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.
Steve also makes good use of a mirror: Using mirrors to create depth in model railroads.
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.
