 foot by 9 foot. So quite alot of space. Definitely a lot more than the starter loop you get on a train set.

I mainly use 2nd radius curves, but thankfully I put my track down on my kitchen floor and there is plenty of space for the inline and bridge. Infact, I was considering the longer bridge, although I thought start small first and then maybe get a larger one later. The reason I asked about the oval you get in most Hornby train sets is because I am getting the supports, bridge and a Tornado express train set at Christmas, and was seeing if I could set it up on xmas morning with the oval of track you get.

yeah I thought as much. Basically you can build and plan anything your imagination comes up with. I love the fact I don't have a permanent layout at the moment as I can make all these funky shapes and then take them apart and do something different next time.

Next question. Do you think it is possible to do an incline up to 80mm over a R189 bridge and then back down on a standard loop that you get from most train sets? Or do you need a lot more space in your layout to achieve this?