Richard’s shared pics of his N scale railroad lumber yard:
“Al, I have thoroughly enjoyed your daily blog posts and have found quite a few useful tips for use on my layout.
Back in October I sent you a write-up on my modest N-scale railroad which you were kind enough to publish on your blog.
At that time I was hoping that I could somehow find a way to expand my layout (which is located in the smallest bedroom of my apartment).
I wanted to include a sawmill as well as a lumber yard. I only had room for a 3 foot by 4 foot extension which did not leave enough space for a stream or small river to float timber to the sawmill.
I decided to use flat bed tractor-trailers to transport the timber into the sawmill as well as to haul off the finished lumber to retail outlets and lumber yards.
I decided to use an N-scale sawmill kit from Walthers, but scratch built the structures for the lumber yard with the exception of the yard’s office building. I included a small picnic area nestled in among the evergreens so the workers could enjoy their lunch breaks.
I have included several photos in no particular order with some short notations.
Leo’s Lumber Yard with busy forklifts
Overall view of layout (at least as much as I could get into the photo). It gives a little perspective of what I could squeeze into that tiny room.
Engineer’s main control panel. I will be adding a secondary control panel to control the five turnouts added for the layout expansion. Still have a fair amount of wiring beneath the layout.
Church and graveyard in original section of layout.
Industrial section of layout. I built a TV and cell phone antenna tower to hide the seam between the two background panels.
HOBO shack (Notice the smart-ass kid sitting on the roof. *LOL*)
Forklifts busy moving lumber at sawmill.
Picnic area.
I placed my most commonly used tools into holders so I didn’t have to drag out tool boxes whenever I needed a screwdriver or a pair of pliers.
I hope you enjoy them.
Thank you for all you have done for the modeling community !!!!!
Kindest regards and stay healthy,
Richard (Dick)
Lexington Park, Maryland, USA”
A huge big thank to you, Dick for sharing his N scale railroad – a wonderful layout (I do love a layout with a theme).
And from a personal point of view, it’s fabulous seeing the printable buildings on a layout too. I counted 8 of them in this pic:
Lastly, we move on to Dave who has been busy with his ‘green screen’.
He’s actually added himself to his layout – have a look:
“Hi Al…
just a short video I have done with myself now on the platform reading my newspaper, what you might call Diddy Dave joining the layout.
Also later shown enjoying a beer outside the pub.. all adds a bit of fun to the hobby, this no doubt will lead to a few more of myself on the layout, always wanted to join in with the fun on there…LOL.
John’s been in touch with the latest lot of printable HO scale buildings.
But first, we start today with Ben.
There are no trains or scenery for the first 30 seconds or so of his video – but then it all falls into place:
“Hi Al,
Greetings from Chicago, Illinois, hoping all is well with you and all our good friends “across the pond”.
As I read the daily posts, I’ve noticed that many folks often blend other interests into their model railroad hobby.
For me, in addition to my freelance model railroad efforts, I enjoy playing guitar and videography. I am NOT an expert in any of the three, but they are my hobbies, and all that really matters with hobbies is that we are having fun with them.
It is in that spirit that I share this short video with you and your followers, if you choose to post it.
In addition to the musical aspect of the video, it highlights two scratch builds I did; a trestle bridge and a small tree house. I’m finding that with a little patience, practice and help from other modelers, I can build some things myself; saving money, learning new skills and having fun, all at the same time!
Thanks again for all you do by hosting the Blog. I can’t begin to list all the things I’ve learned from the posts, your “Beginners Guide” (awesome!) and experts like Dangerous Dave.
Wishing you all the best this holiday season and beyond!
Ben From Chicago.”
I thought Ben’s music went very well with his trains.
And he’s absolutley right, whatever hobby you fancy, it’s all about having fun. Otherwise, what’s the point?
And here’s someone who always has a lot of fun – and spreads the joy too:
John’s been kind enough to put together the latest addition to the printable buildings.
To those of you who are new to the blog, the printable buildings below are made from downloadable prints, which are stuck to card.
Here’s John holding the print outs:
And these are the buildings made from them:
All of these buildings are made from the same print.
And in the one below, a different building has been dropped in to make a back drop:
Here’s a quick youtube John made on the new printable buildings:
And here are some better pics of what you get – all for $9.
The prints make up a ‘scratch build kit’, and you are only limited by your imagination.
Here’s an example of the backdrops you can build.
But don’t forget – it’s not just the printable buildings you get – it’s the Beginner’s Guide too:
Of course, I’m biased so here’s what others say about it:
“Al,
I really like the Beginner’s Guide. As a true beginner it helped me quite a bit. The Guide answered questions I didn’t know enough to ask.
I haven’t gotten to the building prints yet, still working on my terrain.
Bruce”
“Hi Alistair,
Your print out building kits have saved me hundreds of dollars on buildings and they provide the unique option of being able to customize the builds most any way I desire.
Until I came across your kits, I was very limited on what I could add to my planned N-scale layout. Commercial building kits are way too expensive for a retired person’s budget.
I now have the ability to not only build nice scenes, they don’t require weathering. Something I’m not terribly adept at accomplishing. Also, as a 70 year old kid, working in N-scale can be challenging for clumsy arthritic fingers. Your kits eliminate most of those issues. All I need is a sharp blade, scissors, glue and my imagination.
Also, your beginner’s guide is invaluable. I’m a retired network systems architect, so tech is not scary to me yet surfing the web for information can be tedious. I was a pre-teen the last time I played with model trains, and a lot has changed in the hobby since the early 60’s. You’ve solved all of that by providing one source for virtually all my basic needs, plus your daily email blog covers it all. What an incredible resource you are to this hobby.
Thanks for doing all of what you do.
Best Regards,
Ken”
“Hi Al
I really enjoyed the beginner’s guide book. I’m new to the train world. I have just retired and trying to make an attempt to start a hobbie with HO scale trains. You and your followers have encouraged me for the last two year’s. I Thankyou and your followers for sharing their train world
Sam”
Of course, I’m very biased, but I think the Beginner’s Guide and all these printable buildings bundled free are a real steal.
I think Ken’s quote above puts it best:
“Your print out building kits have saved me hundreds of dollars on buildings and they provide the unique option of being able to customize the builds most any way I desire.”
You get 25 printable buildings with the Beginner’s Guide (although with a bit of imagination you can make, many, many more).
You’ll see these buildings sell in the store for $7 each or more.
Again, I’m biased, but the buildings are very enjoyable, as Mike shows us with the new prints.
“Okay, the first thing to do is simple enough, print out and stick to card.
Here I’ve used 100gsm card, but you can use any thickness you prefer.
‘Bonkers John’ for example, uses old cornflake boxes and very thick art board.
The thicker the card, the harder it is to cut out. However, the thinner the card, the more wibbly wobbly your buildings will look.
And to be honest, if they look wibbly wobbly, the will look terrible no matter how long you spend on them.
Once they are stuck to card, start cutting them out.
The arches on this one are a bit tricky – I cut lots of strips that you can see in the pic below – which makes the curve cuts easier.
Once you have all the sides cut out, you can see how the building comes together. Obviously, there are 3 identical sides, and one with a door:
Now we can see what really makes a difference to a printable building.
Can you see the white card on the bits we have cut out?
And if you stack them up, they really stick out. Horrible.
All we need to do, is grab some crayons, pastels or paint and go over the white in a suitable shade.
I mainly use pastels. If I use paint, I never mix it, I just choose a tube that looks near enough.
You can see the difference it makes:
Now on to the windows. First, cut them out:
Then turnover the building sides, add some glue, and slot the windows into place.
Turnover the sheet, and make sure the window lines up with hole.
Also, you see on the pic below there is an unsightly line at the bottom of the window where the card has been cut.
You will get these with most of your cuts. So how do you get rid of them? I just run my nail along them:
I have found, that the difference between a good printable building build, and a bad one, is just down to 3 simple points:
1. Wibbly wobbly buildings look appalling. Just add card to reinforce them (as I have done below).
2. Any white card showing through spoils the illusion. Paint over it.
3. Card cuts that leave a ‘furry’ line need to be flattened down.
I really do believe these 3 points will allow anyone to make any building look great on a layout.
Now for the fun part. Print (and stick to card) the window sills and arches:
Start glueing them into place:
Next, the ledges. Perhaps this looks a little tricky, but it’s very simple indeed.
Print out the ledges sheet (yes, and stick to card…)
To save the amount of cuts you have to make, they ledge parts are all pushed together.
Just start separating them – but watch out, they two strips with two small connecting pieces, is actually one strip. Watch out for this, it’s easy to get carried away:
You can see the piece here that looks like two pieces, but is in fact just one:
Okay so now you’ve cut out all the pieces:
Using the pic above:
The two pieces at the top of the pic, are glued on the third piece, so the white gutter can still be seen.
The two pices left over, are glued together. They slot in the ‘white gutter’ and become the horizontal ledges that stick out from the building – but leave that part until later.
Carry on sticking down the ledges and pillars.
If you look carefully, you can see very faint lines in the red render to help you line up the ledges:
Add the window sills, pillars and ledges to the side prints:
Now, here’s the important part. You’ll see below how the ledges overlap the print:
On the build sides (not the front and the back), cut the ledges so they are flush with the print:
Now, when the 4 sides are stuck together, the ledges will sit flush against eachother.
Next, we just give the building some rigidity and strength – you need to get rid of any wibbly wobblyness. I had some foam card left over from last time, so I just used that:
Turn the prints over, make sure you glue the foam card so it won’t be up against the windows:
I did two layers:
And a bit for the roof to sit on too:
Now the really fun part, sticking the sides together:
With the printable buildings, you’ll always get an unsightly join at the corner, that’s why most have a design to cover them up – here’s it the pillars:
Then glue the horizontal ledges together so the form a right angle:
Then stick them on the building:
Next there is the roof to do.
You’ll need to add some of the stone render to the inside of the uppermost ledge:
Almost done….
Lastly there is the steps:
Once you’ve done this it’s easy to say the building is finished. But it’s not.
I like to leave them, return to it a day or so later and there will be bits out of that jump out at you.
Usually these are bits of white card, or something bending that should be ruler straight, that kind of thing.
I’m forever touching the buildings up too. If I see a gap where there shouldn’t be, I like to fill it with glue, then add pastel. Let it dry and add more pastel. This works surprisingly well.
M”
And here’s what the buildings look like when they are finished:
You are saving a whopping $193 – but please remember, it’s only for the next few days.
Best
Al
PS Just so we’re clear, I know some of you already have the Beginner’s Guide and just buy it for the new buildings – and that’s absolutely fine.
PPS And I know some of you buy because it’s only $9, you save $193, and it’s a great way to make that all important start.
PPPS Even when someone sends in the smallest of dioramas with one of these buildings it puts a massive smile on my face. It’s a great way to make a start into this hobby.
Rob’s been back in touch with his Faller model train road.
He’s been having fun making the vehicles move – this time, a night bus:
“Hi Al,
I thought your readers might find this interesting.
I added headlights and tail lights to my Faller Road bus some time ago. I thought it looked interesting running along in low light.
I shot some video the other day and added some new music to the scene. When I watched it, I found it quite pleasing. It is a very short video. It is slightly over one minute long, but it is an intriguing minute. While watching, I can imagine it is real.
If someone is interested in these Faller Roads and vehicles, I have several videos about how I built my road on my YouTube channel.
Adding the lights was more trouble than I expected. I was able to operate the tail lights from the motor circuit, but the tiny LEDs I used for the headlights wouldn’t work that way, something to do with resistance or something.
For them, I had to add a second small battery and a tiny switch to turn them off and on under the bus. I have done this to my DHL truck as well. Before I added the running lights to the vehicle, they just didn’t look right to me.
Thanks again for all you do for the rail modeling community all around the world.
