Peter’s been in touch with his Australia model railroad:
“Hi Al,
Thought I would drop in with a photo update of the layout in my 20 foot container.
As I have said before, I inherited the container when my son married, and set about paying homage to the line from Mt Barker, South Australia to Strathalbyn, now a tourist railway and part of the longest tourist railway in Australia.
Features of the line, past and present are represented, although not precise in location, with a “time warp” to the northern Adelaide line at Exeter and Semaphore, of which, Semaphore was a middle of the road railway line, with a water tower straggling the line near the jetty, but all closed and removed in 1972.
I am also paying homage to the roundhouse at Peterborough in the Lower North of South Australia.
I lose myself in the container and enjoy scratch building many of its features.
Thanks for all the interesting posts you share.
Peter
Amateur Radio Operator VK5PET
Strathalbyn”
A big thanks to Peter for sharing his Australia model railroad.
And now on to Fuad, who is after track plan ideas:
“Hello Al, I hope this finds you well.
I have a very long, but not very wide (say 30’ by 8’) space in the basement.
I want to build a point-to-point shelf “switching” layout: a smallish yard at each end, with one being a harbor (barge/carfloat, dock etc.) and the other a small town.
Maybe a “island” with water feature scenery in between. Not a spaghetti bowl of track, just fun making up, running and delivering freight trains. Maybe a small “interurban” passenger run twice a day.
Can you ask your friends if someone would like to share track plan ideas with me online?
I’m in southwest Michigan. Many thanks.
Fuad”
Please do leave a comment below if you can help Faud.
Hall of fame Rob has been in touch with a stunning church scratch build.
Have a look at the night shots of the windows:
“Hi Al,
In a search for something to build for my layout last fall, I came across a church in Cornwall, UL I found very interesting. Apparently, the original church was started in 1259. That is long ago by US standards. The building has been added to multiple times and has evolved over very long periods.
I wondered how I could determine the exact shape to model it. Things like how long, how tall, etc., came to mind. I first found as many pictures as I could find on the internet. When that resource was exhausted, I decided to contact the Parish directly and see what information they had.
The administrator of the Parish was very helpful and connected me with more photos, and also a study by an archaeologist done in the 1960s. He had studied the various stone types used to build it. Fortunately for me, he was very methodical and created a sketch showing the various stone types related to where they were in the structure. The sketch was to SCALE. Not any particular scale, but it was proportional.
By determining door heights and a bench I found in a photo, I could start to decode the information I had and develop a scale drawing. Once I had one dimension, I could interpolate the archaeologist’s sketch and, before long, had a plan drawing in my scale, 1:76.2.
Now I had the plan view and still needed the elevation heights. After thinking about it for quite some time, I realized I had one height, the distance from the ground to the top of the seat on the bench. I estimated this bench seat at 19 inches, a standard height. Then, using lines of perspective in one of the photos, I could start estimating the heights of gables and arches.
The one thing I was unsure of was the tower’s height. I estimated it to be 58 feet. A friend in the UK offered to find out the tower’s height for me and eventually found it 61 feet to the top of the crenulations. I had begun by this time, and it was too late to change the tower, but it was certainly close enough.
There are 4 videos associated with this project, but I recommend this last one as the best. In it, I demonstrated a couple of techniques developed to build and paint it.
Thank you, Al, for this news and information system you have created. We all appreciate what You do for us.
Rob”
A big thanks to Rob for sharing – I think the windows are amazing. Have a look at the vid and you’ll see what I mean.
Thank you for the opportunity to ask the experts for help with my first ever HO scale layout.
I am building two tables per your Beginner’s Guide (Thank you!). They will have a small 3 ft x 3 ft section joining them, making a broad U shape.
I bought Faced Expanded Polystyrene Board Insulation to go on top of my plywood because that is what my small-town hardware store supplies. One side is a silver barrier, the other is pressed styrofoam. My plan is to put the silver side down against the plywood. This is because I have the idea to dig ‘trenches’ for my electrical wires so I can join them up before creating a ‘pass-through’ hole to beneath the table where the electrical supply will come from. I hope this makes sense.
My layout will be building-heavy and I intend to light almost all of them, plus street lighting etc. I don’t want to create a pass-through hole under every structure – I may hit a support board or move around my buildings. I wish to minimize the holes, maybe one at the end of a block for all that block’s buildings’ wires to go through.
Does this sound reasonable? What are other options?
Also, maybe it’s just the girl in me, but it feels like I should put something down on top of the insulation board before I put the structures on it. I see many layouts where the track/structures are right on the foam board, so I’m thinking probably not. I would use landscaping to hide the insulation. Correct?
And talking about the track…I intend to use cork under the tracks. I would glue the cork to the insulation board, then I nail the tracks to the cork. Correct? Nailing the track to the insulation would not work…I believe.
Thank you for the continued inspiration. Maybe my railroad layout will one day be featured on your blog!
Kind regards from across the pond
Susan
The Woman Engineer, Head of the Cannon Central Railroad”
Brian’s been back in touch, this time with his HO barge:
“Hi Alastair,
First off, an industrial barge project.
I saw a photo of a model industrial barge which I liked and thought that I could use one on my waterways around the layout. I love anything boat wise.
After searching the internet, I found a file that had the barge that I was looking for.
I sent the file to my friend who does the 3D printing and asked him if he could print one for me in HO scale please. A couple of days later (after 14 hours of print time) a slightly shorter barge modified to fit his build plate in his printer, I had my barge.
The raw resin hull shown below. (Top view)
It is 250mm long by 70mm wide and 18mm deep. (The original was 310mm long)
The painting process started using Tamiya Red oxide fine surface primer for the hull.
It turned out to be the perfect colour. (Especially after it was weathered).
The inside all rusted up from hard use using various colours to get the correct effect.
Wear and tear on the top side. (And the rust)
I used some details from my bits box to fill up the hull. (Note the 3D printed generator sets at the back in the 3D printed hull). Scrap vehicles on the way to a scrapyard.
Afloat in the harbour and must still add the tow ropes at the front. I have some chain around somewhere that can lay on the front deck of the barge or inside.
HO Barge:
A resin Tug boat kit painted and weathered many years ago towing the barge.
A close up view showing the weathered hull with tyre bumpers on the sides.
The wood loads need a bit of weathering. (Possibly a black or brown wash on them)
Here, it just fits on the waterway in front of the freight terminal at Pelican Bay.
Found the chain in my bits box and weathered it with rust. Note the seagull found a perch at the front.
Second project – another small fishing trawler.
The one below was already in my small fleet of lobster boats for my layout.
I had another one incomplete. I used my Dremel tool to cut out the bait box.
I painted the cabin interior and lightly weathered it, then added a floor to it.
Added a mast and guy wires to keep it steady. I also added some fish boxes at the back. The loop at the back will be used to bring in the nets. I also added working lights, one inside the cabin and a spot light on the cabin roof.
A boat captain was added to the inside of the cabin with a steering wheel.
Here I am making sure that would look perfect in the harbour. It is 37 HO scale foot in length.
It now needs to be completed – the hull painted then the deck edges, bumper tyres painted and a final weathered coat and a lobster cage on the roof. I will add fine netting used to catch the fish at the back.
Another two short term projects almost completed and ready for placement on the layout.
Thankfully I have a lot of water on the lower level around 3 sides of the ‘U’ shape.
Thats all for now, until next time.
Brian – The HOn3 guy in Knysna RSA”
A big thanks to Brian for sharing his HO barge project.
