Model railroad layouts plans

Brian’s been back in touch, this time with his HO barge:

“Hi Alastair,

First off, an industrial barge project.

I saw a photo of a model industrial barge which I liked and thought that I could use one on my waterways around the layout. I love anything boat wise.

After searching the internet, I found a file that had the barge that I was looking for.

I sent the file to my friend who does the 3D printing and asked him if he could print one for me in HO scale please. A couple of days later (after 14 hours of print time) a slightly shorter barge modified to fit his build plate in his printer, I had my barge.

The raw resin hull shown below. (Top view)

It is 250mm long by 70mm wide and 18mm deep. (The original was 310mm long)

The painting process started using Tamiya Red oxide fine surface primer for the hull.

It turned out to be the perfect colour. (Especially after it was weathered).

The inside all rusted up from hard use using various colours to get the correct effect.

Wear and tear on the top side. (And the rust)

I used some details from my bits box to fill up the hull. (Note the 3D printed generator sets at the back in the 3D printed hull). Scrap vehicles on the way to a scrapyard.

Afloat in the harbour and must still add the tow ropes at the front. I have some chain around somewhere that can lay on the front deck of the barge or inside.

HO Barge:

A resin Tug boat kit painted and weathered many years ago towing the barge.

A close up view showing the weathered hull with tyre bumpers on the sides.

The wood loads need a bit of weathering. (Possibly a black or brown wash on them)

Here, it just fits on the waterway in front of the freight terminal at Pelican Bay.

Found the chain in my bits box and weathered it with rust. Note the seagull found a perch at the front.

Second project – another small fishing trawler.

The one below was already in my small fleet of lobster boats for my layout.

I had another one incomplete. I used my Dremel tool to cut out the bait box.

I painted the cabin interior and lightly weathered it, then added a floor to it.

Added a mast and guy wires to keep it steady. I also added some fish boxes at the back. The loop at the back will be used to bring in the nets. I also added working lights, one inside the cabin and a spot light on the cabin roof.

A boat captain was added to the inside of the cabin with a steering wheel.

Here I am making sure that would look perfect in the harbour. It is 37 HO scale foot in length.

It now needs to be completed – the hull painted then the deck edges, bumper tyres painted and a final weathered coat and a lobster cage on the roof. I will add fine netting used to catch the fish at the back.

Another two short term projects almost completed and ready for placement on the layout.

Thankfully I have a lot of water on the lower level around 3 sides of the ‘U’ shape.

Thats all for now, until next time.

Brian – The HOn3 guy in Knysna RSA”

A big thanks to Brian for sharing his HO barge project.

You can see more his work in the Hall of Fame.

(Have a look at another of his barges: HO scale river barge.

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

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

Peter’s been back in touch, this time with his stunning Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo Model Railway:

“Hello Al,

It’s been over two years since you posted my first “trial” switching layout. This gave me the confidence to proceed to my Empire Layout – inspired by the Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo Railway (TH&B), and fictitiously known as Amaranth Falls.

I started with benchwork that allowed a set of donated kitchen cabinets, mounted on casters, to slip under the benchwork making a more appealing facade to everything, and providing storage space for rolling stock.

I have an unusual and choppy space to fill, but the large section is a 5′ x 9′ space with a side fiddle yard.

The photos show progress throughout the various construction phases. It was challenging putting a river flowing down a 5 inch drop with numerous falls and rapids…. and a golf course!

More photos to come once the final lighting, signage, fencing and level crossing lights become installed.

Peter”

(Peter’s last post is at the bottom of this one: Model railroad grass.)

Next up is Frank.

He has a problem – can anyone help?

“Alastair,

I have a BIG problem and is a great one (I hope) to go into the section asking for help.

As you are aware, I have told you about my building a model railroad, I have come up agains a BIG problem.

I am using Kato track but it does not provide any way of communicating it’s position to an external device (an Arduino to control signals).

I am wanting to use a SPDT Reed Switch to communicate with the Arduino, but the issue was how to get the turnout to tell me which way it was set?

My first idea was to mount the reed switch UNDER the turnout and using the position of the magnet inside the turnout to operator the reed switch. It does work but it is a LOT of work to dig out the table below to install the turnouts with the reed switches below.

A second idea was to put a magnet on the peg of the turnout and put the reed switch on the side of the turnout. Several attempts with small magnets but it didn’t work because of the field of the magnet.
The third idea was to mount the reed switches INSIDE the turnouts. Again, this does work, but again, it is a LOT of work.

I am still looking for a solution, though, having built AND wired a lot of the layout, I am rapidly painting myself into an impossible corner.

I am open to any idea that is simple and works.

Thank you.

Frank

Surrey, BC, Canada”

That’s all this time. A big thanks to Peter for sharing his Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo Model Railway.

And if anyone can help Frank, please leave a comment below.

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.

Dean’s been back in touch with his take on a Denver and Rio Grande Western model railroad:

“Al, Cheers from Dean in New Mexico.

I’m working on a new L-shaped N-scale railroad.

The plans are below, but first I want to talk a little bit about its history. This layout will be located in northern New Mexico (actually well know to me since I live there).

Before I get to the history of my new fictitious Santa Fe Northern Railroad, I want to talk about the history of the Denver and Rio Grand Western Railroad in New Mexico. See the map below.

The D&RGW came down from Alamosa to Antonito (both in Colorado) as shown in the yellow line. This part of the railroad was converted to standard gauge early on and is still an active railroad running a few trains a month.

At Antonito the line continued onto Chama, New Mexico, on what is now the Cumbres and Toltek tourist line. Also leaving Antonito was the narrow gauge Chili Line down to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The line traveled south on the plateau following closely what is now Highway 285. If you drive on this road, you can see much of the grading still visible, and at the town of Tres Piedras there is still an original water tower.

At a place above the ghost town, Embudo, the line dropped over a steep grade down to the Rio Grande river. At Embudo you can still see a turntable pit and another water tower. The line then followed the river, through Española. It crossed the Rio at a place named Otowi crossing, then proceeded to Santa Fe.

The original plan was to follow the river all the way down to the border with Mexico, but the Santa Fe RR won that race. Unfortunately, the Chili Line was abandoned in 1942 and the rails were pulled up to support the war effort.

The history of Otowi was written up in the book The House at Otowi Bridge: The Story of Edith Warner and Los Alamos , which talks about how Oppenheimer and other scientists at Los Alamos during the war often dropped in on Edith. She was the station master at Otowi and also ran a lunch stop.

In my imaginary history of the area, the Chili Line and the Los Alamos Lab did not exist. Instead, the Santa Fe Northern was built, following the route of the Chili Line, from Santa Fe down to Otowi, but then it turned away from the river into the mountains to service a large coal mine at Redondo and to haul off lumber from the forest.

A large coal mine actually existed in northern New Mexico in Madrid, a town south of Santa Fe. It serviced the Santa Fe Railroad until diesels replaced the coal locos. But coal does not exist in the area of the Santa Fe Northern, since that area is the remains of a large extinct volcano which blanketed the area with lava and volcanic ash. But my railroad, my history!

Below is my layout plans as developed using SCARM (free version can be downloaded from scarm.info). It is a double ovel connected by two sets of crossovers. The railroad can be run in three main modes.

1) Work train from Santa Fe to mine. Train runs CCW from Santa Fe to Otowi Crossing on the yellow or lower loop, continuing on taking the blue loop up to the mine.

2) One train over the whole main line. Start anywhere with both switch crossings set to the straight position, and eventually the train will get back to the original spot.

3) Two trains going in opposite directions, one on the yellow line, one on the blue. This requires both trains to utilize the red track, necessitating focused attention from the operator to manage the switches effectively. This would be a good thing to show kids.

The three modes of operation are all demonstrated using the Model Train Simulator add-on to SCARM in my YouTube.

Below is the 3D version of the plan showing track elevations at key points. The lowest point is at Otowi with an elevation of 0”. Tracks rise up to Santa Fe and the yards at 1”, then continue up to the mine at 2”. By breaking this up into three main elevations, the track inclines are decreased by half—this brilliant change was suggested by a viewer of my YouTube channel.

I had hoped to have this layout well under construction by now with the baseboard built and some of the track laid. But unfortunately, ” life is what happens when you’re making other plans”. A five-day stay at a hospital with a slow recovery has slowed me down. Hopefully, I can report progress in a month or so.

Thanks Al, for everything you do.

Dean”

A big thanks to Dean for sharing his Denver and Rio Grande Western model railroad plans – you all know how much I like a layout with a theme so I’m looking forward to seeing this one.

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