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Firstly apologies for the terrible drawing.. Anyway I have been trying to wire up a DC reversing triangle with no success. In my innocence I thought that if power from a single controller was wired to the two red arrows with Insulfrog points then there should never be a conflict. The train drives from 1 to 3 under power from 1, the point is changed and drives to 2 under power from the middle, then points 1 and 2 are changed and the loco should now be able to drive back to where it started from the original power source. As I said, no luck, the controller trips instantly. Is it asking too much to have it wired to two locations that have no electrical contact? Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give! Cheers Tim

Very nice! Did it start off from Hornby track packs as well? I like the inside loop to siding, it gives the track a maze-like feel

Agreed on this. I was thinking about having a Ffestinog style spiral to gain height in the space on the right, but keep the end-to-end nature of the line. I'll try and set something up to test the heights over the summer

This is exactly the conclusion I came to, if I wanted to model somewhat for me as well as the kids. The right hand side tracks will be 'main line' and go into a double bore tunnel and then slightly separate to come out of two separate tunnels, the left hand one would then be conceptually a goods line and the right hand one a branch-line, which then fits with the single platform station. I've started putting this together to test, I'll share a photo later.

The interesting thing is that the Generation -1 and +1 from me are both reasonably aligned on what the y want to see = trains running. I'm alone doing the work and over-thinking the track plans and scenic angles.. Thanks JDW, I will try swapping those points over, if it makes the loop just a few cm longer it also changes the storage capacity significantly so that would be great. I'll let you know The jury is still out on the tunnel. As I mentioned I have started with some gradient, so the back tracks are now Woodland scenic risered up to 1" off the baseboard., This is a big hit as it changes the race dynamic of the two tracks. I'll try a temporary cover and lets see how that plays out Still trying to decide on the final track plan for the 009. 360 sounds very attractive, but still not sure if I need a run-around loop or not.

Following your comments rod I had a bit of a dig for narrow gauge based ideas that could add interest. I like the Talylln transshipment area (although, for the life of me, I can't work out how it functioned, how did a loco run around???) but I also came across the spiral on the Ffestiniog railway, while it was not an original feature it is a something that exists in the real world. The narrow gauge track would then run into the space on the right, do a 360 turn to gain the height and then cross the 00 line, which could also make a useful scenic break and then run above the standard gauge track. Also the standard gauge I would model as a mainline on the right, a branchline for the inner left hand line and a private good line for the outer left hand line. Ballast, signals et. could reflect these things. The trains would generally just run, but some operating model could also be developed as the smaller generation grew up I'd be interested to have your thoughts! Thanks!

Thanks for your replies. I definitely see the narrow gauge as the place to be a bit more detailed and the OO as the 'race track'. The next idea is to link up the siding in front of the station to the double line to bring back the racing possibilities and to lose the scenic divide and have a visual break, tunnel, hill or something in the top left corner. The pointwork on the right of the station was also very deraily so i'm thinking of moving up to 'express points'. I'm also imagining some gradient changes, so that the OO track follows the gradient of the narrow gauge a bit. This feels like a good solution?

Pressed submit too soon.. The next step was to try and define a track plan that could satisfy all criteria mentioned above (hence this topic) . I did a lot of research online and came to the conclusion that the anser to my prayers was Bredon, which I found from the PECO track plan book. The back-story is that the dual lines (on the tight) are main lines, leading to a station that is basically a terminus, but has a branch line that continues on to the left. I could see a lot of potential for modeling with some feeling of working towards something prototypical, but still allowing to play with trains. Translating the PECO plan into reality was surprisingly difficult, even though it already was ready for set track. The entry to the station on the right was particularly hard, especially as I decided I wanted to avoid curved points on both sides. Also the storage tracks out of shot never really seemed to join up, so I bodged them with settrack in the plan knowing that I would do some bending in real-life. The narrow gauge was simply envisaged to run off-shot into some short of welsh slate mine environment. This wasn't fully elaborated in my mind, but the interface with the OO gauge track was, and I wanted to model the Talyllyn gravity fed wagon turntables. For an over-optimistic moment I watched a few youtube videos (the end of the line..) and dreamed of automatic tipping from one to the other, thankfully I realised that will be for another life and dropped it After doing an audit of the track the elements needed were quite similar to the Hornby track-packs, so it looked good with only some further expenditure. Some small woodwork later and the board was flat(ish) and stable(ish) and the track could be laid out. I gave myself a weekend to get it done before showing it to the generation + and - 1. It was surprisingly stressful, the points on the right were as troublesome as expected and the electrics were infernal. Its a part I never had to deal with as a boy. However, I finally got something working that was close to the plan using only set-track. The blue and green circuits were wired up independently. The narrow gauge part was build on seed boxes and a few carboard tunnels entrances were made. What was the result? Disaster! The double to single track on the left did not work at all. To do a full round a train either has to stay on the inner circuit (Blue) or do a mix of the outer and inner (Blue and Green. While it was possible to run two trains, it required a permanent point switcher and driver, both posts I thought the kids would like, but they didn't. Cooperation is never easy without clear hierarchy..! The fun of double tracks - racing trains, swapping tracks running one fast and one slow, or in opposite directions all disappeared. No one cared about shunting and my efforts to explain the main line /branch line thing fell on deaf ears. Left hand running? Nothing. Also the storage area was just a waste of track...no one was stopping trains there they just want to run. Finally, the narrow gauge was cool. Its significantly smaller than I expected and also more durable. It ticked all the cute boxes and was the only clear, unmitigated hit. Back to the drawing board

Hello everyone, This is my first post, but I've been stalking the forums for a while and I'd love to have some input. Also, I've become more obsessed by model railways than I expected and it's nice to get involved rather than just watch.. A very quick potted history, which I'm sure is typical of many: Starting as a not unwilling participant in a dad-driven layout when I was a boy, became too cool for it all, then didn't think about trains again until I had kids and now trying to build a layout that satisfies three generations and my own personal unearthed muse to do finally do things right. I listed my criteria: 00 - It's what we knew Must fit in the available space, but can't involve touching the house in case the interest is not sustained = Free standing 6 x 4 layout Must keep all three generations happy, so simple yet complex, playable yet prototypical.. Must allow trains to run without too much nursing Set-track based to allow easy testing Possibility for narrow gauge. Too many holidays in wales 30 years ago But before we went too crazy we did a test. We bought Hornby track packs A - C and put them together as instructed and ran some trains on a board, on top of a door, on top of some piles of books. Almost unqualified success, the only problem was the Hornby controller that tripped every 2 minutes, quickly rectified with a Guagmaster dual controller - much better