Model railroad layouts plans

Tim’s been in touch with a very brave scratch build – a model train turntable.

And he’s done a great job too:

“Alastair here is a tip for Ken or anyone planning to scratch build a turntable:

If you decide to make a scratch built turntable, you can use an old style large dual contact audio plug and jack as the spindle and pivot hole. This makes powering the track on the table very easy.

Wire the plug leads through the table to the rails and wire the jack from your track transformer.

When operating regular DC and completely turning your engine, the section(s) of inbound/outbound track(s) to the turntable must be isolated so that their polarity can be switched independent to that of the transformer.

This will allow the track to match the polarity of the rotated turntable, since this way of wiring keeps the polarity of the table constant.

Once the engine is off the turntable, the transformer direction can be changed to the new direction and then the isolated section must also be reversed again, to match the transformers direction.

The turntable will also need to be rotated back again to match the polarity of the next inbound engine.

The hard part is making sure that the plug is perfectly centered and perpendicular when screwed into the bottom of the turntable.

I got this tip from a video clip on scratch building a turntable, when I needed to build one to turn a doodlebug at the end of its branch run.

I am still working on how best to operate the table.

Since these pictures were taken, I have added wooden railings with a pit access ladder and a fine toothed gear around spindle and glued it to the bottom of the table.

I also found a roller bearing donut in my spare parts stash that reduces friction and stabilizes any wobble of the table due to the tightness or lack there of between the plug and jack.

The wire in the pic that runs the length of the table bottom is for an alignment indicating circuit.

When the tracks are properly aligned the table will complete a simple dc circuit to a light and battery (one light and battery with leads to each contact pairings) thru contacts in the pit walls at the center of each track and the opposite wall.

The bottom of the pit is just a picture from a computer paint program’s gravel texture with drawings of drains added.

The rail is old brass flex track cut in half and formed into a circle. Make sure that the alignment contacts on the table do not touch this rail or you will get a short in your circuit.

Alignment circuit:

wire to contacts on left side of pit }—@—+[batteries]~—{ wire to contacts on right side of pit

Best of luck,

Tim”

“Al–

I have one for you; I was trying figure out how to hold one of those little bitty tiny N scale handrails in place while I glued it back in place with a bit of epoxy.

My hands are not stable, tape will pull the handrail right back off of its intended location, tape reversed with the shiny side toward the handrail will not let me position it correctly, etc., etc.

I looked around for a new trick and came up with using pipe tape (the stuff you use to prevent leaks on pipe thread) to wrap the locomotive.

It holds nicely, even stretching a bit like, but not too much like, a rubber band.

I have included a picture for you, and I really like all the tips!

This little guy is running around the tracks now, happy as can be!

Jerret”

And now on to Mark.

He’s shared a very simple but effective ‘how to’:

“Hi Al,

Looking around for a quick, fun, (and cheap) project this afternoon and I came across an old Varney gondola in the scrap box.

Added some metal wheels and Kaydee whisker couplers.

Cut out a load base from some scrap bass wood, piled some stuff on it from the scrap box along with some rust and dirt powder.

Then sprayed some alcohol on it to break surface tension and then drizzled some scenic cement on with an eye dropper.

Let it set in the Las Vegas sun for a bit to dry, dropped the load in and it was on it’s way!

Took about two hours and just a few bucks of parts.

Great way to enjoy an afternoon!

Thanks for looking!

Mark”

A big thanks to Jerret and Tim. After all these years, I’m still constantly amazed at what comes in.
That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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

Paul’s been in touch again with his OO scale trains, and my word, have a look at what he’s done.

He’s used up every inch of his layout, but I don’t think it looks crowded at all.

Not many layouts this size can boast of a farm, a turntable, sidings, an engine shed, station, pond and tunnels.

It’s also great to actually see the progress compared to the last post too, which is here:

Paul’s retirement model railway.

“Alastair,

Here is a bit of an update to my original submission.

Here are a few pictures and a short running session video after another Winters worth of work on my layout.

I still have a lot of detail work to do, including a scene on the hill with the farmhouse and some fine tuning on my track to try and reduce derailments.

Thanks,

Paul”

A huge thanks to Paul for sharing his OO scale trains – a wonderful layout, with lots to keep him busy.

(It reminded me of Rob’s: OO scale model railway.)

But that’s the thing with layouts – they are never finished… perhaps that is why they are such a good way to spend a retirement.

Over the years, lots of ‘retirement projects’ have been shared – it’s funny how the love of trains never leaves us, and retirement arrives with an abundance of free time. then all that’s needed is a little space for the dream to finally happen.

Long may it continue too!

What’s more, I know many of you are ‘armchair’ modelers – well, I say enough of that: roll your sleeves up and make a start, even if it’s only on a diorama or a printable building. it’s a lot more fun.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Craig’s been back in touch and has more details on his HO scale water scene:

“Al:

Thanks for the response from the readers. They asked for more pictures and a track plan, so I took some more photos. The guy who made the bench work took the plans from the Blackwater Jct in Model Railroader magazine, I don’t know the date or issue, but I think it’s from Maryland. And he gave me the book he made when I bought the track from him.

The first picture shows the overall track plan in that book and I have added the outside loop drawn in black. The area labeled Blackwater is the town I now call Hunter. I am still working on the engine servicing area, as you can see from the photos. The second and third pictures show the west end of the layout and the photo labeled East end shows the other end of the layout including the engine service area, the little town of Caelville and Cienna Lake.

It also shows a good view of the river. The river was interesting to model. I used Magic Water and believe me, it finds every pinhole and drips. Make sure the riverbed is sealed completely before mixing the two-part resin and pouring it. I poured it in two stages. After pouring the first level, I dry-brushed areas around the rocks to show ripples and sprinkled stuff on top like grit, bits of leaves ground really fine, not much just a little. Then when I poured the 2nd layer over this, it looked like stuff floating just under the surface of the water.

On the 2nd layer, when the Magic Water started to set, I teased the surface into bumps, then when it set completely, I used water effects on top of the Magic Water and formed waves and ripples. I dry-brushed these ripples with white paint as you can see in the picture of Cienna Lake.

The pics labeled Hunter 1 and Downtown show two views of the town of Hunter. There was a question of where I got the dimestore Indian. It came with the kit for that structure. A view of the mine and the busy crossing shows the industry that keeps Hunter alive and going. The view of the River shows the seam under one of the three mountains. I have yet to make this seam “disappear”. All three mountains are removable so that I can access the track under them.

The photo titled Bar B Que shows the company homes owned by the mine, and the families getting together for a weekend bar-b-que. I made the street lights out of some grain of rice bulbs and some spare plastic that I drilled and filed down to achieve the tapered shape mounted on skewers painted gray and weathered with sandpaper to achieve an “old pole” look. The wire still needs to be painted, but whose layout isn’t always under construction?

I’ll send some pics of the intitial stages of my construction and some more details of the river, rocks and the mountains later. Thanks much for the response from the other readers. I really enjoy this link, keep it up.

Craig”

Big thanks to Craig! If you missed Craig’s first post, it’s here.

I do love reading about your layouts and how you all solve different problems. Superb.

Adding water to your layout is always tricky. I’m reminded of Rob’s model train water post.

And Brian’s waterfront post too.

There’s Dan’s too: HO scale water ponds.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you grab the bull by the horns, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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