Model railroad layouts plans

ken’s been back in touch. He’s been busy with his HO scale risers, laid track and now he’s running his trains:

“Hello Alastair,

Thank you for what you do for this hobby and for keeping this site going.

I really enjoy the daily emails and have learned a lot from other modelers.

I am sending an update to my ho scale layout and also attached some previous pictures to show the progress.

I have now added a branch line and switching (fiddle) yard. I started this layout in 2016 but progress has been slow due to work and other circumstances.

I am now retired and have more time to spend on this project. In the future there will also be mountains and tunnels added at both ends of the layout.

Ken”

A big thanks to Ken, it reminded me of Paul’s post: HO scale track risers.

“Hi Al…just uploaded a new video showing my way of making trees on the cheap, and also my A4 Loco back working again with some great sounds on it.

And of course a running session with our old Friend the Ginger bread Man making an appearance…

Dave”

“Dear Alastair,

You may or may not consider what I have written below as worth sharing.

A few posts ago, you published something where Steve mentioned using an Atlas bumper for installing fishplates.

I began to think and came up with a ridiculously simple idea which could have simplified my life over the years.

Others might find it of use (if they haven’t already come up with a similar solution).

All I did was to take an old screwdriver and file a slot in it the width of the rail head. It’s simply a matter of putting the screwdriver over the rail and sliding the fishplate into place.

I had to replace a heat-damaged point in a difficult situation. I inserted the fishplates so that they didn’t protrude, placed the point in position and then used the new tool to easily slide the fishplates into position. Simple!

Best wishes, and thank you for all you do for the hobby.

John”

Now on to Gary, who asks the question below.

As there is no ‘right’ answer for this, I thought it would be fun to post – I’d love to hear your answers. Please do leave a comment below if you can help:

“How much minimum table space do you think is necessary for a decent small track layout for HO SCALE?

Thanks, Gary”

A big thanks to John, Dave and to Ken for sharing his HO scale risers and track progress.

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.

Rob’s been back in touch. In this missive he is adding railway telegraph poles to his layout.

“Hi Al,

You sure have sent out some great content lately. I have been enjoying your email links. I read them in the morning with my coffee and if they didn’t arrive, I would miss them terribly. It could ruin my day.

My subscribers have told me they want videos with information geared to building great scenes for their trains to run through. Along those lines, I have created this linked video.

I have always liked how my trains look as they traverse this subject section of the Farland Howe layout. With that in mind, I thought it would be greatly enhanced by adding railway telegraph poles.

In North America as in other places in the world, control circuits for the safe passage of trains were carried by overhead wires for many years until the advent of well-insulated cables that could run along the ground in cable trunks, be buried, or in the case of some railroads in the modern era the signaling circuits are linked by microwaves or radio digitally.

I felt that a series of telegraph poles would enhance this long view as I call it.

The images of trains running toward or away from the viewer in this section would be enhanced and the distance somewhat defined by the addition of and the interest the telegraph poles could add.

I embarked on the discovery journey of building telegraph poles and the history and use of these things along the railways and railroads of the world earlier this year when I got back into my Farland Layout after spending a year or so working on an n scale project, 1:160 scale.

I tried to build these poles as close to scale as I could and as I improved my methods and designs, I got closer and closer to actual scale as I went along.

In the process of building these and experimenting with design and materials, I ended up with many examples of various designs for them in varying approximations of scale.

The materials available and my methods and skill at fabricating these things improved over time and trial and error Practice makes improvement. The new telegraph poles on my Longview are the culmination of these experiments.

Besides the video about enhancing this section of the layout, I have provided a link to another video where one can see the various iterations of design from the track level that I have created to arrive at my current telegraph pole modeling level.

Here is the short telegraph pole video of my various experiments:

Here is the link to the video of me enhancing my Longview section of the layout:

Thank you so much for all you do for the modeling community around the world,

Rob – Farland Howe”

A big thanks to Rob for sharing – sometimes it’s the tiny little details like adding railway telegraph poles that make all the difference on a scene or layout, and Rob really is diving deep.

In his last post he made a signal gantry.

And there is also his scratch built crane.

Rob also did a post on making car tracks.

There’s also the Faller Road video, which makes his cars and trucks move.

There’s also more of Rob’s stuff in the Hall of Fame.

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.

Mark’s been back in touch with his Lionel Pennsylvania Flyer:

“How goes it Al,

Here are some updated picture of my PW Lionel layout.

A video of a PW 682 Turbine A Williams car that I added seats and replaced lights with LED, along with a RailKing Pennsy passenger cars that I painted and added people

Here is the picture of the old sign that was on top of the Brewery, also I opened up a few spots on the layout to add some miners, the other photos were updated pictures I took over the last couple years.

A huge big thank you to Mark for sharing his Lionel Pennsylvania Flyer.

It reminded me of Andy’s: Pennsylvania model railroad.

If you missed his first post, it really is worth a look.

You can see more of his post war lionel trains here – just have a look at the comments.

Mark’s posts struck a chord with me, because it’s another reminder of how much a theme holds a layout together.

And of course, it reminded me of a few other posts too.

There’s Andy’s Pennsylvania layout.

There’s also a video of Andy’s Pennysylvania trains here.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you poke boredom in the eye, 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.