Model railroad layouts plans

Harry has been in touch with his N scale Christmas train:

“Hi Al,

I don’t know if you remember me, but I sent photos of my small N Scale layout quite a while back and it got good comments from some great modelers and I felt honored.

This layout had a strange genesis, I had one of my locos, the Santa Fe warbonnet F7 stop working and after troubleshooting, found the decoder had failed.

The loco was a bit noisy and didn’t run really well, so instead of replacing the decoder, I rewired it to DC and decided to run DC trains around my small Christmas Tree.

Well, this developed as another stream of consciousness design and now I have a layout with a folded over under loop and two spurs.

The spurs can each hold a DC train and the track in the spur is only active when I throw the toggle switch to the spur. That way I can hold two trains and run either one out and around and switch them when I want.

The two turnouts are controlled by an Arduino driving small servos like my main layout and I used the second pole of a DPDT toggle switch to power the spur track.

The DC power pack is a $3 DC to DC buck converter and a 12V wall wart power supply. It’s truly a ghetto layout as the electronics are in the mountain, thus the removable mountain top.

Like I said this was to be a simple loop around the tree layout, but I just kept adding scenery.

I built the trestle and truss bridge from stained basswood sticks and the girder bridge is a cut apart Atlas plastic bridge to accommodate the curved track.

The layout is 28 inches by 37 inches, the size being determined by the needed room to do an over under with reasonable grade. The layout is basically cookie cutter design on 1/4″ ply mounted to 1×3 bench-work.

I used a bit of plaster cloth and Sculptamold to finish the scenery and the mountain is made from the same florist foam with Sculptamold I used on my main layout.

This Christmas N scale layout did give me a chance to fool around with my static grass applicator I made from a $3 Harbor Freight bug zapper. The thing runs on D cells and generates 15,000 volts. It looks like a tennis racquet and I just removed the racquet portion and replaced it with a small sifter from the dollar store connected to one terminal.

I then took the other terminal and brought it out to an alligator clip which I clip to a dissecting needle and it works like a champ. So basically I have a $120 static grass applicator for four bucks. It’s not easy being cheap.

Harry”

A huge thanks for Harry sharing his N scale Christmas train.

And now on to Ernie:

“Hi Al,

As I mentioned, my layout was one of the designs in the “Nine N Scale Railroads” by Atlas. I picked the big one in the last chapter being greedy as I am.

I’m not smart enough to hardly get past an oval with two and a half sidings so the Atlas book opened new horizons for me.

Liked the fact that it can run four trains at a time with upper and lower double main lines, has a small rail yard, mountains, tunnels, a twin crossover, a river, and a massive twin viaduct traversing the valley.

What more could a guy ask for?

This all rolled into one 48″ x 72″ sheet of plywood! Can stand the thing on end in a closet when not in use.

Layout used one 4 x 8 sheet of plywood cut to 72″ in length with the cut off end used for the upper level including some cookie cutter technique used for good measure.

Adding to the fun is the fact that there are two interchanges between the upper and lower levels allowing for traffic between mainlines.

But that’s not all: you have a reversing loop in the upper level AND the interconnects are designed so that a trip to the upper pike and back switches mainlines on the lower level upon return.

Who ever designed this thing easily understands Einstein’s therory of relativity!

I built this layout back 30 years ago and have recently pulled it out of the closet and am enjoying it immensely.

That said this is old school with block wiring throughout and the same turn out controls the Flintstones used back in the day.

Track is all Atlas sectional code 70. Of course then I discovered code 55……next pike…..(recently picked up 100 code 55 hand built #6, #8, and #10 switches in need of work removed from a layout that was taken down) but that’s another story…..

Like the idea of controlling the trains with block switches (keeps the mind excersized), have to work at it when moving between lines or I can just let them orbit on each mainline and relax and watch. Like running long trains.

Can only allow three trains to orbit without attention due to the double cross over on the upper level. To run four you have to tend to that crossover, and, yes, we have had wrecks!

This layout takes four power packs so I used the little cheapies from small train sets for years.

The cheapies would pop the internal breakers when running ABBA configurations all powered after some run time so stepped up to a pair of higher end twin cab units.

The new twin cab units also had some issues (one cab runs half speed always till it warms up) prompting me to consider building my own with plans I have found recently (materials are very inexpensive and use laptop chargers which are a dime a dozen).

Probably more then you wanted to hear! Rolling stock accumulated over the years always watching for deals. Scenery time next!

Ernie

(Steve but everyone calls me Ernie)”

Looks like Enrie’s having fun with his N scale railroad Atlas.

If you missed his last post with all the pics, it’s here.

And thanks to Harry for sharing his N scale Christmas train.

Can’t wait to see the scenery!

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you make your train layout dream happen, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

John’s been back in touch with an update – have a look at his HO scale liftbridge:

“Good morning Alistair,

Moving my layout is progressing and it’s time for an update.

Since I had to cut up the entire layout, I decided to use the same method I used when building the layout in the basement area of the house, which is to do one section at a time and “connect” the dots as each in completed.

This move required going up 3 stories, taking it to the attic (as I said to friends, might as well moved it to the moon, given how hard the job was).

Nothing I did below is fitting in the room upstairs as was originally done, so lots of module modifications are being done, and a complete re-arrangement of where everything was is required.

One casualty is the rather soring mountains that I liked when I had the headroom to include them in the basement (sigh) they had to get cut down. On top of that, I’m adding a few new modules, an example shown is the old wooden ore mine in the foreground. 

I’m taking an extraordinary amount of time laying the track, and this time using code 100 rail.

The last version of this layout was plagued with derailments which I traced to my not paying enough attention to good workmanship when installing the track.

I’m running a precision level, and NMRA gauge over every inch of track and solder joint, and frankly have found several turnouts (points) that were way out of gauge, no wonder they were a source of derailments!

Anyway, one wall is on the way to completion, probably 2/3 done, some modules are still not secured as I have to lay track behind them.

The schematic diagram has been modified, the lower left track coming off the bridge module is now exposed, and is where the wooden mine structure is located. 

The picture showing the right end of the bridge valley is my work area. Trains will go by but other than simple painting there will be little or no scenery there. 

Another feature is the lift bridge. I had to work out a way to get to the Airconditioning unit behind the wall, so made the bridge.

It actually works and allows access to the closet/AC room behind the doors. That bridge was constructed (OK, I admit out of scale) with some old Gilbert Erector Set stuff I had from 50 years ago.

The actual train track portion is a couple of HO Central Valley Pratt Truss single track bridges kit-bashed into a longer span 2 track bridge.

Hope all our modeler friends across the world will have, or had a great holiday season. I’ll be sending in more updates as time permits.

John from Baltimore”

A huge big thanks to John.

It looks like he’s had lots of fun – especially with his lift bridge.

If you want to see John’s last post, it’s here.

You can see his complete journey in the Hall of Fame.

Lastly, today’s post reminded me of Dan’s:

Model railroad lift bridge.

That’s all for this time 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.

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.

Mike’s been back in touch with more of his fantastic scratch builds:

“Good morning Al:

Here are more of my scratch builds.

The church and Merchantile are for my cousin in the Midwest. The others are on my small layout.

Everything except windows and doors are materials I have in my wife’s art room art room. Until I can figure out a jig to make the windows, I’ll buy them.

The Union hotel is a building that is in Union Nebraska. It was a place that train crews stayed half way between Chicago and the west coast.

The Post Office is a small town in Nebraska. Both buildings use the same technique you employ in your structures.

The Mercantile is actually a mill in Nebraska, but the layout needed a small town merchants shop…so it became a Mercantile.

The best part of modeling is the flexibility and diversity in building structures that fit a layout’s theme and era. It was through your site the first time I followed you that a modeler right her in Central Florida reached out to me to get involved in his potentially new club.

One of his friends has a Lionel 3-rail scale layout. I am helping him get his buildings and landscaping up to a finish. He likes what I do and wants the same detail, just on a larger scale. It took me a while to get use to building on big boy’s scale…😬.

It is always good to see what others are doing as they share on your site.

I only wish that I had started many years ago while my father was still alive. He had 40 years with the CB&Q railroad, a wealth of knowledge. Because of his extensive knowledge, he road with the Flying Scotsman when it toured here many years ago.

Recent comments/criticism of my layout after your last post missed what my layout is intended to accomplish.

My study model was just that, a study of space availability. The space was used to showcase my builds and run my trains.

I sent you an overhead of the layout and the wall display cases built to store my trains. The small covered case holds most of my engines. I have always contended that a small space can contain plenty of detail and interest.

A couple of the comments on the last post wanted to know/see how the raised rib roofing is made.

Here are three pics of the jig I made and what it looks like and the materials I used to make the roofing.

The jig is a piece of MDF with two piano wires drilled in at both ends, parallel to one another at a 12” O Scale spacing.

I use the same one for HO…. All of the buildings I sent photos of had the roofing made on this same jig.

I use Coke can aluminium and copper sheeting to make the roofing panels… each panel will be what ever I want to make it, but usually six ribs or about 48” in scale.

I would estimate that I have spent 40 hours per week working to always improve what is there. I have built 20 structures for my cousins 8 by 20 layout in the Midwest.

I have plans to build a dozen more for him. Each building are models of actual structures I find traveling the small towns of America…. No plastic RTR that can be bought in a store. That is not meant to be critical, but to say… they are all one-offs… no other layout has them. Again, my passion for preservation of the past.

Cheers mate and a Very Happy and Blessed Christmas to you and family.

Mike
Clermont, FL”

A huge big thanks to Mike.

There’s one particular line in his narrative that jumped out at me:

“My study model was just that, a study of space availability. The space was used to showcase my builds and run my trains.”

Amen to that!

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

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.