MikeTr Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 Just started playing around with N gauge havng had nothing much to do with model railways since I was a kid. With three young grandsons starting to show an interest (Brio just now but they'll grow) now seems like a good time to start again. I found some inspiration for a manageable sized layout in the Graham Farish catalog and thought I'd treat that as a learning exercise and keep things simple for now - two track loop twice round the board with some tunnels and moorland scenery based loosely on the Peak District. I've now discovered that 'twice round the board' means gradients, and gradients mean trouble, so that looks like being recycled into something flatter - and a bit bigger to maintain the interest and (let's be honest about this) the 'play value'! Does anybody else find it hypnotic just to watch two or three trains at a time chugging around the track, passing each other and going in and out of tunnels? My background is in electronics and software (the bit-twiddling, device driving kind, among others) so I've built my own two track DC controller - thinking about joining MERG and looking into DCC - but that's another day. And apart from all that you might see me pedalling around Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire in a pack of old geezers dressed like spring flowers! Bikes for summer, trains for winter! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohmisterporter Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 Welcome to the forum Mike, you will find plenty of advice and inspiration on here. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeTr Posted February 16, 2020 Author Share Posted February 16, 2020 Thanks for the comment, Geoff. I'll need plenty of advice, that's for sure. I've started a thread under 'Layout topics' with a plan of the current project and a steadily increasing number of questions about how to get round problems that come up - and hopefully there might even be some answers that I've figured out for myself! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Thorpe Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 Wow made your own controller! Impressive! Must admit it's electrickery that worries me the most, such as motorising points etc. There's also a surprising amount of research needed with this hobby I've noticed, after all nice to get things done right, or as right as we can. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gedward Posted March 19, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 19, 2020 Hi Mike and welcome to the forum, as Andrew mentioned, there really is a huge amount of research needed before buying the plywood. Personally, I tried to cover all the bases by making sketches and even making a small mock up of the layout out of card. That's because it's so hard to visualise how everything will come together. Have read about so many layouts that had to be heavily tweaked at a later stage. And sadly, some that were abandoned because they didn't work out as intended. I spent so long trying to figure everything out before building baseboards, that I almost gave up. This damn fine hobby requires so many different skills and abilities. For me, I dreaded the electricery but by reading everything on here, plus watching countless videos online, I managed it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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