Model railroad layouts plans

Steve’s been in touch with his track cleaner:

“Al,

One of the most tedious tasks is track cleaning.

I have successfully used a method to accomplish this, no matter how dirty the tracks or loco wheels are. I am not certain if this idea has been shown before so apologies if this is a repeat.

Parts:

I took an old dc loco where the motor was easily accessed.
A wagon big enough to hold a 9V dry cell battery.
Sticky-backed floor protection pad.
U-Shaped alumimium.
A 9V battery.
Connectors.

By replacing the rear axle on the wagon with a cleaning pad, and supplying 9V directly to the loco motor, the loco drags the cleaning pad around the track under its own power. Methylated spirits is applied to the pad, and the results are amazing.

After removing the loco body, I soldered female jumper connectors directly onto the motor. Take care not to leave the soldering iron there for too long.

Use very short jumpers so that the body can be returned for normal running.

I use a 9V dry cell and a connecting clip. I soldered male jumpers to the battery leads. Heat shrink makes for a handy Insulation material.

You will need a wagon big enough to hold the 9V battery. My Hornby ‘OO’ coal wagon was ideal. Remove the REAR axle from the wagon. The cleaning pad will fit where the axle was located, so that the weight of the wagon and battery push the pad onto the tracks.

Cut a piece of U-shaped alumimium to fit where the axle was located. I then used a piece of sticky-backed floor protector, and attached it to the other side of the aluminum. Drill a small hole about half way along one side large enough to fit a self-tapping screw.

Locate the aluminum onto the bottom of the wagon and use the hole to drill through the floor.

Secure the aluminum and felt to the wagon with the screw.

Paint liberal amounts of methylated spirits onto the pad where the wheels might have been. Couple the wagon to the loco.

When you connect the leads, the loco will move around the track, wiping tracks clean.

I found that 3 times around was enough to run loco stock.

Steve”

There’s quite a few posts on track cleaning on the blog.

There’s Bob’s track cleaner:

And who can forget Kim’s track cleaner:

And there’s John’s track cleaner too:

And it got me thinking – how often do you clean your tracks? Please leave a comment below and let us all know.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to get going.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Larry’s been back in touch with his scratch build brewery.

You may remember him from his Abingdon and Crane railroad:

“Here are a few Abingdon & Crane RR pictures. Notice the Beatles crossing Main St.

Scratch built also is the “old” barn on the recent farm, again from photos.

I built the farm in my kitchen and dropped it into place, making it removable if necessary.

The railroad is partly fueled by beer and the church-like brewery building is also an early scratch build.

Terrapin Station is a scratch build as is the oil pump jack.

One of the best ways to photograph a layout is to use a “real” digital camera on a tripod with a long exposure and as small an aperture as possible. This gives much greater depth of field.

Larry”

You can see a lot more of Larry’s Abingdon and Crane railroad.

A big thanks to Larry!

His brewery project reminded me of John’s:

“Hi Al,

I’ve recently completed a brewery on my HO Scale layout, which serves as a major rail customer receiving boxcar loads of barley malt and shipping finished beer in iced refrigerator cars. It is located in the town of Manchester, and was the final structure to “complete” the original shelf layout.

John”

You can see all of John’s HO scale brewery project here.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And please don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to get going on your own model railroad adventure.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Rod’s been back in touch with his HO scale electric trains off the coast of the med:

“Hi Alastair,

My wife reminded me recently that the new ipad she gave me for my birthday has a decent camera on it so I had to try it out on the layout, which is otherwise unchanged.

The bulk of the ipad limits the range of views you can get compared to my little digital camera, which can get under and between things, but the depth of field is amazing.

Here are a few pictures:

A push-pull diretto hauled by an E646 3kV electric train passes through the headland tunnel at Cervo St Bartolomeo and heads west along the coast of the Med (first picture).

Then runs into Diano Marina station passing the buffet bar with the Hotel Torino in the background and the OHL maintenance depot in the foreground (second picture)…

…and finally leaves town under the Via Aurelia bridge (third picture) en route towards Ventimiglia.

Finally, going the other way, an E444 hauling the ‘Riviera dei Fiori’ through service from Nizza to Zurich via Milano, leaves the station past the 3kV substation while a family from the old crossing cottage tend their vegetable patch.

Hope you like them.

Rod”

You can see more of Rod’s HO scale layout here

And there’s this one too

A big thanks to Rod. I don’t think there are many ‘electric trains’ on the site.

Now on to Peter:

“Hi Al

A small interim update as I still have lots to do with the mountains and other scenery but I think the bones are stating to look interesting.

Peter”

I do love an update. It’s great to see a layout emerging from the choas of the first few steps.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to get going just like Peter did.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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