A few weeks ago, a guy appeared at the railway club wanting help with building a layout for a present. He'd picked up a Hornby trackmat and needed advice on baseboards etc.
The track mat is an interesting beast. I've no idea who drew out the plan but they didn't do a particularly good job IMHO. For instance, why is the main station on a siding and not next to the running lines? With a bit of shuffling, I can't see what this couldn't have two platforms complete with a footbridge between them.
The siding coming out of shot heads to an engine shed, but only a single road one despite the model being designed for two roads. Perhaps a goods shed would have made more sense?
I know this isn't finescale, but I can't help feel that a better plan with more play value could be easily arrived at.
One challenege for our beginner builder is that a single board would be too big for storgae. It had to split. so much advice was given on doing this. Avoiding the points meant a slightly inelegant result with a pair of narrow bards either side a wider one, but it all seems to work, even if there are an awful lot of track breaks.
Anyway, last week, the nicely made boards arrived at the club and tracklaying commenced. Within an hour, we had a loco running around and all appeared to be well. Than I tried to do the wiring...