What do you like least about your layout?

[thebrighton]

I wish I hadn't decided to cheat and just rely on the Peco point blades to let the current flow. Too late to change it now.
Gareth

[bluedepot]

1. lack of scenary!!! obviously can be sorted out!

2. visible 1/4 of a circle of curves at one end which I think are radius 2 and 3. I may re-align road over bridge to hide some more curves but don't want layout to be too similar at each end.

3. should have used code 55, but I didn't know about it back when I started!!! track looks ok though as I painted and weathered it extensively.

Tim

[Bealman]

I wish I hadn't decided to cheat and just rely on the Peco point blades to let the current flow. Too late to change it now.
Gareth

I assume you are talking about live frogs? I rely on blade contact also, and it can be problematic.

My layout is old and when I was doing all the hard work along time ago, I was totally aware of the need to switch polarity, but chose instead to use the Peco accessory switches to do more interesting things like contribute to a fully interlocked signalling system.

In hindsight, yeah, I should have switched the frogs, but I believe now you can get two switches on the same motor (solenoid), but you couldn't then.

However, knowing me, if I am to get me hands on the dual switches, I'll probably find yet more interesting functions for them and still rely on blade contact!!

Doh... 

[Paul B]

What do I like least about my layout?? 

It is just a bare baseboard - really must get round to doing some track laying - but so many other bits keep getting in the way!    (Especially being on here!)

[Greybeema]

The fact I have to dissemble it to store it. 

This means that track alignment when it is assembled is not perfect which can cause issues.  I couldn't get more storage roads in the fiddle yard because it would be to wide to fit through the attic hatch and for the same reason I cannot put the buildings I am attempting on the scene permanently.

Hopefully it will be sorted during the summer when I build my man cave at the end of the garden...

[lionwing]

The lack of a fiddle yard!  It would be really useful in assembling trains before they come on "scene".

Richard

[thebrighton]

I assume you are talking about live frogs? I rely on blade contact also, and it can be problematic.

My layout is old and when I was doing all the hard work along time ago, I was totally aware of the need to switch polarity, but chose instead to use the Peco accessory switches to do more interesting things like contribute to a fully interlocked signalling system.

In hindsight, yeah, I should have switched the frogs, but I believe now you can get two switches on the same motor (solenoid), but you couldn't then.

Yep, electrics are my achillies heal so I just used the Peco point motors to change the points.
Gareth

[Wingman mothergoose]

If your Setrack and small radius curves work fine - what is it about them you like least about your layout?

I like them least because they don't look real, if you know what I mean? I used them out of necessity, so I could have a continuous run. The small radius curves have a bit too much of the 'train set feel' to them, so I'm having to try and partially hide them in tunnels, will show you the end results....

[Bealman]

Thanks for the post! With a lot of current discussion about 'rule 1', my rule one when I started laying track was that, no matter how difficult, I was only going to use long points on visible sections.

It was difficult sometimes, but I grew up with Triang Super 4, and I detest Peco set track points for the very reason you cite: looks like a train set.

Persevere with the long points! 

[davecttr]

Two things I don't like with the layout.

1. I have to heat up the railway room to operating temperature which is inconvenient in winter. i can't just pop in there anytime, it needs a couple of hours pre heating first.

2. Part of the fiddle yard has to be removed to gain access to the operating well. a right pain in the proverbial what with having to rearrange the yard at the beginning and end of each operating session

Ideally i would like 5 more feet length and 3 feet width but i need to win the lottery for that.

[Sprintex]

I have two complaints about my layout that can probably be echoed by many on here:-

a) It ain't big enough

b) It ain't finished




Paul

[Zunnan]

I have so many dislikes with my current layout, but they're all a consequence of stopping building it, and then salvaging bits off it to work on the club layout...

1- I lifted the steelworks yard to get at pointwork needed to replace failures on the club layout.
2- When I moved house last year the bare steelworks site was obliterated, it is now a hole in the open frame baseboards that needs rebuilding from the framework up.
3- My structure scratchbuilding has advanced to the point that everything I previously built for this layout is no longer good enough, so everything needs to be rebuilt.
4- I didn't complete some of the wiring for three points on the main running lines when I decided to ballast trackwork just so that I could take some photos. Admittedly the layout had at the time been mothballed and I intended to scrap the layout all together, but now that it is back on the cards this has become a nightmare as I need to get at the frogs to wire them as well as the isolated track beyond...currently these are working unswitched through bent paperclips.

On the plus side, the layout is now complete bare bones. Everything that was damaged or had been attacked for salvage has now been stripped out and I'm left with a blank canvas to start again.

[D1042 Western Princess]

Ideally i would like 5 more feet length and 3 feet width but i need to win the lottery for that.

I once read of an American layout which filled the basement, occupying an area of something like 45' x 60' and the owner was saying he didn't have enough room to build his dream layout! I guess that's the reply to railway modellers everywhere to the question of available space.

[E Pinniger]

My biggest "issue" is that when I started designing my layout a couple of years ago I didn't know much about prototype operation and trackplans and hence put in a lot of things that were either impractical/unreliable to operate, unprototypical or both! Notably a double-track main line with crossovers which go the wrong way - so not only do trains have to reverse to switch tracks, but there is a facing point on the main line in both directions (and the number of derailments this has caused is a good demonstration of why this is considered a very bad idea on real railways!).
I've since re-laid most of the yard and siding track and am much happier with the results, but the crossovers have so far remained 

I also wasn't aware of the various code standards of track at the time, and as most of my track was second-hand from a variety of sources this resulted in "steps" where different track standards meet, another good source of derailments  Again I've fixed some of these since but there are still numerous problematic lengths of track which I can't face ripping up and relaying (due to scenery/buildings in the way)

I'd also like to get rid of as many Insulfrog points as I can especially on the main line, this may happen in future if I can find some cheap second-hand (I may even redo the crossovers at the same time if I can get enough replacement points)

Like most other people here I could ideally do with a bit more space, but this is constrained not only by space but also needing to keep the layout easily portable. My layout (approx 4'6" by 2') could probably be a foot or so bigger in each dimension, but any more than that would be unwieldy to move about even with lightweight baseboard construction (multiple boards is one way around this but introduces its own problems, particularly with scenery and track)

[d-a-n]

Good thread idea!

I love my little trainset, it does what I want and it keeps idle thumbs busy, I feel bad for slagging it off as it really doesn't give me any problems and any issues I do have could be solved quite easily. Kato track was recommended to me at a sale/mini show at Gaugemaster in Arundel/Ford by a friendly chap with a Japanese outline layout who kindly ran an O series Shinkansen for me. He told me Kato will be expensive but it wouldn't let me down and he was correct.

I'd like my track to be fixed down, and to solve the base board which isn't totally flat in all places. When I'm shunting, some free-running rolling stock just rolls away and blocks my shunter's stable siding.
I need a proper headshunt and a loco stable siding and to introduce a second controller (which I have) and to decide how to isolate it all effectively enough.
I don't like how I can't have a Kato level crossing or the cool little signals. As my train set is track on a desk, I sometimes need to lay big prints/papers out over the whole thing, including track which isn't much of an issue, I can however see signals getting busted off!
Eventually I want the Kato turntable and will need to put my controller in a more permanent place, rather than
atop a little stool with loose wires.

As I write this I'm just thinking 'First world problems' and as I said before, these things are not a big deal, they are easily fixed.