Here’s a blast from the past that always raises a smile:
“Hi Al, here is an idea for any odd track and an old hard hat.
This is Hardhat Halt on the H&SE Line. It is going into a local charity model exhibition in Argyll on the West coast of Scotland.
D”
What do you think? Leave a post below. I loved it 🙂
But if you’re looking for a more normal fix of trains and stuff, here’s John’s shelf layout.
Been adding to the ebay cheat sheet too. Have a look.
Best
Al
LOVE it!!!
it looks great
looks cool. what gauge is it
Very clever, now I can see a use for all the old chamber pots people have lying around!
It’s Great….I wish I had your skills for making scenery.
Fantastic and realistic use of an otherwise useless article. Looks like you’re ‘using your head’!
Well done Duncon , very insperasional, something different
An OSHA approved hobby!
What a hoot! Terrific! It brings back a memory from the 1950’s of a comedian on the Ed Sullivan show that wore a top hat that had a train running around the brim.
That’s great
Great stuff, very imaginative
Brilliant!
I like it ! I take my hat off to you.
have a fellow model railroader friend with a birthday coming up. might give it a try as a present. will make him wear it at the party. should be fun.
its amazing what you do with a bit of thought!
Brilliant!!
i love it. very differant and it looks great. well done
What??? No tunnel running from ear to ear…
Love it!
Great Work and artistry!!!
Brilliant idea and for a good cause as well!!!
Great, for some strange reason it reminds me of “Under the Dome”, a novel by Stephen King, published in November 2009. Is there a little city under that hard hat?
Very creative and cever.
Very creative and clever.
Very creative! However, if I use my hard hat for such a train, the next time I trim trees I fear I will end up in the hospital! Inspirational!
It’s brilliant from simple ideas come the best layouts. It’s definitely the take it anywhere layout even to work on a construction site.
like to have one like it. grand dad would love it two.
That is very different and very effective. Well done!
Wish I was that talinted great idea and hats off to D.
D”
You must have trains on your mind at all times? A
labor of love. How wonderful!
Thank you D” for your createtivity … and thank you AL for sharing this with us.
It great this is geting on the head of R/R and getting heads turn for a good cause
Fantastic job a real thought process in this piece
My train is im Standandar gage. It comes very large. I need alarge room to set up to run. I have trouble of the connections. It couse to stop all the time. I get tire of it unless , I hve to tie all the connecrions, lot of work. Suggestion?
cpao@twvny.rr.com
If you want to get ahead get a hat, It must be at lease a 6′ 5/8 size,
it’s great.
Märklin Z gauge?
Oh, man, that’s awesome! Great job.
It is a superb way to lay out a setting. Love It…
a idea for my £2 z gage set
This is a great use for a hard hat. I don’t know how you came up with it but it looks great. You are a good painter.
That is one clever idea! Congratulations!
That has to the worlds smallest model railway.
Cool man cool
Great!!!!!….. Mind boggles as to what can you do with safety boots?
Great idea! I’m getting back into layouts.Now I can decorate my Southern Pacific supervisor hardhat.
Thanks, Frank
from Oregon,USA
It looks like an artist’s work. Great.
Very unique and a real eye catcher! Don
very nicely done
And someone told me that you had to wear a hard hat to run your train.
This proves differently. Now guys, let us see what we can do with all the baseball/advertising caps we have. My wife is to the point I need to go or the hats? I need a reason to keep them!
Cute
How inspiring, a great layout on such a small area, and so mobile.
Fantastic, wish I was as clever
That is beautiful. Well Done.
I THINK IT WAS AWESOME SUCH A NICE PIECE TO PUT ON YOUR COFFEE TABLE OR YOUR OFFICE DESK , THANKS FOR SHARING .
Brilliant wish i could get and complete my layout. still in progress
What a brilliant, novel idea, that would look really great in the centre of a dinner table for a group of model enthusiasts. Fantastic
Go Duncan!
Very creative and extremely well executed. It makes a great conversation piece as a coffee table center-piece. I bet it would sell at arts & crafts, hobby fairs or at vendor tables at model railroading shows.
At Last!! Someone has found a good use for a hard hat. Excellent idea – love it. Well done.
Very ingenious!
That was a great idea. cudos
Thats great but dont let it go to your head
very good, is it n gauge???
Eish! (Wow!!) not just a great idea, also looking very professional
it just takes a good idea to make it happened…..
This is absolutely adorable. What a unique and fun little layout. I will have to remember it, if I ever have the need for an idea for a unique charity item. I imagine such a layout would bring in a lot if it were auctioned off!
My wife said,”cool!!!” and me too.
can’t do that with my O scale
YOU SHOULD SENT ONE TO THE LIONEL TRAIN COMPANY,
when your good,your good
hey that small train layout is sooo awesome I love it
very interesting interesting
I love it you should be proud and I hope the charity is to
Fantastic. Very very well thought out & good on you mate doing it for charity.
Respect to you.
It just shows what you can do even if you havnt got much room.
All the best
Barry
This is pretty d*mn cool if I do say so myself!!!!!!!! I love this kind of stuff…..off the wall stuff. Or in this case off the head stuff!!!!! Keep up the great work everybody I love this site!!!!!!
awesme
After spending all my working life in mining and shipbuilding I would have felt proud to wear that at work!! But I would need a long extension cord lol.
well done mate!!!
Great job and very creative!!! It’s got to be Z or maybe N , yes ?
Wonderful. Long live inspiration and generosity!
Now I’ve seen everything. Great imagination and conversational too!
I think I’ve been there.
That is amazing. Cudos to the designer for coming up with such an idea.
I guess that if one extrapolates, people with swelled heads have larger layouts! 🙂
great would be good to see in live well done 🙂
Great little railroad. So cute. Loved it.
absolute genius
If you want to get ahead – get a hat. Great
stunning i hope it raises as many pounds as it does smiles good work duncan all the best for your charit y fundraiser
Well Done!
A masterwork of creativity and with flawless execution to boot!
Excellent!
Is this the definition of a “Rail Head”?
Very creative.
If You Were To Cut It in Half, It Could Become An Out Door Concert Arena With Stage Inside. Very Much Like The One In Sydney Aus. Ill Get Right On It! Thanks Fo The Idea!
Brilliant! Looks like the scale has to be Z scale, or smaller?
And I loved Gruffalo Granddad’s suggestion as a use for surplus chamber pots! Not many of those still around, but they do get in the way.
This idea would also suffice for an astronomical observatory, with a few cuts and a little ingenuity here and there! Actually when I first saw the picture, I thought that was it’s purpose until I saw the track!
Very well done…have you thought of running for ‘parliament’, It seems as though both of our countries could do so much better if we each had a few people like you running our countries…Great job.. keep up the great work and thanks for sharing..
Fred
Pryor, Oklahoma
Very Cool and imaginative – Imaginations of the Human Brain Rule the World.
Put the transformer inside the hat and add and on/off button on top of the helmet, and if you want, a variable speed control knob as well. In other words, make it fully self contained. Great Paint/ background. Nice!
I have had the same idea in Z scale, nut was unsure of the tight radius and the right locomotive to use. Loco and two flats with minature hard hat loads. Michael C.
You’ve got to hand it to him, he’s way aHEAD of the game
Well rounded layout
SKILLS and IMAGINATION rare combo
If you really want to go to the extreem with your hat model railway try TGauge at 1:450 it would it work well also I believe the track has a good amount of iron in it and the wheels are magnetic so it would stay on the hat.
Denis (British N)
Now I have seen everything. Looks kind of nice. Good woork.
Brilliant.
it looks AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very neat idea.
I think that is a really neat way to utilize old hardhats that can’t be used on jobs anymore. Plus it makes for a nice centerpiece on a coffee table and you still get to enjoy a model train set
What gauge ?
WOW!!!! Verycool!!!!! 🙂
great. it must be Z scale. If I could send the pictures of my Z scale layout I would and may be Al would post them. But I am comp illerate and do not know how. Hopefully the next time my daughter comes in from Erie,,Pa. she can help me.
I love the layout
It gives me some ideas
Look like T Gauge
Amazing….. so many clever ideas found here. Thanks!
Super Coooool.
If you have a hard hat that would be the cats whiskers to build. thanks for the show. John
That is the best small (and I do mean small) layout I have ever seen. Just think of the hit you will make with your grandchildren at Christmas time wearing it! Keep more great ideas like that coming.
DC or DCC?
Now that was a highly creative and well executed plan and layout! I’ll never look at another hard hat the same way now! Great job!!
I wish every one could be as smart as you D !
Keep going and you might make giving to charity work a better way to
support those in need .
George
I think someone has waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands.
That is a nice micro layout. This should be entered also with carendt.com.
Carl passed away but his son has kept this great site going. It features micro sized layouts and is a terrific mind stretcher. This site eliminates any and all excuses for building a model layout.
Nice work.
You just blew a hole in my theory “bigger is better”. Congrats! Very imaginative.
SIMPLY AMAZING. WHAT AN IMAGINATION. LOVE IT.
AND I THOUGHT I DIDN’T HAVE ROOM FOR A LAYOUT………..MY HATS OFF TO YOU……JACK WINDT, SARASOTA, FLORIDA
Love it! I wish I could think of such things! I have enough trouble keeping going with my full size (OO) layout! Well done!
Dirty Dave
Love it!
I’ve heard of water on the brain but this is definitely train on the brain or let the train run round the brain but at least you used your head hats off to you.
Enough puns .Great piece of work and just proves you don’t need a massive cellar to build a very nice little railway.
Great Job!!! I enjoyed seeing a recycled hard hat. Rossco SA
Now thats different. Has to be Z scale
Fantastic, ultimate re-cycling.
It’s the first wearable model railroad! Very neat to wear to the next train show.
Fantastic imagination!
Very nice and fun 🙂
really kool! reminds me of the old civic arena in Pittsburgh! also remindes me of an old hallmark ornament I bought my mom for Christmas one year! is it mobile? can you wear it while running?
I have been a railroader on track construction projects with Union Pacific and to take a hard hat and build a railroad on it incredible.Way to go.
Amazingly cool!!
What a great novel idea
Looking at the Hard Hat Railroad, I dern near fell off my chair laughing. What a novel way to use a hard hat.
Amazing! What an inspiration! I might actually get started on something like that!
As a former hard hat wearer, this bears personal significance 😉
I joined your organization because at age 85 uncovered a Super O set that had been stored away for at least 60 years and is in good shape but I don’t know how to connect the remote switches (three wires). I would really like to make everything work before giving the set to my great grandchildren. I have over 150 pieces of track, 9 switches, a dozen or more cars, two trestle sets, three engines, and other miscellaneous items. I’m having a ball except for the switch wiring. If anyone can give me a hand, I would sure appreciate it.
Yes it’s a lovely idea well done
Love it. My hard hat never looked this good. Just remember not to “tip” your hat.
Love the hard hat!!!!
Also to Channing & Floyd
The best place to ask for help in at Al’s forum. Here is a link to the forum:
https://www.modelrailwaylayoutsplans.com/forum/index.php
OK as a link it may not work BUT it is the address to the forum.
Try it, you’ll like it!!!!
Now that is different no dough of it, looks really great, love it.
I love it! Great imagination.
Carry on!
Absolutely fantastic. A great piece of model building and scenery design. My HATS off to you, Duncan.
John that’s a very nice idea. One could make them and sell them. To tell you the truth I was hoping for a larger lay out. I use ho scale or bigger. But I have built small ones too.
My hat is off to you. Very clever!
It is original and that deserves an a+ in my book
Love it
Great idea kive it!!!!