Virago496

First of all, thanks for the reactions. I should have been clearer in my question, so here goes : 

The GF is super Liveway coming out of an existing layout it looks like this :

The ones in situ have been tested and the trains run across them fine, the fact that the jumpers are cut doesn't bother me as the track is wired to the controller in several places. The thing that has me experimenting  for weeks with these points is motorising them. I have been trying to control them with servo motors, but the wire I'm using (B&Q piano wire 0.7mm) just bends. Today I actually bought some piano wire off Ebay from a modelling shop, hoping it is more fit for purpose. I will keep trying to get them to work with my servo motors and thanks for all the advice guys. It is much appreciated. 

At a recent visit to a local heritage railway I found some Graham farish track. Thinking I could save a bundle I bought all the points. Weeks later I see somewhere on the ever truthful internet Graham Farish points are not compatible with Hornby OO gauge. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Let me just quickly update every one on this. I've put everything on hold, the layout has been removed from the room it was in and is awaiting a hoist so it can be hung in the garage. I made some schoolboy errors in the design of it all, the worst of which is a too steep decent on a bend which made the passenger carriages derail. After I have fixed my new storage system I will redesign the whole thing taking all your helpful advice into account. And Right away, thanks for your input, have already "wasted" two bits of old track in try-outs, like this:

Not planning on using this because its too course and the glue dries too wide, but it's a start. 

Keep you posted.

First of all, thank you all for the replies, Now I have an idea of the size of bottle and what it will cover. I'm going by what Dcc concepts advised in their instructional video about the underlay. Which is to put a thin layer of ballast on the shoulders of the underlay first and then ballast in  between the sleepers.

David and Jeff, This is my first idea for a layout and one of the ideas was to have the back of the layout raised (saw that in a youtube video and liked the look of it) 

I hope this shows that idea, then the inner loop is meant to be a little shunter running clockwise against a counter clockwise outer two loops. I didn't want these two to meet as the dc layout would not allow me to run two engines in opposite directions. Hope my description clarifies it a bit. The whole layout is probably full of errors but this being my first go I hope to build and learn. Your comments are definitely appreciated and will not fall on deaf ears. Don't be shy to add more comments, I'd welcome the input.

Thanks so far!

Hi everyone,

I'm well into my first ever proper layout and getting to the point where i'm thinking about ballasting, scattering etc. I have no idea of how much ballast I would need to do my whole layout and I wonder if anyone could help. When I look online questions about the cheaper way of ballasting always end up with folk telling you what the BEST ballast is. I'm trying to save money by buying the right amount so can anyone help me here? These are pictures of the layout:

Scarm says the total length of the track is 18 &1/2 meters the track is sitting on a 3mm foam underlay

There is more images and information on my blog: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/2322-viragos-railway/

Thanks!