Model railroad layouts plans

“Al,

Attached are photos of yard lights I have built for my n scale layout.

They started as a 100 light xmas set regular price 12.99 on sale for 75% off on looking at it they are 3.5 volt led lights.

After taking the lights apart I get 3mm 3.5 volt leds, as my power is 11.79 volts dc I calculated that if I put 4 lights in series that would be a max of 14 volt draw and they worked good on my 11.79 volt system.

I then put a power wire on to the positive leg and attached the negative to the positive of the 2nd bulb using a cocktail stick and 1/8 heat tube I pulled the wires and cocktail stick through the heat tube and painted the bulbs sides black.

I then made a 2nd one and by attaching the positive on it to the negative of the first set and then attaching the wires to my power supply they worked fine.

Being retired and on a fixed income they became a good alternative at a much lower price than store bought lights.

I have one question for you, as I have purchased you silly sale I would like to know were I can find the video of John building the Viaduct He mentions the site on the video but dose not have a link to it, can you send me the link.

jim”

A big thanks to Jim.

Here are the videos he’s asked for:

Here’s the viaduct ‘how-to’.

And here’s all of ’em.

And as people are still asking for it, I’ll keep the sale open for a few more days. The ‘silly sale is here‘.

Now on to Hall of Fame member, Bill:

“Hi Al!

I am safe and doing well in home isolation 😀

With everything crazy going on I had a little fun with my railroad. I made a short video that both side of the big puddle can have fun with lol

Thanks

Bill”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

That’s all for this time.

I’ve had the first building in for the scratch building competition, by the way. At the mo it’s a one horse race, but I’m sure that will change in the next week or so.

Hope you’re all keeping well and doing your best to dodge the plague. I know I am.

Stay safe. Stay sane. Keep busy. The Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

A short and sweet post today.

I was going to take down the ‘silly sale bundle deal‘ on the print out scenery yesterday.

(I ran the sale to help with the competition)

But then these turned up from Dana and John:

“Hi Al,

…some pictures of over 25 models I have built using your stock designs and changes and additional structures I added to make my western 1880 town and logging mill and farm land….over the past six months,

Dana Green, Maine USA”

“Dear Al,

I started on the challenge project yesterday…

This is a little freight shed… O scale…

My current progress..

What you see here was “borrowed” from your covered bridge kit, your wood tunnel kit, the barn kit and a little scratch work of my own for the top of the platform… Yes, it is all card.

I did go a little crazy and detail the interior a bit…

It needs a roof…

Sincerely

John

California USA”

(Click to enlarge)

Both Dana’s and John’s buildings are all made up by scratch building from the print out scenery silly sale bundle deal.

And just to be clear, today is the last day for this offer. Here’s why I ran it:

I thought seeing as we are all couped up for the next month or so, we all need something to get our teeth in to.

So I’m running a scratch building competition to see what you lovely lot can come up with.

The winner gets $140 -all thanks to the fabulous generousity of Ron and Rich.

The winner will be decided by your votes.

The winning buliding will be available to download for free to anyone and everybody.

Entries to be in by 16th April. You can enter as many buildings as you like.

There is also a second and third prize now (haven’t thought of a prize yet though).

So there you go.

Want to join in the fun?

All the prints are HO scale.

Reduce by 54% for N scale.

Increase by 143% for O scale.

And here’s where you can grab the silly sale bundle – but only for today.

That’s all for today, folks. Like I said, short and sweet.

A normal service is resumed tomorrow!

Stay safe. Stay busy.

And if you’re looking for the Beginner’s Guide too, it’s here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here

“Al,

I really enjoy your site. I thought I would send a few pictures of my layout four years in the making. The layout is 9’-0” X 17’-0” (274 x 518). We can run four trains. Some of the scenery is store bought and a lot is scratch built from materials around the house.

The table is built aircraft style with ribbed construction and 2 x 4 legs that have gusset braces at 8 perimeter locations. The center is supported by 4 2 x 4’s. The deck is two layers 1/2” plywood.

The trackage is the old fashion Lionel tubular track set on foam track bed. There are about 800 hand cut ties glued under the tracks with o scale ballast.

The layout is powered by two Lionel 275 watt transformers.

The lighting is divided into five separate circuits and are powered by five multi tap transformers.

All of the building scenes are built on 1/8 thick board so that I can remove each scene and place it elsewhere on the layout.

The mountain and tunnels are made of scrap styrofoam and sculpted using a hacksaw blade attached to piece of wood and heated red hot with propane torch then covered with plaster cloth.

All main buss wiring is # 12 with # 14 feeders. Wanted to make sure minimal voltage loss. One thing for sure is that you learn to correctly wire the layout so you don’t burn up things.

Have some of the usual accessories. Coal loader, stationary crane, water tower, culvert loader and a circus car. The locomotives are Lionel, K-Line and Williams 1950 to present.

Thanks for a great site and all of the ideas. It great to see what you folks do across the pond.

Gus”

And here’s one from Dave that I should have posted last week – but it was another one that fell through the cracks:

“Hi Al, just uploaded this video trying to lighten the day.

Its a trying period we are going through which is going to get worse, so just hope this can bring a smile to some, and take the advice and try to isolate, we all have to do our best and as many modellers are in our later years, this apples more so than ever.

Regards and try and keep safe

Dave”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

That’s all for this time.

Today will probably be the last day to get the Silly discount bundle deal on the print-out scenery, if you want to enter the scratch building competition.

Course, I’m biased, but it’s a fab way to keep yourself busy.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you want to make a start on your very own layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al