Model railroad layouts plans

Jamie’s been in touch with a load of fab pics of his HO scale people.

Adding people adds so much life to a layout.

And Jamie stories behind each scene also has me smiling:

Jameie’s been in touch again with his stunning HO layout:

“Alastair,

Welcome again…if this is too much too soon, I understand.

I have stories behind all of these scenery setups…

Two workers returning to the office at the canning company at Barcelona peer.

Salvatore, a first generation from Italy carries bags of potatoes from the Desiderio food distribution facility.

John, and Ernie, both Originally from Ireland take a closer look at a car that’s made its way from the West coast.

These two brothers, Lowell and Lee, have never been able to agree on anything… they might even disagree if the sky was blue… if it was ever sunny.

Pasquale pushes that cart along all day and even though his English “isn’t so good” he loves chatting it up with his fellow employees

The King Brothers (they are twins) and they married two sisters… their glass blowing company sells beautiful pieces all over the world.

Oscar Rayford, owns the local concrete plant… he’s responsible for all the sidewalks in town

David Gray, a huge man… is seen switching here for a shipment of sand to Rayfords concrete. David, is one of the key actors in the theater group in Buffalo Creek.

Rick Wilber, a novelist that specializes in Science Fiction books opened a bookstore and it attracts a wide variety of people. They are anxiously awaiting the store opening on a nice Sunday morning.

Romito-Donnelly makes furniture and their key designer was Vincent Tondiglia, also an Architect, Vincent can be seen in his Little Italy studio drawing a new building. He is also this authors father in law.

Down in Lackawanna Jim Collins works along with many Irishmen at the Bethlehem Steel plant. Here, a pot is being moved.

Angelo is waiting for a local delivery to pass his tower… there are 4 NYC towers in the area, Angelo has worked in all four the towers for the railway and is the longest employed tower operator.

Hooker Chemical in Niagara Falls makes some nasty chemicals, we’d all come to find out years later, but in this time period their tankers can be seen everywhere.

I hope you find these interesting enough to post… if not, I’d certainly understand

Jamie”

Well, Jamie, it’s never too soon to post new pics, and they are definitely interesting enough – I loved them. And the stories behind each picture really do bring it to life.

If you missed Jamie’s last post, it’s here.

Jamie’s post reminded me of one of Dan’s:

HO scale railroad workers.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the silly sale for the Beginner’s Guide is here.

It’s a great way to support the blog. Thank you to everyone who already bought – I’m really looking forward to seeing your printable buildings on your layouts!

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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

Jeff’s been in touch with his N scale coal mine:

“Hello from the Bare Mountain Railroad!

This N-Gage railroad is, sadly, no longer in existence.

Took 20 years to build, and less than a day to demolish since we were moving.

Some scenes were saved and taken by a very fine group of people who helped me out, doing an amazing amount of work and not quibbling the least in which scene to save. Amazing!

Basically, the railroad depicts the state of Fremont which is–as everyone knows–a VERY small state located between Kansas and Nebraska.

The entire state is laid out here, from Capital City to Hicksville and Millvillage, where the passenger trains congregate.

The Bare Mountain RR (bare since I was too lazy to make thousands of trees) has one main customer, the JMK Mining Corp. Their coal mine and breaker/ coal cleaning plant is featured prominently.

There are two freight yards (since I knocked the wall down years later and doubled the size of the layout).

Needless to say, that didn’t go over well with the rest of my family since the basement was now all MINE!

Jeff
Rock Hall, MD”

A big thanks to Jeff for sharing his N scale coal mine layout.

He wrote one line which really stood out for me:

“Took 20 years to build, and less than a day to demolish since we were moving.”

Ouch!

When it comes to coal mine layouts, I always think of Rich’s coal mine railroad.

And let’s not forget John’s coal mine layout.

Now on to Brian, who has used a mirror to make his layout appear bigger, and show off some of the detail:

“Hi Al

I think we’d all agree that the railway modelling world is, not wishing to be controversial or sexist, largely made up of us men, although there are of course some great lady modellers out there such as Kathy Millatt (those of us in the UK remember her as one of the judges in the TV prog Great Model Railway Challenge.)

Kathy has her own very informative and instructive YouTube channel – well worth regularly dropping into. Getting back to my point, I’ve noticed on many of your posts, that wife’s and partners are often either directly involved in the layout or offer help and suggestions.

My wife falls into the second category and one classic example was when I finished my finely detailed Metcalfe OO mainline station and placed it on the layout.

Wanting to achieve maximum size curves, my two main lines are on the edge of the baseboard resulting in the platform side of the station facing the wall backboard – all that lovely detail, platform rooms, awning and passengers hidden behind the structure of the main building.

Talking it through with ‘she who always has a solution, but keeps a firm handle on the budget!’ a mirror incorporated into the backboard was suggested. Picked one up online very cheaply (ticked that box) – the perfect solution. I think the photos attached show it works great.

Thanks as always Al.

Brian, Wokingham, UK”

Clever stuff from Brian, now lastly on to John who has a question on his expansion packs:

“Thanks Al for all the info. I am a beginner and have purchased basic train set and ALL the extension packs.

I managed to set it up according to the map, but thought I would do my own layout, managed to get some sort design, and tried to run the train, it went about 1/3 of the track and stopped, no light on the control knob. checked all the connection, can not work out what is wrong.

The 4 little connectors that you use to give power to inner track are very loose, don’t seem to have a good connection, what am I doing wrong?

Are there any design ideas using the expansion packs, please.

Cheers

John”

Please do leave a comment below if you can help.

That’s all for this time 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.

David’s been back in touch with a few more pics of his coffee table train layout.

It does look rather fun:

“Hi Al

I’ve taken better pictures of my coffee table layout.

It’s a combined HOe and 00 scale, in area under 1m or 3ft square .

I’ve used Peco 009 crazy track and a variety of French and German locos, japenese diesls and rail cars and Austrian coaches on the narrow gauge.

Points are electrical powered and 3 trains run on the loops a shunter and rail bus on the 00 which I can hide in the tunnel…

The ikea table is in my garden lounge . Need to tidy the wiring.

Visitors love it. The thing that surprises is that it works the trains run. Non railway people thinks is just a static display.

I suppose the open doors on wagons indicates that. I’ve selected wagons from Triang, made in the 1950’s which had opening doors used kadee couplings and scale wheels and weathered them. This allows the shunter to be used while the 009 trains runs.

I’m going to add lights in buildings and coaches for Christmas… locos have headlights already.

David”

A big thanks to David for sharing his coffee table train layout.

Now on to Jim:

“Greetings Al.

This is a brief update.

Your recent sale of printable buildings had two shacks that caught my eye.

I’ve written twice about my HO track layout’s theme and progress, such as it is. It is loosely modeled after Pipers Lagoon and Shack Island in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

I thought the gray shack and green shack really belong on my island.

They fit very well with the other, smaller shacks along the lagoon. None are super detailed; I need a lot more practice with cardboards, sharp knives and glues.

And here they are, just before an approaching thunderstorm.

There are two views, one from across the lagoon and one showing a view from high above.

The first photo shows some expansion underway in the background, off to the left. I’ve started but have a long way to go.

I’ll claim progress is being held up because of the threat of that nasty storm!

I also need to add some landscaping and vacationers near the two new shacks and that, too, will get done someday soon, I hope.

So thanks to you, Al, for the web site you keep and the printable buildings too.

Please keep ‘em coming!

Jim”

A big thanks to Jim. Of course, I’m biased, but I think they look great.

If you’re new to the printable buildings, they are a lot of fun, and once you have the downloads, you can pretty much scratch build whatever you like, or just stick to the original.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get decide to have some fun and start your own layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.