One of Powercab's strongest points is its modularity. The Powercab is essentially a very good starter set. If your layout grows beyond it, you can buy all the components separately to upgrade it to whatever you want. I don’t think the moisture travels along the nails. I think the moisture in the air, greater than usual concentrations if you’ve been up there for an hour or two, is attracted to the cold nails which have conducted the cold from outside to inside and condenses on the metal. The sharp tip provides a good collecting point – a droplet forms and then drips when the weight overcomes the surface tension. However if you mirror image the plan the sidings become trailing problem solved, and if you put two extra sidings on the fan of three and remove the return loop sidings it removes one electrical complication. as you can put in a diamond crossing and have the loop going from outer main to inner main and not actually forming a loop, Quite a plethora of comments alread, which is great! You can always rely on RMwebers for comment and advice.

I posted an answer to your question you posted on my topic here, http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/104302-a-new-family-8x4-layout/?p=2112778 so I won't repeat myself here. A bit of my re-design is to do with practical reasons. For example, it doesn’t make sense to lean over three sidings when using the turntable – so they need to be more distant. I'm an amateur at anyrail - haven't figured out colours and layers yet so I've broken the second tier out as below so it makes sense. An 8' X 4' actually needs 14' X 10' as you need to be able to get round the whole table to make good use of the board and run a scenic divider down the middleish sort of location to make it seem bigger than it is. The room is oblong and the board sizes are based on allowing access along one side and both ends of the board. The board would be fixed (possibly hinged) along one wall. The suggested access hole is probably more necessity than preference as the size of the board makes it difficult to reach the items (i.e. points or derailed locomotives).Hi I would not start with 8X4. If you can get all around it 8X5 is better, if you have a central operating well 8x6 is better if you can't get all round and it goes long side to the wall then 8X 4 is too big a reach. I too have a NEC Powercab and really like it. Tried others when visiting Digitrains in Lincoln and found it the easiest to hold and work with. I found I could actually use it left or righthand which meant it frees you dominant hand for doing things like uncoupling, point control and other hands on tasks. Easy to walk round the layout with it too. You can add another throttle (NEC CAB04,05 or 06) very easily for two operator control; 2 kids, a very useful feature. Having seen David's reply (arrived while typing), if you still do want to go electrofrog, read on ....

A lot of people build a 6x4 or 8x4 for their first layout, but very few do so for their second and there's good reasons why.The limit on number of locos in use is the amount of current they draw. The Powercab can also be made to display how much current it is supplying. If you find you need to draw more than it can supply, then you could always update it later on.

Well, my initial enthusiasm for building my new layout continues but I’d forgotten a couple of key issues since I built my first layout. Probably most important is the sensible display of HD buildings. They need to be spread out across the layout and in a way that maximises their display value. So, I want the turntable with its shed (and extension) to invite the eye to look at the parked locos within. I’ve attached a picture from my old layout which, hopefully, shows the look I’m after.Building a new baseboard has been fun and this time around I’ve tried to make sure that it’s (a) possible to dismantle it by building it in sections (b) that it can be accurately levelled using adjutable feet and (c) that it is strong and robust by using support battons every one foot length of baseboard (total length 8.5 feet) Thor Trains was a great selection of HO plans but now seems to have stopped. I’ll update this shortly. #5 Model Railroad Hobbyist.com

Is there a way of replacing a 3rd radius curve (R609) with a point and shorter curve - to allow us to mimic the branch for the engine shed? A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface. I was very disheartened at the prospect of losing my original HD layout as we embarked in relocating to Scotland. I attach a pic to give some idea of my layout. Your shed is only just a bit smaller than the third bedroom in my new house, (when I finally move), so your plan will be of great interest to me. I have to leave space for a pull out bed though.

You could run round a longer train in the branch platform if you reversed the crossovers, especially the one on the left (or put the platform on the other side of the loop). Can anyone guide us towards the best single level layout (utilising the at least the bits that we have and the anticipated 44"/110cm wide MAX x 7'/2.1m long board). A huge collection of plans, apparently 400 designs, categorised by size and type (oval, double oval, branch line etc) and location (for prototyping) although these plans are mainly focused on the London Midland region.