Model railroad layouts plans

I’m always banging on about making a start and Richard has done that with his N scale buildings and structures.

In fact, you don’t need trains or track to make a start – as Richard proves:

“Hello Alistair,

I’ve really been enjoying the emails, blogs, photos and “how to’s” from your site.

Thought I’d throw my 2 cents in with some photos of my first few scratch N scale builds.

All of these are made from balsa strips, popsicle sticks!, 0.03 inch thick styrene, a 0.06″ “For Sale” sign (purchased at my local hardware store for $2.00) , brick and stone paper printed on the back of wall paper, and styrene roofing sheets.

Most of the windows were purchased on ebay, but some were 3D printed (I’m still on a huge learning curve for this!).

I’m using the scale of 1/155 – 1/160 and therefore One foot = approx 2mm.

Some are complete but others have a few details to finish.

The first photo shows some of the materials that I use.

The funny thing is that I haven’t laid an inch of track yet! I wanted to have some buildings ready to go before I start my layout.

Thanks for letting me post!

Regards,

Rich”

Richard’s pics reminded me of Jim’s: N scale buildings.

Clarke’s too: N scale city layout.

And can’t forget Robert’s: N scale buildings.

“Al,

Attached are some update pictures on the expansion of Grand Junction.

The first picture is the original 8’ x 4’ setup.

I added another 8’ x 4’ section to form an L-shaped layout in my 40” crawl space. I expanded the tunnel on the left to create a triangle of track under what is now a hillside church scene that will eventually have a wedding in progress. The entire hilltop comes off in case of train derailment.

On the new expansion is a gravel construction site, a camp around a lake with several cabins for rent as well as a farm in the back behind the gravel site and the town. The entire setup is on wheels so I can get around the back of the layout for repairs and maintenance.

The landscaping (mostly trees) is next on the punch list and we still need to ballast the new track and start adding people around the lake, the town and gravel site. As you can see, other than the gravel building and the water tower on the original layout, I’ve made good use of your printout buildings.

As always, thanks for posting these updates as I look forward to what the community is up to!

Rick”

A big thanks to Rich for sharing his N scale buildings and structures – and to Rick too.

Great to see so many of the printable buildings on Rick’s layout too, especially the church.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming – I can’t tell you how very, very quiet it is this end.

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

Remember, it’s the start that stops most people – don’t let that be you!

Best

Al

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

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.

When it comes to LED lights for model trains, Fred’s layout really is hard to beat.

It’s a stunning layout. And believe it or not, this post slipped through the cracks. Embarrassingly, I don’t think I published it.

If you watch his youtube you can see blank space for the oil refinery which he’s now done – you can see it here.

I thought it worth posting because it’s like a retro update:

“Hi Al –

Since we last traded notes I’ve been very busy on the western end (The city of Port Charles) of my layout. I’ll send some slides and a video if i can figure out how. Hope you like ’em.

I think one of my personal triumphs was figuring out how to light up all my cars with fiber optic strands.

I’ve been using .75 mm single strand fiber optic line for all the back drop lights, so I managed to drill out the headlights of a couple dozen plastic N scale autos, pushed the strands out through the lights, and through the floor of the car, then passed them through a 1/8″ hole in the street to a light source under the layout. in my street scene. Half were drilled (oncoming) for white headlights, half for red taillights. It really provides some visual excitement to the street at night.

Together with high rise kits, neon signage, I was pleased to see my city really come alive these last few months. My city backdrop is just a sketch at this point, but I’ve installed hundreds and hundreds of fibre optic strands to simulate night high rise windows, flashing beacons, aircraft strobe lights, etc.

best,

Fred”

Here’s what I really like about Fred though. I asked him if his layout was a ‘professional’ one. Here’s what he came back with:

“My layout is just for fun. Although one of your group during the last comment session sounded frustrated with the extent of some of my detailing, I think, because he felt I was overlooking the trains. In so many words he was saying “what’s the point?”

What he didn’t understand, clearly, were my motives. I’m not particularly interested in the trains (I once was, as a boy) but rather the process of modeling.

I did a lot of it as an architect, but never had an opportunity to do it in color, or with backdrops (I used to paint landscapes in oils) and certainly never had a chance to model anything this large.

N scale is great in one sense – that it offers you the elbow room to design plausible vales and hills, rivers, cities, ports, without that dreadful look that everything has been crammed in there simply because you couldn’t bear to give something up that you really wanted to include.

The bad side of N scale, I think, is that it’s so ridiculously small that most architectural details and surfaces have to be purchased rather than scratch built. Can you imagine scoring scale brick out of plaster at 1:160? I tried, and gave in to the kits. The other thing that is frustrating about N is the fussiness of anything mechanical, and I have to say that the only reliable locomotives I’ve found are all Kato.

I think your group has a majority contingent that IS in it for the trains, which is great, but it’s just a different thing. I don’t want to diminish from their pleasure at operating trains by setting a different standard for scenic modeling which they may temporarily envy, but for which they don’t have the desire to put in the money, time, or risk. It’s about priorities, really.

If each of us can help the other with pointers, tricks, or even by inspiring, I think that’s great. But when I see comments like “I wish my backdrop looked like that,” it saddens me that I might inadvertently be puncturing someone’s ballon. If it makes them feel any better, you can assure them that I am a frustrated model train operator who is a technical luddite, and can barely get a successful locomotive circuit of the layout without drive rods coming off, electrical short circuits form “frog juicers”that were supposed to work, and all sorts of other things that guarantee none of my friends will want to participate in an “operating session” whatsoever. The personal blessing is that it’s not why I’m doing this, so I don’t care!

So in conclusion I think this is a wonderful hobby, whether or not you view it as modeling where you employ moving parts of the model to enliven the static, or operating scale models of railroads with necessary scenic embellishments, but it is very important that we each remember why we got into this in the first place. So your question of me is an important one in the deepest sense, and I hope I’ve answered it.

Fred”

A big thanks to Fred. Here’s another post, this time from Rob, that also deals with lights for us lesser mortals:

LED lights for model railways.

And there is Brian’s too:

Model car light kit.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

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

Best

Al

Download this building here.

Here’s the easy way to make printable buildings – I’ve made so many of them now, here’s exactly how I do it.

I print the downloads on cheap, everyday printer paper.

I glue them to 2 x 300gsm card.

I find 600gms to hard to handle, cut and fold.

But two sheets of 300gsm glued together feels right for me (but may not be for you).

Also, it’s thick enough to stop the card curving – because when that happens, the buildings do not look good at all.

I stick them together with cheap white glue. I use a paint brush and just apply a really thin layer. If the glue is to thick the paper will tear and the card will buckle.

Once the prints are stuck fast on the card, cut out the building shape with a sharp craft knife.

I always use a minimum of three layers for each side of the building:

1. The base layer.

2. The window layer.

3. The ‘anything on the building that sticks out’ layer, like the windowsills or door frames.

Above you can see the base layer, the window layer and the sticky-out-layer.

Use Crayons or pastels to shade in any bits of white card you see before you glue them all together. Pay particular attention to the inside of window frames and door frames.

Above you can see all three layers stuck together – they give a nice 3D effect.

Do the same with all four walls of your printable building (above).

If the design has a roof where you need some brick on the reverse side, glue it before you glue the side together (below).

Trim the roof to size (below). I use foam board (any thick card will do) to cut triangles for gluing the walls together. Three on each side does the trick, and the top one also holds the roof up.

That’s it, you’re done. Easy right?

Here’s how they turn out – and they are a lot of fun too:

The scene above is all printable buildings.The front row of buildings all come from this download.

You can also add any picture or image you want to add a mural to your wall, like this:

Here’s how to do it.

Once your wall with the picture has been email to you, here’s what it will look like (but obviously with your pic):

Now you can put it on to any wall of the building.

Lets say you want it on the back wall – you would just make a template from a back wall print:

Place it over the mural print – you can position it anywhere you like.

Trace out the shape.

Now it’s just a matter of cutting and you have your ‘middle’ layer that sits on top of the base layer, and below the ‘sticky-out-bits’ layer.

You really can have a lot of fun with them:

And you can add anything you like – it doesn’t have to be a photo:

Best

Al