Tracy has been back in touch with his model railroad layout. Here’s his first post if you missed it.
And best of all, here’s the layout he made from the leftovers of the first one!
“These are all of the pictures I have of my lake and river The same layout 1and 2.
As you can see the second time went much better.
Hope you enjoy.
Tracy”
Model railroad layout:
I think Tracy’s water scenes are fantastic. He’s got them looking spot on.
Now on to Guenter:
“Hello Alastair,
The pictures show a load of lumber (HO) that I made from ice cream sticks. They are glued together and thin brown wires were used for tie-downs.
Guenter”
Liked Guenter’s lumber trucks – simple but effective, like most of your wonderful tips and pics.
Next, on to Steve:
“I would like to thank everyone for their comments model builders know how important that is. There were some questions asked I will try to answer.
I attached a wire diagram for the switches circuit you have to add resister to the LEDs depending on their voltage. Different color LEDs have different voltages. Red and yellow are 2.5 volts and green blue and white are 3.2 so you have to wire accordingly. If you put a resistor at the supply some of the colors will not work. You have to treat each LED separately. Just make sure you have enough amps in the power supply.
My layout is 2 boards one 5 feet by 9 feet and 3.5 feet by 10 feet.
I do go to the train shows in Brick and Toms River. I got a lot of my track and switches there. Shows are a good place for parts and equipment at good prices.
O27 is O gauge the 27 is the turn radius but the track is lighter.
When I say my system is D.C. Not DCC I know mine is really AC but most don’t think of AC as a system.
Steve from Toms River.”
(Stephen’s last post is here)
I get sent lots of wierd and wonderful stuff, and if I like it, I pretty much post it.
I have no idea why I found this video of abandoned trains so captivating, but I thought you might too.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as me – it reminded me of the sleeping giants post, which also led on to this one.
And who can forget Eric’s fantastic weathering ‘how to’ post.
A big thanks to Tracy for sharing his model railroad layout, and to Guenther and Steve too.
That’s all this time folks.
Please keep ’em coming.
Best
Al
PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
Great job with the water effects, keep up the great work.
VERY, VERY nice!!!!
Excellent! I certainly enjoyed seeing such a great looking waterway. Place a gold star by your name.
Very nice
Great job! Sure looks like the real thing. Similar to Hollywood special effects makers. Nice!
excellent work on the water
Just fantastic is all I can say !
George
Hi
This looks like “hall of fame work”. Excellent detail. Rock work looks real. One of the better layouts as far as scenery goes.
Great work on the water scenery. I can see a lot of time and effort went into it. Thank you for posting. Joe
Best I Have Seen In A Long Time. Great Layout Overall.
Fantastic water effects Tracy. Well done looks very realistic.
Eric (Leeds)UK
Fantasic waterway work. So realistic looking, I kept listening for the sound of water over the falls, & downstream … Well Done, Tracy, very WELL DONE !!!
Very, very, nice. I wish I was half as good. oh, well
i’ll keep trying
Very nice— great detail !
Excellent water falls etc.
Excellent work! Now… can you provide a tutorial with step-by-step procedures so that we can ALL learn how to create such masterpieces?
Great work and your water scenes! How about some information on your rock painting which is excellent! Keep up the great work.
Dan from Boston!
Nice work
An amazing standard. Just got back from an exhibition and would think that if Tracy had a stand with these water features on show there would be a crowd – including some exhibitors. Inspirational. Thankyou.
Nice work, thoroughly enjoyed the pictures and especially the layout made with left overs. great modeling.
Cary B from Frederick MD
Tracy — very nice job on modeling water. The rapidly moving and pooling water looks excellent. Did you use Woodland Scenics Water Effects and Realistic Water? The placid water effects are equally well done and convincing. Did you us an epoxy resin as might be found in Magic Water? The scene with the canoes is particularly visually appealing. — Arnie
Great realism. Enjoyed the whole lay out.
It looks so real.
paul
great work. extreme patience and craftsmanship at its best.
You’re to be commended on your water scenery Tracy. Really life like, quite stunning! Any tips on how you achieved this and with what products would be relished.
Thanks for the inspiration, David
Well they sure do look all wet. Great job! We could send you some water from the B & O RR Museum since we have had a bunch lately, but your’s is much better looking.
oh my god after all of that the best and most realistic ones aren’t here !!!!!!
Nice work
Looks so real. Nice job.
Tracy, you have great talent in designing a layout and in building scenery. Your layout is beautiful. The water scenes look so real.
I join in with all previous respondents in applauding the meticulous and convincing water effects — have seen few better than Tracy’s! Now I would hope he moves on to weathering loco and cars as well as his tracks for a truly A+ layout.
Hes done a very good job on this part of his layout. I hope someday I can do as good.
Great water effects, how about a tutorial………………
Tracy…….beautiful water scenes and effects. Can you put together a tutorial on your method.
Very Nice. Wish I was so successful with water features.
Kool looking. I hope mine comes out that good.
Water scenes are really fantastic. So real looking.
Great waterworks scenes, like the one by the lone house….
‘A Train Ride in a make- believe panorama of model Railroading.’
Do you remember when you were little when that special time of the year came around.
The tree was up, all shiny with tinsel and flickering lights of all colors, with ornaments of all sizes, maybe one that reminded you of a time long ago, or red ones, blue ones and green ones with bands of silver or gold wrapped delicately around the oval shaped glass that shined when the light came from another color making most wonderfully colors like a kaleidoscope shining from globe to globe.
Or maybe Christmas reminded you of something you wanted to be, like a cowboy, or a pirate riding the high seas, or maybe a construction worker or maybe even a service truck driver, or like a train engineer or maybe you just like trains when you grew up.
Some may say playing with tiny trains is for kids, well, maybe it is, but model railroading is something totally different. There are literally thousands who are model railroad enthusiastic fans all over the world. In fact, it is very big in foreign countries, like the UK.
To be a true mode railroader just think of all you can do. To be true to your craft, you do everything in scale, down to the tiniest object. Just imagine creating your own little world, one with mountains, meadows, ridges, mesa’s, towns, streams, maybe a small farm with livestock feeding in the fields or a train station with people waiting. Your imagination is endless. But the best part is the trains.
I built my first layout fifty years ago and it was all Lionel. When I got married and started having kids, we’ll, it went to another model railroader.
To be a model railroader it takes up a lot of your time and a lot of money, especially if you are really into it. A steam locomotive with DCC sound with all the toots, whistle, horn, the clatter the rails make, the engine sounds and naturally smoke from the chimney, can cost upwards to a $600.00- $800.00 or more if you want the big one, a Big Boy 4-8-8-4, the masterpiece of models. Unfortunately,
in real life several examples remain in museums around the country but sit silently as a visual echo to the thunder that once made them revered throughout the landscape that they dominated. They were created to pull a 3600-ton locomotive up long steep grades pulling thirty freight cars or more.
The fun part comes into planning, creating your little world of trains…
You have to lay out your track and figure how many trains you want to run, and don’t do it in a hurry.
Do you want to have a tunnel? maybe coming out of a mountain you created, one that is as realistic as your creative ability can offer. It may have a rocky slope with grass, dirt, debris, clumps of brush, small spruce trees and at the top cluttered with aspens, pine trees with a small mesa on one side.
You may have a small town with a few service buildings and a couple of houses that the townsfolk live in.
You may have track coming around a bend with a steam loco pulling fifteen, twenty freight cars and a couple of cabooses, and somewhere in between a cut-off for a storage area for train cars you aren’t using, or another cut-off for another set of tracks for another train, maybe a twin engine diesel
pulling fifteen oil tankers. A rocky ridge is interesting for picture taking as your locomotive runs down through it. There is no end how much you can do, just be patient, plan, create, never hurry and have fun doing all your past time enjoying your running trains as they passed a meadow with cattle feeding, or a small team running next to a rocky slope, moving on towards your mountain and when the automatic sounds kick in, relish the moment as the whistle blows, the horn warns that you are coming and the awesome sound the train makes as it moves across the track with that roaring horn as
it passes a small train shed. You may have a trestle or a mining town, you can go as far as your imagination takes you. Make it fun.
My layout is in limbo right now, with other consideration more in priority.
I have the foundation ready, Lanscaping material’s, tools for creating, train engines, freight cars a plenty, cabooses, transformers, electrical wiring and just about everything I need. Just waiting for me to get my hands wet with spackling paste and hours of patience and designing… Author David Schaffner.
Can’t wait to get started. See less
Comments
I’ve always featured water on my layouts, rivers, shorelines etc. Quite easy to do and as we see here, looks wonderful.
The landscaping are very realistic and I really like how the water flows