Model railroad layouts plans

Rob’s been in touch. He’s added to the collection of Santa Fe model trains to the blog:

“Dear Mr. Lee,

I have read your daily posts every day for several years. I wanted to share with you my history with model trains.

When I was 1 year old and during WWII, my father purchased a 7 year old Marx Streamliner train. I guess we know who was going to enjoy it, especially since growing up on a farm he never had one.

They when I was about 9 years old I got an Americam Flyer Royal Blus train for Christmas.

Wow, it only needed 2 tracks like real trains.

Then a neighbor moved away and gave me his Circus Train modeled after “The 1952 Greatest Show on Earth Movie”.

My Dad Bought a 4’ x 8’ piece of masonite for a train table but never had time to build the table.

I put the masonite on a coffee table and a couch down in the basement. I had 2 switches, an uncoupler, 3 buildings and a cattle loader. Soon we moved and all the traiins got packed away.

I was entering junior High School and never got the trains out again. After High School I went to college and married soon after graduation. That marriage didn’t work out, but now I have the most wonderful woman in the world who has been with me for 51 years.

In 2006 I saw an ad for HO Model trains. I really missed my American Flyer stuff and this ad showed a 2 car garage with the floor covered with engines, cars, buildings and track. The price was right and several large boxes were delivered to my house.

I was in Charlotte, North Carolina and the trains came from Winston Salem, a few hundred miles away. Put everything in the garage and had to change jobs shortly there after.

Those boxes were moved several more times over the next years. There was either no room for a train table or no time. One of my jobs was being a model maker building plastic models of chemical plants in 3⁄4” to the foot scale so I got to develop some modeling skills.

I have finally retired and moved to sunny Florida, USA. The local hobby shop was getting out of the model train business and I was able to buy 5 HO train sets for a very low price. I researched the purchase I made in North Carolina and it appears the all the trains came from a hobby store and the owner passed away and the family closed the store.

There are several Santa Fe model trains engines needing repair and there were several buildings in kit form that had to be put together. There is a 1950’s 3 engine 7 car Santa Fe stream liner that is beautiful except all it does is sit and spin the wheels. It won’t pull the train.

I am now 80 years old and I figured I had better put together a train table. I started to clean out the garage and my great wife told me to set it up in our guest room. We only have 1 or 2 guests a year and we can put them in a hotel. As always she was right. The temperature extremes in the garage would have played havoc with the trains.

I have included several pictures of “Robertstown” as it is today. It still isn’t finished. I need to ad lots of grass and other details. But it’s coming along. There are several stories in the display which I recorded in a movie, but I am unable to transmit movies I take with my phone.

So, here are the pictures. I hope you enjoy them.

OH. By the way. The trolley, or tram as you call it, runs on a track with 8” radius turns. I used flex track and extensively modified the tram so it would make the sharp turns.

Thanks for all of your daily efforts.

Bob, Florida USA”

A big thanks to Bob for sharing his Santa Fe model trains – I do love how so many of have your trains in boxes for years and years. When they see the light of day in retirement, that’s when all the fun starts.

Bob’s post also reminded me of Jim’s HO scale Santa Fe layout.

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.

Bob’s been in touch with his Tinplate model trains:

“My tinplate collection was sitting up high on the railrax in my Hirail room. It was hard to get a good look and they were becoming shelf queens because they don’t run well or at all on Gargraves track and Ross switches.

A few months ago I invoked eminent domain and had the BR furniture in the loft BR moved to the first floor. I had the rug replaced with simulated wood vinyl flooring.

The room is 10×10. I decided that I could make a small tinplate layout with 072 curves.

I ordered a 6’6” square bench work from Mianne bench work.

While I was waiting for the bench work; I installed railrax and a sliding door shelf; which just about took care of all the tinplate and two KMT DC sets. My friends provided the shelving.

After putting the bench work up I covered it with some scrap plywood and then used Homasote on top of that. The table is on casters so it can be moved to the corner or moved out to access the shelves.

I painted the whole table a chocolate brown.

I didn’t want to go under the table; so I used self-adhesive copper tape to run a loop for lights. The tape was connected to the 14V accessory post on the transformer with 18 Gauge wire.

At the joints I folded over ½” so I has two clean sides mated; then I covered the joint with a short piece of the same tape to secure it. At the T I separated the leads with two layers of electrical tape.

I made an excavation under each house to connect the wiring. I was concerned that the heat from the soldering gun would be dissipated by the length of tape so I used a wire staple gun to attach the wires to the tape.

I covered the connection with a piece of copper tape on each leg.

I picked up a set of MTH villas and picked up two original Lionel at an auction. I put down two simple loops; the 072 and a 2 rail DC loop.

Here is the first test of the lighting circuit.

My son brought over this station (no name) that could be standard gauge but it works for me.

I brought in the station platform from the Hirail layout. It’s from my childhood; I’m not sure if my dad made it or picked it up somewhere. It’s made out of wood with some kind of wire mesh. I think it looks better in here.

I painted streets and sidewalks, then I used a roll of grass for ground cover. I am purposely not using scenery techniques used on the Hirail layout.

The flat black that I used for the streets was actually shiny; so I went over it with diluted India ink.

The jury is still out where to place the JEP windup set.

I installed a drawer under the table for the power packs.

With the track down and the lighting completed; I ran several sets of the tinplate and the KMT space train.

I also realized that the clockmaker’s workbench that was in the Hirail room (the loft) would fit in the double door closet in the tinplate room.

This freed up space in the Hirail room and made it more comfortable for visitors.

Happy collecting and running.

Bob”

A big thanks to Bob for sharing his tinplate model trains.

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.

Peter’s been back in touch with some impressive pics of his O scale building kits and layout:

“It took me 3 years to complete this layout.

It consists of a full circle of o scale 1/48

2 rail trains based on western roads, I. E. Rio grande, western pacific, sourthern pacific and Santa Fe.

All engines except for one atlas RS-1 are brass that were painted and decaled by me.

The back part underneath the painted backdrop on the wall is point to point on3 narrow gauge trains.

I completed all the scenery and track work which in itself was a ton of work.

Bench work is mostly 1 by 3 and 2 by 2 lumber for 48 inch height for good viewing and ease of getting underneath for electrical work.

Most buildings are craftsman style kits and there are a few scratch built ones as well.

The pics and vid’s are self explanatory. Any questions? Feel free to ask and I’ll expound on detail ,

TY Al”

A big thanks to Peter for sharing his O scale building kits.

Over the years he’s shared quite a lot – if you want to see his layout from start to finish, have a look here.

As you all probably know by now, one of things I really enjoy seeing is a layout appear from an empty bench – especially when it’s one that looks like Peter’s.

Although he says it’s completed, I’ll bet there will be changes and additions sometime soon. Are they ever finished? Why stop the fun!

Also, just want to say a huge big thank you to the heroes who are answering the questions on the model train forum.

Don’t forget, it you’re stuck on something, you can post a question.

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

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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