Model railroad layouts plans

Mike’s been in touch with how he eased himself into this hobby, and started his 4 by 8 layout:

“Hi Alistair

just want to say thank you for all you do.

I thought I’d share my story on how I got started, I have some pictures for my little article.

It all started with a Christmas train for my wife on the living room floor, O scale.

Then I had to buy a HO set on eBay, to put with her O scale on the floor.

Next thing I knew I bought a 4 by 8 sheet of plywood, put it on some saw horses in the garage started adding to it.

One thing led to another and I bought a second 4 by 8 sheet of plywood and connected it to the first one and bought more stuff LOL.

Then I decided I wanted the turntables, so I cut me a hole in the plywood, installed it and bought a 3-bay roundhouse building.

I built it, adding lights and was very happy with it.

After reading all your emails and looking at stuff on YouTube I put all my Bachmann EZ track on eBay and sold everything and start buying a bunch of Atlas Flex track.

I cleaned out a room in the house and started building benchwork.

I’ve included some pictures of the four by 8 sheet I started with, and then added another 4 x 8 sheet, took it all apart started it all over again.

This is how I got started. Just wanted to say thank you again for your blog and everybody that contributes to it, thanks again.

Mike”

A big thanks to Mike – I love the way it started as a 4 by 8 and then soon grew.

It’s also another post that proves if you’re having fun, you’re doing it right.

Now on to Dangerous Dave.

He’s made another youtube – but this time it includes his layout way back from the very start – that’s nineteen years of train fun.

“Here is a short video showing a few trains running.. and the very start of it back in 2007.

Regards

Dave”

A big thanks to Mike and Dave.

(You can see more of Dangerous Dave in the Hall of Fame.)

And if you’re sitting there enjoying the blog, today’s a great day to join in and make your start.

Mike took that first step and look at him now.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get started – just like Mike – 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.

Lawrence has been in touch, he’s been busy adding a scratch built roundhouse to his layout.

“Hi Al,

The first thing I do each morning is look at the emails you send out with my cup of coffee. Thank you for doing this.

Just sending a few pictures of the start of my six position Round House.

I used your Round House printable pictures. But in this case for the size of the engines I could not use the 89% factor. I had to go up to printout of 130% to get proper clearance side to side and height for the engines.

Hindsight = maybe should have cut out under the turntable and lowered it. It actually created a lot of extra work on my part. Painted the three-eighths inch round house black for now.

Used 0.8-inch styrene between the turntable and the round house and painted it concrete. With that the height of the track was perfect. You can see from the pictures that track laying was still in progress. I wanted to get the basic turn table and round house done as part of laying track.

The first thing I had to do was find out how much space needed for the six lanes.

The front of the printout was printed three times to get the entrance spacing for the round house. Put down some track from the turntable and extend the track for the engine inside the building.

To back the paper for the front I use “Ram Board” from Lowes. It is stuff used beneath carpets and comes in 36” by 50’ and I think it was about $30 for the roll. I have been using that roll for two years for the print out pictures.

The next three pictures I used one eight-inch hard board for the left and right-side pictures from the round house download. Using the side pieces to determine the length of the round house.

I also used the hardboard for the dividing walls, same length as the sides. Drilled pilot holes as needed and then a jig saw to cut the openings. Used balsa wood strips to fill the cross-area ventilation.

Next picture – printed out the back wall three times and mounted the paper on the Ram Board. It was amazing, the three back walls connected together actually came out to the length across the back at this time with only three-eights of an inch overlap. The Ram Board is very easy to cut and takes to corners nicely. Easy to cut our windows and doors. The windows are clear styrene with balsa wood strips.

Next picture – then printed out the front walls three more times. Needed to have twelve sets of doors so that the door pictures are on both sides (of Ram Board) of each door. In the final pictures I used all Ho scale Diesel Engines. That is where they will stay for display purpose.

The interior layout to include platforms, tools, and parts will be completed later before the actual roof is completed. Thinking of clear styrene roof material. To be displayed in a future set of pictures.

Lots of track to still be put down. Plus, two Helix’s and nine more bridges. Eleven scratch-built bridges completed at this time. A future email to display the overall layout and the bridges completed.

Lawrence”

A big thanks to Lawrence for his scratch built roundhouse – he really did make my day for two reasons.

First, I love what he’s done with the roundhouse from the printable buildings range (most of them are in the store here).

And secondly, whenever somebody says the first thing they do each day is sit down with a coffee and read the blog, it never fails to put a smile on my face.

I’m only human and I have good days and bad days like everybody else.

So a big thank you to each and everyone of you, because without you, they’d be no blog at all.

Lawrence’s post also jogged my memory – the infamous bonkers John did a video on the roundhouse:

Now on to another John:

“Hi Al,

I’ve been working on scenery on my HO Scale layout lately and experimenting with some homemade mats for a woodsline. I like the way they turned out and thought I would share with you.

I’ve been creating a wooded hill to use as a scenic divider as well as to hide the entrance to staging on my layout. Between the open areas on either side of the trees on the hilltop, I wanted to create a brambled, overgrown area on the hillside. I used a Coconut Coir basket liner and part of an old air filter to create the effect.

First, I separated a section of the basket liner into two halves. I did the same with the air filter material. The side that was on the outside of either material is pressed flat with some sort of adhesive. But working with the inside, one can tease the material up and create vertical depth.

Next, simply paint the materials thoroughly with some flat brown and darker green tones. Once dry, I applied spray adhesive and several varieties of leaf and flock material, followed by hairspray. An optional mist of some florist green tone spray paint was perfect for some highlights.

I ended up using some thinner pieces along a nearby embankment, and combined with some Super Trees, the larger chunks made for what I think is a convincing woodsedge,

I documented the process in the video above, and ran some trains through the completed scene at the end.

John”

That’s all for today.

Thanks to John and Lawrence.

And I hope it’s inspired you to make that start – even if it’s only making a model house.

Course, I’m biased, but the the Beginner’s Guide will point you in the right direction.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Brian’s been pressing on with his HO scale workshop build:

“When I built kits, I always study the instructions and phots to figure out how this kit will fit on my layout.

Usually I do not follow the sequence of the instructions and work from them in a way that I can change or modify it if needed.

In part 1 in the previous blog, I had to flip the wharf horizontally and mirror image it in order for it to fit the location on the layout.

From that I had to construct the workshop flipped horizontally to fit on the wharf as well as up against the main building.

Photo below is the construction of the elevated office on the opposite side of the main building. I have used weights to hold the legs down on the plan template.

Below, the office has been flipped 180 degrees vertically in order to assemble the opposite side.

Here it is temporary placed against the main building to ensure correct height and position.

Here, the workshop walls are in the process of being assembled.

After the gray primer was done to smooth out the interior surface, it was sprayed an earth color to represent a wood finish.

The outside of the workshop walls were covered with shingles as can be seen in later photos.

I used a Lego base as a jig to hold the 3 sided building together to make sure that it would assemble correctly on the wharf.

By placing one of my metal lathe kits (a Scale Structure one) here, I was able to judge whether it would fit inside.

Turns out that it was to long and a I found a shorter one which fitted a lot better. The shingles shown here are prior to being weathered.

I used my Right Way magnetic corner clamps here to hold the building together while I started with the roof.

The front doors have been painted and weathered ready for placement once the workshop is in final position on the wharf.

The hatches have been glued onto the front above the door openings.

A test fit of the roof below for the workshop build. The shingles have now been aged and weathered.

Making sure that the cupola is in the correct position. The corners have to be sorted out with painted and weathered masking tape to hide the gaps as seen in later photos.

Another test fit against the main building (a card stock mock-up at the moment)

The shorter lathe (SS kit) with a larger 4 jaw chuck on it shown here. It will be painted and weathered later.

Below is where I saw that the longer lathe did not quite fit and it was longer than the one shown above.

An interior view of the workshop shows temporary possible placement of the machines and the forge.

Another interior photo.

Overhead photo proving that the longer lathe was not the right one for this area.

Here the belt drive system can be seen to power the lathe.

This is the view that shows the detailed interior of the workshop from the front of the layout. The card stock floor I temporarily shown.

Here it can be seen why the shorter lathe fits better allowing for the steps that lead up and into the main building.

Painting the tar paper on the roof. (Masking tape for the correct texture)

The battens in place on the roofs.

Repair patches placed on the tarpaper roof where leaks were detected.

Overhead view of the workshop roof. (Well weathered)

The side/open end view shows the details inside and eventually it will butt up against the main building.

In position on the wharf.

The white card stock floor is only temporary to show the placement of the machines and will be removed in order for them to be placed on the wood deck. There will be lights inside to show the detailed interior.

This is the start of the crane next to the workshop to lift items off boats docked alongside the wharf.

This is as far as I am in the construction of this kit so far.

The continuing construction of this project will hopefully be in the next issue.

As explained previously, this is a long term project and I estimate it to be about 3 months, maybe more and as it is a foreground model, it will need to be extremely detailed.

Until then, keep modelling.

Brian the HOn3 guy in Knysna.”

Wow! A huge big thank you to Brian for his workshop build update.

If you missed the link to his previous post, it’s here.

In fact, if look at Brian’s last few posts, you really get an idea of how he works:

Brian’s kit bash.

Brian’s dock update.

Brian’s boat house update/

Brian’s boat house.

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

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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