Model railroad layouts plans

Old Taz has been very busy and very creative with some of his N scale model cars.

Watch the video and try not to smile!

“I would like to dedicate this portion of my track to my dad. One of the things that he did well was build and race, what they called, back then, stockcars, which they now call jalopies.

Believe it or, not my mother bought this car for him on his birthday, without a motor. The motor was built in the kitchen of the garage we lived in that winter.

This is the car that I learned to drive shift and double clutch on the gravel roads outside of town.

I remember there was a hook on the dash to lock it in second gear when he was racing. I hope you enjoy it as much as I had building it.

There are more things that I’d like to do to it like, detailing the cars out a little more, and the scenery is not complete.

My best friend (little R) down the street and I were having coffee. I told him what my next idea was and he had to come up with those words that mean a challenge to me. Wouldn’t it be neat if you could make the cars move. (CHALLENGE)

After probably a week of laying awake in bed, working this out in my head, I decided it may be possible. After doing and redoing, changing this and that few, and more sleepless nights, this is what I came up with, and hope you like it.

Take a look at what I’ve done and ask your questions I will do another post trying to answer your questions and show you some pictures of how it’s been put together.

Note that the root beer truck is not only carrying root beer, and yes it does have some of the “good” stuff. The story behind that is the county decided we couldn’t sell beer at the track because there was too many accidents and racing going on before and after our race.

We made a deal with them that if we ran a bus from the blue star to the track and back, they would let us sell beer. The bus starts out in front of the blue front (we’ll get to the blue front later) and leaves 1/2 an hour before the race. And then makes its run back to the blue front after the races. If you feel that you can’t drive your own car the bus is free. There’s no alcohol allowed on the infield. One of the corner marshals is a sheriff’s deputy.

In one of the pictures, you’ll see a lady just coming out of the bathroom. She was brought to the races thinking she was going out for the night, and then ended up at the dirty racetrack.

The gentleman at the green 40 Ford coupe has agreed to give her a ride. What kind of a ride, I don’t know. Notice there’s three gentlemen standing in front of the white dingy Ford coupe with the hood up. These are our hot rodders here in town.

The one standing in front of the car, end’s up designing cars for Hot Wheels. One of them is now an engineer on a fast freight to California.

The third one works in our round house changing tires and cleaning flues. The dingy blue Chevy station wagon with primer on the side is our ambulance. It can make it from here to the hospital faster than any ambulance on the road.

The #5 car sitting in the center of the infield is lining up for the next heat. You probably can’t see them but there’s two kids sitting up in the tree on #2 corner.

Sorry about the shaky video are we standing on this guy’s pick up and he kept yelling at me.

Have a great day and keep the shiny side up!

Old Taz”

A huge big thanks for Old Taz sharing his N scale model cars. I think they look amazing.

But what I really love about this layout is how he has picked a theme, and it’s also one that is personal to him.

It’s so easy and enjoyable to get lost in a layout when it means something to you.

One that springs to mind when it comes to themes is John’s. He used to holiday with his late wife in Bermuda, so that’s what he based his model train theme on. Beautiful.

I know I’m always banging on about making a start, but a close second to that is picking a theme.

Over the years, it’s clear to me that the layouts that stand out have had a theme in mind from day one.

You can see more of Old Taz’s posts on his Hall of Fame page.

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.

Brian’s been back in touch with his HO scale harbor model.

“Hi Alastair,

photos of the latest build, one finished and the second one almost finished.

Below is the 99% finished FSM Seafood Emporium in place on my layout after more that 3 months of work on it.

Now to bed it onto the layout with ground cover and surrounding details.

A photo showing a boat loading / offloading products at the wharf.

Note the fresh fish and lobsters on the sorting table and the blacksmith eyeing them for his lunch. (He already has the fire going inside).The guy in the small boat alongside is hoping to get a freebie from his mate on the bigger boat.

My next project, a Sierra West kit, the first building of 4 items in the kit – Foss Launch Co. The main building.

On this very rare occasion, I will be basically assembling it straight out of the box with no kit bashing or modifications to it. The only addition will be a full interior and lights added

As usual when building kits, I always make a cardboard mock-up of the building from the plans to make sure that it is what is correct for the position on the layout.

Here it is shown above the start of the kit assembly using my corner magnetic clamps.

This is where it will be positioned on the wharf at Pelican Bay. The wharf was scratch built many years ago and was on one of my previous layouts in two different locations as I made changes to it. That layout is long gone.

Below – adding the corner posts as well as the door trim.

Quite a complex roof system for this building.

I tried a new technique for the tarpaper roof and very impressed with the outcome of it. (As per instructions in the kit) Putting shingles on the peaked roof next.

Signs made according to the instructions and the +/- 15 year old dry transfers still worked well.

A view of it placed temporarily on the wharf.

As seen here, it is in close proximity to my Builders in Scale Boat repair complex. (Which also took over 3 months to build with the modifications to the kit).

Below, after figuring out which castings to use for this structure and painting them, placing them on the wharf.

Still lots more to add before it will be complete.

Added an interior. (roofs are removable)

Checking placement of the exterior details.

Now just to add the lights, wire it all up and place on the layout.

I must add that this I the first Foss Scale kit that I have assembled and am very impressed with the quality, ease of assembly and the amount of extras that are in the kit.

One part of this kit that stood out for me are the roof shingle strips. They are the best that I have ever used and look very real.

So far, this kit built as per instructions has taken me seven days (no modifications or kit bashing)

Till next time – keep modelling.
Brian – the HOn3 guy in Knysna. RSA”

A big thanks to Brian for sharing HO scale harbor model.

You can see Brian’s HO scale harbor post here.

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 Apologies to Brian for the order of the pics. How Brian sent them and how I received are them are two different things.

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

There are lot of posts on the blog on HO scale bridges – but Jim really has nailed it with his club layout:

“Hello Alastair

Back here in Buffalo NY, I belong to a model railroad club known as Trainmasters. I am currently the President of the club. We have several members: Peter Vice President,
Greg Secretary, Ted Sergeant at Arms, Paul and Marty.

Together we make up the club and run the Buffalo Erie and Niagara Railroad.

The club has been in existence since the 1980’s and with many clubs members have come and gone, so as you can see we are a small group of dedicated model railroaders. All of the members has their own layouts and enjoy the hobby.

Recently, we started to complete a new module that is replacing one of the old modules in the rear of the layout.

Below is a few pictures of the module as it now semi-completed.

The module was constructed by: Greg Tobin, Peter Ferraina and Ted May.

The bridge as constructed and completed by Jim Sr.!

The idea was to have a river flowing under the bridge with hills rising on either side. To say that this project took some time is an over statement.

Since we only meet once a week for a couple of hours each, the entire bridge took over two years of pain staking work, as did the work on the module.

As you can see, there is much more work to be completed before the module is completed. The river has to be poured, trees and scenery has to be installed, but hopefully within a short period of time the entire module will be completed and installed.

Once that has occurred, I will send pictures of the completed project

Jim Sr
President of Trainmasters”

A big thanks to Jim – I shall add it to the collection of HO scale bridges!

Can’t wait to see how the layout progresses. Might by a while, but that’s no problem at all.

Over the years I’ve doing the blog there are 3 stand out points, that I think make all the difference with the layout.

They are:

1. Pick a theme! The layouts that end up the best are always the ones that have a theme from day one.

2. Make a start – you can think about your layout as hard as you like, but until you roll your sleeves up and get going, nothing happens.

Will you first layout be a masterpiece? Probably not. But the second or third will. You’ve just got to get stuck in and enjoy the journey.

3. Pace. Some folk work on their layouts at a screaming hurry. But most just potter. Either way, go at the pace that works for you.

Jim’s bridge has taken two years becuase of the club time constraits – but I’ll bet the shirt on my back he’s enjoyed every hour when he has worked on it.

And that goes whether you are building HO scale bridges, HO houses, any scale anything infact, though here’s another trestle bridge.

The whole point is fun, which is another reason why a layout is never finished – who wants the fun to stop?

And now more scratch building from Kim.

“Hi Al. Just an example these are the main bus lines. These lines will be active. I have modified them since this picture to separate them a little more.

Each transformer will have a line from them to the bus lines. I added an old pic of my station for an example. you see the main bus lines with the transformers connected to the bus lines. Those lines are for show but still carry power from the main lines.

In the old station I hooked power to it and it worked great.But found it was scary lol to go near so I took it apart and am rebuilding it safer and better .Some of you think why don’t you make the station static.And just run a bunch of wires to every home sign street light bill board and such. I’m male and we like to grunt and bang your chest when you built something different.

I will send in a update once I have installed my tower’s. If you have it already not sure on a how to make poles and what you need I will send in a how to just ask or if anyone else wants them I will send it in.

Al my second attempt to weathering. A steam boiler in a falling down shed. will be another part of my swamp scene. have more work to do on it. The part for the belt to drive something is a part off a cigarette lighter. This is the moss I mentioned on your site.

Bunch of tool’s made from scrap. Easy build’s to fill space

Kim”

Next up is Chuck.

It’s a great example of how just a little bit of knowledge that gets in the way of enjoying your layout:

“Hi Alastair,

I just wanted to share my recent experience with you about track cleaning. When I read Cal’s tip about using contact cleaner and lubricant, I have also used the contact cleaner to clean and it does work well but I have not tried the lubricant.

So working on my layout recently on my track to fixing problem areas where my locomotives would stall.

I diagnosed the problem to be a connection with the fish plates or dirty track. So I would clean and resolder the fish plates and clean the track with very fine sandpaper, using 800 grit. I have even used 2000 grit too.

Anyway after this process I would try my loco and finding it was still stalling I tried brushing a little bit of transmission fluid on the track with a toothbrush.

I tried my loco again back and forth several times and guess what no more stalling. I was skeptical at first. I have heard other people using transmission fluid and had great success. So now I can say they absolutely right.

You want to be sparingly when using it, but it works great. Night and day difference. Give it a try !

Just my two cents…

Chuck in California”

I do smile from ear to eat when someone mails me the blog has got them back on track (literally in this case).

It’s the same when someone stars a layout because of the blog.

And for that, you must all pat yourselves on the back.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you join us merry folk rather than miss out on the fun, 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.