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Some work has been done. Everything is still under construction. I tend to start building new stuff, but finish them much later.

Got my Mallard yesterday, and I am positively surprised. I don't have that much Hornby TT stuff, and most of it is from the first run last year, mainly the Scotsman starter pack. I feel Hornby has started to learn how to put these locos together much better. The engine runs much better straight out of the box than Blink Bonny did, all the details are in the right place, and the tender is considerably heavier, which was a problem for me with Blink Bonny. I use Kuehn track, and the tender tended to derail in the curved points, but Mallard doesn't have that problem at all. So I'm very please with my new loco (even if it means Blink Bonny mainly is demoted to goods service now).

I live in the Czech Republic. There are a few shops here carrying Hornby stuff, so I might try with them. Right now though I'm rather looking for a used Uhlenbrock Daisy command station on ebay, since I use that one on my continental layout.

I tried to post three pictures, but two of them never showed up! Well, let's try again, shall we?

Some progress on the layout. The tall building will not stay, it belongs to another layout. I will start building houses now (I mostly use card from food packaging). Nothing's quite finished yet, I'm a slow builder, and I always have at least three or four different projects running at the same time :-) The exit in the far corner will be partially covered by trees. Sorry for the low quality photos, I took them with my phone, which is rather bad.

The Roco track is, as has already been mentioned, the same as Kuehn. Since Roco took over Kuehn, they also got the track system. I use this track on my British layout, and it looks really good. However, Hornby steam engines sometimes derail in the curved points. The axles on the tenders just aren't flexible and heavy enough to go smoothly through the inner curve in the points.

I used R2 (310 mm radius).

Add points so you can go between the tracks at the top as well. If you could add one straight you would get more possibilities, for example like this: Or, if you are willing to use some Tillig track, you could keep the original dimensions and do something like this: Tillig track fits well together with Horby track. The only issue is to get the correct small bits to make smoothe curves around the curved point. The plans attached are drawn with XTrackCad, which doesn't get Tillig track perfectly... But in reality, these track pieces should fit smoothly.

Thanks for the comments! I hope to finish the backscene soon and start building some houses. Still haven't decided for what digital system to use. Right now the layout is analogue, but I prefer digital operation, especially because the trains move smoother at lower speed with digital control. I'm tempted to try Hornby's bluetooth system out, but the decoders aren't sold here, so we'll see. My continental layout uses Uhlenbrock Daisy, but it's rather costly if you don't happen to come across cheap parts on ebay.

The price is better than the Peho ones, so I'm thinking of trying them out. Converting all my rolling stock would be too costly with Peho. Well, I guess I'll try them out and see for myself.

Not much progress lately on the layout. I've settled for a name: Stanwell Park, and I've done some wiring. A bit of wall some grass is basically the only visible progress. The walls are paper, just like the signal box (I plan to scratch build everything).

Are these the same as the Peho couplings that have been around for some years? If not, do you know if they are they compatible?

Personally, I've always thought the DR VT18 looks better than the DB train. Having been inside both though, I have to say that the VT11.5 was far better from a passenger point of view.grinning

The Deutsche Bundesbahn VT 11.5 doesn't exist in TT (yet). Kres' model is the somewhat similar Deutsche Reichsbahn (DDR) VT 18.16.

Couplings can be a headache. I've got a big mix of different brands on my continental layout, and sooner or later something will always uncouple because the couplings don't align. The worst combination seems to be Tillig/Piko, with the latter always sitting slightly below the Tillig ones. I've also had problems with some Tillig cars that have too long buffers, so that the cars uncouple in 310mm curves even though they are supposed to manage it (the solution is simply to take the buffers off, file them down half a millimetre and glue them back in place).