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N scale buildings – Robert’s

Robert’s been in touch with some very nice N scale buildings – it’s a fab little layout:

“Hi!

I started this N gauge project three years ago. Now you can see it is nearly complete.

The layout is a figure eight nested inside an oval. The town of Sunnydale is on the left, with a boardwalk and a beach.

In the center is a mountain with a resort on top, and to the right is Forest Falls. There is an aerial tramway going from Sunnydale to the resort.

I tried to create a pleasing place I would want to jump into. This is what I got.

The mountain top is connectorized so I can remove it and place a small Christmas tree in the center when the season comes.

Here is an aerial view of the cul de sac. There is a gazebo at the center, with shops are at 10, 11, and 1 o’clock and a church at 6.

These two stores are illuminated with interiors. The store pharmacy windows have apothecary jars and window displays, while the restaurant has tables and chairs, DIY. What you may not be able to see is that there are backgrounds, also illuminated.

I searched for photos of apparel shop and pharmacy interiors, reduced the size, then printed it on photo paper.

An LED behind it brightens it like a rear projection movie screen, and use of foil on top redirects light to brighten the windows.

Here are April’s Bakery and a swank home with a school bus in front. You can see tables and chairs in April’s for those who must eat NOW.

Here’s a better shot of April’s. You can see the background showing the counter and a lady in front of it ordering her goodies.

This is a boardwalk leading to the beach, with a guy walking hastily to check out the chicks. All my stuff is scratch or heavily modified, but the boardwalk is special; the rails are made from angel hair pasta.

Here is Forest Falls. You’ll see five waterfalls. Notice there is a hot air balloon on top of the mountain and a guy on a diving board waving to the balloon riders while building up courage to take a dive. Pig sty at 12 o’clock and a shack with a still at 1 and the Early Bird Bait Shop at 2.

This shows the continuation of the water flow. Five falls to a lake, ending in a river that flows under the tracks and then under a covered bridge (built primarily from toothpicks).

Here is another viewing angle of the falls. The windmill in the foreground does indeed rotate. I built the structure around a tiny right-angle 3VDC gearmotor. You’ll notice two sandhill cranes doing a mating dance in the back yard at 6 o’clock. There are a couple of foot bridges spanning the babbling brook. A cow is crossing one while another cow contemplates following, maybe to check out the sheep by the windmill. Almost every house has a hitching post with horses.

Here you see a Sinclair gas station with illuminated background interior, illuminated pumps, and illuminated sign. Getting lights into homemade N gauge pumps was a hoot. Incidentally, all the street lights flicker and were built from scratch. The food store has an actual interior I made. To the left of the food store is an Oscar Meyer Wienermobile. Little Oscar is popping out of the top to give the kiddies wiener whistles and hot dogs.

In case you couldn’t read the Sinclair sign, here it is.

You can see the lighthouse with its beacon and flashing warning light, then clockwise is the carousel (3VDC gearmotor, illuminated, scratch built), the cotton candy stand, the lodge (soon to be with beer garden), an illuminated fountain, the balloon, guy on a diving board, and the foghorns for the lighthouse. But what’s that fire burning down below?

Oh no, it’s a dragon! Actually it’s Elliot from Pete’s Dragon. He’s so happy… lazing on the beach, watching the waves, with a tropical cocktail on a granite table along with a bowl of apples for roasting!

My sister in law was looking at April’s Bakery on the other side of the board, and she was amused. She asked what was upstairs. I said nothing. She replied, “Well, there’s what looks like a chest of drawers and a couple of light fixtures. I think someone’s moving in.” (If you look at the close up photo you can see the artifacts she was talking about.)

Robert”

A big thanks to Robert for sharing his layout and how he designed his N scale buildings.

(Don’t forget, there’s lots of printable buildings here).

What I liked most about Robert’s layout is had a clear theme in mind: somewhere he’d like to visit.

As you all know, I do love a layout with a theme.

Rob’s buildings also reminded me of Richard’s: N scale buildings and structures.

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

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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

Clean your track – Dean shows us how

Dean’s been back in touch – this time he shows us how to clean your track:

“Hello, Al, from Dean in New Mexico.

It’s been a while since I wrote as I’ve been involved in other things.

Here is a short submission on methods I have gathered about cleaning model railroad track that I use on my N-scale layout.

This is a 4-step system that works for me.

A warning: unless absolutely necessary, never use sandpaper or files to clean the track as this leaves tiny scratches that collect dirt and grime.

Step 1: use a solvent such as ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, or acetone (may attack some plastics) to clean off large amounts of gunk.

The gunk can accumulate when you use scenic cement or dilute white glue to set your ballast and scenery.

I apply it to the rails using Cosmetic Wedges from a grocery store.

These are small foam wedges that cost about $0.06 each and are handy for lots of things.

Apply some solvent to the wedges and rub the track.

Step 2: Some time ago, I bought the Woodland Scenic Rail Tracker Cleaning Kit. It includes two abrasive pads, a “Rescue Pad” (use sparingly) and a “Maintenance Pad” (use more often as needed).

The pads have slots that fit over N-scale or HO scale tracks. They can be purchased separately (Amazon) at a lower price then the kit.

Step 3: Chemical cleaning. I use CRC QD Electronic Cleaner (available from Amazon). This cleans the track, leaves no residue, and is safe for plastics. I apply it with one of the cosmetic wedges.

Step 4: Finally, I apply a thin coat of NO-OX-ID “A Special” (also available from Amazon) —the “A Special” in the name is important.

This has been recommended by several members of the model railroad community. It’s a light grease that comes in a small tin and can be applied with one of the wedges or a Q-tip.

As you run your trains around the layout, it will help to distribute the grease.

Here is a video that shows this 4-step process:

A big thanks to Dean. There are lots of different ways to clean your track – whenever I get a post like this I always think of Kim’s track cleaner, which is here:

Kim’s track cleaner.

Now on to Jeff.

He’s another one proving that your layout can be whatever you want it to be:

“I started with HO gauge trains back in the 1970’s before I came down with Leukemia during 1981-1987.

My first set was simple Styrofoam foam based that was roughly a 5×5 up over around and down. Basic Atlas track. A few buildings it came with a Milwaukee f9 diesel, two cars a gondola and the original caboose I still have 45 years later.

I picked up few odd ball cars from a local mom and pop hardware on main street which turned into the villages first chinese restaurant. I have a Tropicana car from those days with plenty of matchbox still to this date.

My biggest layout was a 12 X 5 X 4 X 8. I went from Atlas track to Backman’s easy track and have done semi permanent layouts over the decades. My current layout takes up my living room.

It’s a 7.5 X 8.5 layout.

I have 54 combination switches and 49 are on the layout currently as I have the city in the middle and working yards and industries all over with run through double ended tracks and stub ends on some.

I grew up with Pennsylvania New York Central before they merged into Conrail.

All my layouts have been semi-permantent as I have not done the electrical wiring as I will run a layout for so long then created something different for the next one, though if you would like me to send videos and pictures of my current set up it roughly has about thirty percent of my cars engines buildings on it with a couple hundred trees of all colors and sizes to boot.

I have enough track if my apartment was bigger I could easily fill a 10 X 10 X 10 ft or a 20 X 4 feet if I used all my tracking.

Jeff”

A big thanks to Dean.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming because I enjoy them as much as lot do.

And if today is the day you press the fun button and get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Collecting model trains

I think we all start collecting model trains when start this hobby.

But Brad has taken it to another level as you’ll see:

“My brother is an avid collector of pre-war toy trains, and has a large layout at his home.

Brad lives in Topeka, Kansas. He owns a three story house where he has some layouts going as well as rooms filled with his collection.

I think his wife suggested that he should find another location for his trains or else!

His layout has been featured in a toy train collectors magazine, and recently the local television station featured his “train house “.

He loves to use his extensive collection of rare parts and his vast knowledge of antique trains to repair peoples childhood trains that they find in attics, so they and their grandchildren can enjoy them.

Here are a few pictures, the knowledgeable will recognize that each room (and I am not showing all of them) contains an era or type of toy train.

He showed me a few of his favorites that were very old, rare, and still in their boxes, but I just couldn’t get pictures of everything!

Greg”

A big thanks to Greg for sharing.

The thing about collecting model trains is I suspect it’s rather infectious, which is why we all have our own ‘mini’ collections.

A lot of us can’t bear to get rid of some locos, carriages and track because of the memories they hold.

I’ve lost count of the posts that use fifty year old engines that are still going strong.

Whenever I see such beautiful old train nostalgia, I always think of Hugh’s post:

“Hi Alastair, Enjoy looking at your site.

I like prewar 0 gauge tin plate mainly. So I built this layout for my Great Northern Railway trains. It is based on the 1956 Marx Rocky Mountain Express set and modified to represent the Glacier National Park area.

Most everything is from 1939 into the WWII era when tin toys stopped being produced. All the buildings are card board or wood.

The trains are custom painted Marx plus a set of wooden kit passenger cars that look like the trains GNR operated circa 1939. It is on a 71” x 40” coffee table.

We live in a Victorian house built in 1890 near Glacier Park. So I built a small table top layout that is like the ones Lionel sold in the 1920s and 30s. It is part of the living room furniture.

I some times run Ives, Hornby and Bing tin plate on it. The blue train is a Dorfan 53 with a Lionel motor, an AF mail car and 2 607 type Lionel coaches.

Some of the buildings are tin copies of German ones. I made them smaller to better fit the overall 0-27 scale.

This is one small loop and works good for clock work trains, too. It started out fairly simple and grew.

Hugh, Montana.”