My First Layout - Unnamed

[StuLarge]

Never really had a layout before, plenty of carpet ballast setups as a kid, but I feel now it's time. The layout will be in my shed (which will still need to house all the usual shed stuff) because this as a hobby is frowned upon by the Mrs (likely because she has seen my Dad's house). Currently looking at insulating (to lessen the swings in temperature) and putting a 300mm deep shelf all the way around.

First draft track plan attached. Have taken inspiration from several places, but the main idea is to have somewhere trains can go flying around (stress relief) with a small branch which can provide some shunting fun. Very much an anything goes layout, and could suit many scenarios like modern and preserved.

I'm a big fan of the architecture of the original Triang TT (something optimistic about it, not to mention childhood memories) so there will be a Bognor Regis Signal Box and a Havant Train Station (I have the drawings to model from)

At the moment to get some sweeping curves in I have the station at +25mm with the branch dropping to +0 under the mainline at +50 and coming back up again... But have been reading the other current posts about inclines and in lines on curves so now reconsider this.

Any comments appreciated.

[Rallymatt]

I like the idea of trains circulating and watching them go by and the added feature of some shunting etc, I went that way with High Fell, a fairly simple track layout but with lots of scope. Don’t be put off entirely about inclines etc, they can and do work but it can be about finessing them more than a regular flat track option. As drawn yours will have some interesting features and operation. Might be worth testing the ascents and descents before committing to a final design.