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Basement N scale layouts

Dick’s been back in touch and added to the basement N scale layouts on the blog.

Embarrassingly, his mail has been in my inbox for a while.

If you’ve mailed me anything, and not heard back from me, please do get in touch.

Here’s what Dick sent:

“This past year has been eventful to say the least here. It has been about a year since I last sent in anything about all of my little railroad worlds. Going on 85 years old now It takes much longer to work on and complete projects on the railroads.

I sure do appreciate all the effort Al puts into his labor of love on his site.

I enjoy seeing everyone’s entry, I believe each and everyone of the contributors on this site love this hobby and each has their own way of enjoying the hobby.

About two years ago it was time for me to re-energize so I made huge changes, as mentioned in earlier posts, the G scale layout came out of the basement train room and went into the garage.

The gigantic N scale California Zephyr Route was dismantled and brought down to the basement train room which actually created less clutter and more space. So in the 16’ by 22’ train room I now have 4 train layouts to showcase 4 different scales of trains I have collected over the past several decades.

This post is about the newest N scale layout I am content with.

This new N scale layout is the very first one I started building without developing a story first.

My intention however is to use the California Zephyr Route story modified to justify the use of the equipment available.

The layout is freelanced, I decided that due to various serious disruptions to the regular California Zephyr Route from Denver Colorado to Salt Lake City Utah, that all trains have to be re-routed to Cheyenne Wyoming onward to Laramie, and on to Rawlins, Rock Springs, Green River, Evanston Wyoming, and finally coming into Ogden and Salt Lake City Utah.

This is probably a weak excuse to run my CB&Q, D&RGW, Western Pacific, Union Pacific, and even Amtrak equipment on this layout but it works for me. I can choose to use different time periods as well depending on what equipment is run.

This layout has a double track mainline throughout plus another separate single track route with some industry. No yards though, if desired at some point in time I can add an extension just for that. I mainly like to watch the trains run rather than do a lot of involved switching maneuvers in N scale. My HO layout will take care of that urge to do a lot of switching.

With everything I build, I repurpose everything I have stashed from prior dismantled layouts.

So the included pictures will show what I have done so far. All track work is wired, control system is built, all trains run well, no derailments, all turnouts are powered and are controlled at the control station.

With 3 main lines to run on, I can choose to run each line with DC or DCC independently, being careful not to allow any train from leaving its designated route if the routes are not all running DC or DCC.

No scenery yet, many buildings are on the layout but will probably be moved around or changed out to fit in okay. While the two outer mainlines are for running between Denver Colorado and Salt Lake City Utah the center portion of the layout is planned to be Medicine Bow Wyoming where the famed Virginian Motel is located, this being an alternate route connecting to the outer mainlines in real life at Laramie and Walcott Wyoming.

Enough for now along with the included pictures.

I am still working on doing a good video to show some trains running.

Dick Chapple Sr

Hardin Montana USA”

Basement N scale layouts:

Next up is Jim.

“Al, it’s been a while a while since I made a post about my layout.

I was going through my previous posts and found a question about the raised area of my layout from Jim Robinson a while back. Jim, the raised area is what I am calling Heart Mountain Park. This photo is the Entrance and overall view of the park.

This photo is the actual Heart ( I owe Gerry a Big Thank You for the Heart design that I saw on his layout that I copied and made for my layout).

This is Ma’s Place Restaurant and General Store for Food and Supplies.

This is the Rock Face for mountain climbing and the River for fishing and canoeing. Fed by the waterfall from the Lake.

This is the Lake at the top of the mountain which also feeds the Waterfall.

This is one of the campsites

I hope that this explains the area. There are a lot more scenes up there but I couldn’t get the rest of the pictures to go through right now. I will try to send another post later.

Thanks Al,

Jim”

A big thanks to Jim, and to Dick for adding to the basement N scale layouts.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you stop dreaming, start doing, and join in the fun, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

PS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the store.

They are great fun to make and great value too.

Lighthouse for model railroad

“Hi Alastair, herewith an article on an HO scale working lighthouse for model railroad.

I sat at my layout’s harbour and looked at the current lighthouse with just a blinking light that went on and off at intervals and thought to myself that I should be able to scratch build a working rotating one with the technology that is available today.

I asked for an Ai (artificial intelligence) sketch of a lighthouse and I thought this one might be appropriate as seen below.

I asked my friend with the 3D printer if he could print one for me. The final product, off the printer is seen below. It is hollow throughout.

The next question was to see if the motor and gearbox seen below could be housed inside close to the top and how to mount it.

Different ideas were thrown around and a few 3D printed parts used to get the whole rotating system with the attached motor and gearbox to work.

A top base was printed as a test and inserted the LED to see if it would rotate without any obstruction. Unfortunately the inner workings below the LED could be seen and had to be covered somehow.

Windows were also printed and test fitted as well as a door.

Again, a test fit making sure that everything fitted and worked.

Below is a 3rd print of the top “base” with a “wood” simulated deck.

The top section (LED housing) 3rd print (first two did not come out the way I liked) had the surrounding bottom piece above the wood deck done to hide the workings that otherwise would have been seen.

At the bottom just under the lighthouse base is the power module that both, adjusts the incoming transformer 220v and connects it to 12v down to 3v to the LED and the speed control knob which rotates at – Currently (3RPM). This will all be hidden under the layout with just the speed control knob on the front facia.

Below, video of the rotating “beacon” in action…

A very successful and rewarding project. (3 weeks from R&d to final finished product)

Next is to mount it on my new layout to be featured soon.

Once again Alastair, thank you for all the work that you do for all the Modellers around the world.

That’s all for now.

Kind regards

Brian – the HOn3 guy in Knysna RSA”

A big thanks to Brian for sharing his Lighthouse for model railroad – I really can’t wait to see it on his layout, I do enjoy his stuff.

(His last ‘lighthouse’ post is at the bottom of this one: model car light kit.

You can see more of Brian in the Hall of Fame.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if creating your own model railroad is an itch you just have to scratch, the the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

PS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the store.

They are great fun to make and great value too.

3d model train boat house print

Brian’s been back in touch with the latest on his 3d model train boat house print:

“Hi Alastair, as promised an article on the 3D printed boat house under the bridge.

I saw this picture of a boat house and deck on the internet and thought to myself, that would fit nicely under the newly installed 3D printed bridge on the module.

I asked a friend if he could print this for me to go under the bridge that he printed for me previously.

Evidence of that is shown here in the following photos.

Here it is straight off the friend’s 3D printer.

Another photo of it off the printer.

Below is the deck with the boat house on it to see if it would suit the area. I did not like the printed version of the roof, so I made my own from some surplus wood clapboard siding.

Here the deck has been “roughed “ up to represent a well worn wood deck.

Test fitted the placement of figures and all sorts of stuff ready for collection or shipment. The boat on the side was supposed to be used as a canopy over the doorway but did not use/like it.

Here the boat house has been weathered and temporarily positioned on the deck.

Same again in this photo. It can be seen very clearly that the figures needed to be toned down a bit. (using a black wash)

This photo was taken before I gave the figures a light black wash to get rid if the new clean look to them.

Behind the boat house attached, is another small deck where shipments brought in by boat are stored until ready to be taken to the upper level boat rental business.

Here is the boat rental business on the upper level. The stairs and railings on the right go down to the deck on the water level.

Unfortunately my measurements for the staircase were not the greatest (guess work) and the print ended up being too low.

3d model train boat house print:

Here it is, the correct height re-printed and test fitted. It may not look as though it is at the right height at the top but that is because of the angle that the photo was taken.

Supports were fitted under the intermediate deck and everything fitted perfectly.

A view from under the bridge making sure that the staircase looked like it should.

Another 3D printed deck (a bit narrower) where stock could be temporarily stored before taking it up to the businesses above. An officer in the boat checking to see if all is in order on the deck.

A new boat used as a ferry to fetch and carry passengers from across the water to here. Note the fisherman on right hand side middle in his small boat hoping to catch his next meal.

The finished bridge module showing the boat house, deck and the boat in position under the bridge. The fisherman’s shack on the right hand side was scratch built using wood. The boat captain will have to get a move on because there is a storm brewing in the background. I created the photo backdrop using AI (artificial intelligence) and had it printed at a local printshop. It is 1 meter long by 300mm high.