Where to start?

96RAF - I did plan to have some buildings in that space A5 and A6 with a footbridge linking them, but I like your idea better. Moving the curves over and making a larger town space is a much more efficient use of the space.

The idea about making the town a lift out section is something I would have never thought of. I definitely think I'll do this as it gives me access to the surrounding board, and I can work on the town separately.

37lover - I wanted to be able to transition from oval to oval, but I agree with you and think this area could be slimmed down and simplified. I think there is definitely a more efficient way to do it. The way it's set up now is an amateurs attempt, but I really enjoy using the AnyRail software, so I look forward to finding a better solution.

Tony57 - I have taken into account the locos I will be using, however, I didn't have any actual reference for the lengths of locos and carriages. Being able to compare them to R600 and R601 pieces is a such a huge help.

My plan is to use R1 and R2 locos for my first layout, with a small steam loco + 2/3 small passenger carriages being used to access the station in the town. I really had no idea how expensive locos are, so I'll probably just stick to 2 small locos, and then a slightly bigger 3rd loco for the time being.

Well done DRC, you are asking the right question and reacting well to the responses. You will end up with the layout of your dreams, Well, V1 anyway, R-

Thank you RogerB, when I decided to start getting into this hobby, I did think about just buying the parts I needed and winging it on my own. After being here for a while and learning what I know now, I'm extremely glad I didn't.

I've priced up everything that I feel I'll need for now, but I have a couple of questions regarding some track pieces.

What is the difference between R617 Uncoupling Ramp and R620 Railer/Uncoupler, other than one is a piece you slot onto existing track in a place of your choosing, and the other is a dedicated track piece?

What is the difference between the R612/R613 vs R8077/R8078?

What is the difference between the R640/R641 vs R8074/R8075?

In general, the R6xx points are obsolete and replaced by R8xxx parts. The R6xx will likely be steel rails and IMO should be avoided, whereas the R8xxx parts are modern Nickle Silver rails. The R6xx points are less likely to be found being sold as brand new items unless sourced from a retailers very old stock. They are more typically found on the likes of ebay as second-hand items of dubious physical condition. Others may be able to confirm this, but I beleve that R6xx points may have a very slightly different rail profile to modern current Nickle Silver track. The current Hornby Solenoid point motors designed for R8xxx are not designed for R6xx points, the point motors designed for R6xx points are also obsolete.

The R617 only has one single function which is to uncouple tension lock couplings. The R620 has an additional railer function. This allows you to take a piece of rolling stock in your hand and use the R620 tapered plastic moldings to guide the wheels of your handled rolling stock item onto the rails. Some multi-axle multi-wheel rolling stock items can be fiddly to place on the track rails without having the odd wheel not seat correctly on the rail. The R620 is just a mechanical aid to make the rolling stock railing on the track process a little bit less fiddly.

Additionally, R612/R613 were the earlier equivalents of current standard 2nd radius points R8072/R8073 whereas R8077/R8078 are what Hornby call 'Express Points' with considerably more gentle (large radius) turnouts which have no curved track to match except the R628 half curve to bring the diverging line back parallel with the straight ahead line, and the R8076 Y-point.

Thanks everyone, the amount of information I’ve learned in the short period of time I’ve been here has no doubt saved me time, money, and a whole load of frustration.

I’ve been watching a lot of how to and beginner videos, but I’m still not quite clear on a few of points.

First point, for powering the track, I connect the Elite to either an R8241 or a R8242? Additionally, is one of these connections enough to power a whole tract layout of the size I am planning? As in, will one need to be connected at certain points around the track to ensure an adequate supply of power to the whole track?

Second point, the R8232 digital point clips go into pieces like R8073/R8073, but do they go anywhere else?

Third point, is the R601 exactly double the length of the R600, and is the R603 exactly double the length of the R601? If so, I can reduce the number of connections, and therefore reduce the number of potential connection related issues.

Many thanks.

According to each product page spec not exactly - double and a bit.

50mm R610 Quarter Straight (x 4 = 200mm)

184mm R600 Straight (x 2 = 368mm)

335mm R601 Double Straight (x 2 = 670mm)

680mm R603 Long Straight (x 1.5 = 1020mm vs flex)

Probably worth getting the tape measure out to confirm those dims.

Also dissimilar and one wonders why?

915mm Semi-flex

970mm Flexi.

Item 1

Technically, you only need one single track power connection for DCC for your size of layout. Adding additional track connections at strategic locations is just being 'belt n braces' as track joiners and DCC point clips can become electrically intermittent after a period of time. Taking this 'belt n braces' concept to the full extreme with DCC, many builders, regardless of layout size, use a DCC BUS wiring scheme and solder power wires 'called droppers' to each and every track piece that are then connected to the thicker BUS wires under the baseboard. It is then these thicker BUS wires that connect to the controller track output. This eliminates the need for R8232 DCC point clips and relegates the metal track joiners to just performing track alignment and physical joining.

Item 2

The DCC R8232 point clips are ONLY fitted to points, no other track piece needs them. But not needed at all if a DCC BUS wiring system is deployed as described above in item 1.

Item 3

Yes in essence from a layout design point of view it can be considered that the R601 is twice R600 and the R603 is twice the R601. The Hornby's track geometry page linked to on this website shows two R600 taking up the same space as one R601 and two R601 taking up the space of one R603.

EDIT: Rob posted whilst I was busy typing.

EDIT 2: Rob's track lengths have been taken from Hornby product pages containg a misleading error in them. The 184mm and 680mm lengths are the overall lengths including a track joiner at each end. The actual track rail lengths are:

R600 168mm

R601 335mm

R603 670mm

R610 38mm

Once track pieces are joined together, it is the rail lengths that need to be considered rather than the overall lengths as it is the ends of the rails that butt together to define installed track length. The lengths above have been confirmed on other Internet resource pages.

One such Internet resource below, others confirm the same lengths.

https://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/Model%20Railway/Track.htm

I’ve noticed that when using AnyRail, if I use all R600s for all the straights, even longer ones where a single piece could be used, I get no connection issues with other pieces in terms of lengths matching up. But if I start to add in R601s and R603s, I start to get connection issues where a rail doesn’t quite meet up with another, or it overlaps very slightly, so I just wanted to clarify as I’ve read differing information from differing sources regarding lengths and descriptions.

I like the idea of joining the track pieces together under the baseboard, it seems like a more reliable system, even if more prep work is needed to make it work.

Hi DRC

I have used long, double and single straights, If you look on the track products page in the catalogue, if you look at the double straight and long straights you will see that the plastic sleepers are made up of 2 single straight sections on a double straight and 4 single straight sections on the long straight.

There are no differences in using a long straight instead of 4 singles or 2 double straights or a double instead of two singles. At times it better as there are less fishplate connections to worry about. A point and the short track of a diamond crossing are also the same size of a single straight. This goes way back to the start of set track, universal, series 3, super 4 and series 6 in its various versions.