Model railroad layouts plans

Greg from Florida has been in touch – he’s been having fun with his lionel O gauge layout:

“Hi Al!

I love the pics, tips and videos. I have been watching for years.

It has been a while since I did a YouTube video of my trains. You posted my last one titled, “Dads Trains 2015 Director’s Cut”.

We did that video before we sold the house and moved to our new house.

We moved in 2016 and it took until 2020 to plan and collect the materials to start the new layout.

My wife and Daughter bought me AnyRail to plan the layout on the computer. With the ease of creating plans on the computer I must have done a dozen plans before settling on one.

Just before the lock down of 2020, I had the bench work built in pieces in my garage. I was planning on clearing my office space and installing it on Spring Break. Then I would have the rest of the year to get some trains running. Then lock down came and I built the whole thing in about 4 weeks working 8 and 10 hours a day on it.

The new video journal is in two parts. I have found watching videos that four to five minutes into a video I start skipping forward to the end. So I wanted to keep my videos at around four minutes.

Part 1 is the build. Part 2 is trains running.

The room is my office and music room. It is 9 x 11. Most of the track is Lionel. The remodeled upper level is Menards track.

The desk is on wheels so I can lay my monitor down and push the desk under the bench work to get to the back corners of the layout.

Everything is on wheels so I can move stuff out from under the bench work when I need to use it and back.

The control center rolls in and out across the entrance to the room.

A lift out for the trains slides under the bench work for storage when not in use.

The empty train boxes are stored in Rubbermaid tubs under the bench work.

This is my second “shelf” layout so I improved several things. I created long spans with 2×4’s to make it easier to store things under the bench work.

I pre-drilled holes in the bench work out in the garage for the wiring to keep the mess down in the house. I ran the bus wire loops around the layout before I installed the top plywood.

I made all the connections from the controls to the bus wires on the back of the rolling control center so I wouldn’t have to lay on my back under the layout.

My son, Alan, and I had such great fun making these videos. I had fun building the layout. My daughter had fun making the brick and rock face for the subway and tunnels. My nine year old granddaughter enjoys adding lego people and running the trains with me.

And isn’t that what this hobby is about?

This video is just having some fun watching the trains with some great music and some fun editing. It was filmed with a cheap version of a gopro knock off.

The video and music editing was done with a free version of Microsoft Movie Maker.

The POV clips were done by mounting a small flashlight to a flat car with some small blocks of wood to mount the camera on top of the flashlight. Then we pushed the flat car in front of the engine.

You will see it worked great except for one time. We left that fail in the video because we laughed so hard when it happened. Ah, the magic of movie making.

I hope my Lionel O gauge gives folks who think they don’t have room for 3 rail trains some good ideas.

I would be honored if you find them post worthy.

Enjoy,

Greg from Florida, USA”

A big thanks to Greg for sharing his Lionel O Gauge – we’ve had a run of Lionel trains recently.

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.

Doug’s sent in some pics of his Lionel train layout.

Some of you will remember Doug from his Lionel train set post.

Well, quite a few comments on that post asked, “Where are the trains?”

So Rob’s sent in some pics of his trains running.

It does look lihe he’s having a lot of fun:

“Al

Having read the wonderful comments I thought perhaps I could answer the few who seemed to be missing out on my trains them selves as my grandsons had been using the table to run their own units, I had not thought to put any of mine on the tracks to take pictures.

So now I have taken pictures of each that I own, hooked up to a few cars to my Lionel train layout to make it look better.

Douglas”

A huge big thanks to Douglas for sharing his Lionel train layout pics.

Here’s his first Lionel layout post if you missed it.

As you’ll see, he has quite a collection going on.

There something about Lionel trains that captures the imagination – it seems that the older they are, the better they are. But I think you could say that about lots of things.

That’s all for this post!

As always, the the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want get going on your very own layout.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Before we get to Doug’s Lionel trains, Hall of Fame member Dave has been back in touch with his loft railway:

“Hi Al, just uploaded this short video…

All the Very best to Yourself ..and may your site continue for years to come.

Regards

Dave”

A huge big thanks to Hall of Fame member, Dave. Don’t thing I’ll ever tire of his loft railway.

Now on to Doug.

You’ll remember him from his Lionel train set.

A lot of the comments Rob got were, “Where are the trains?” – so Rob has been kind enough to send in some train pics:

In fact, he sent in lots of pics.

You can see all the trains on his Lionel train layout here.

Now on to something completely different.

Over the years, certain tips and gems of advice keep popping up in different posts, from different people.

And I thought it might be quite fun to list a few “does and do nots”, and then see what’s added to them in the comments.

So here you go, let’s start with these pearls of wisdom for when you’re starting your layout:

1. Don’t build a complicated analogue train layout – it’s really worth the time to get your head around DCC. It’s easier and you’ll have a lot more fun with your model trains.

2. Making the curves too tight, or not making the baseboard big enough. Derailments are soul destroying, and there’s nothing worse than a train track that doesn’t run flawlessly, or a track that won’t run a new larger locomotives when you add to your fleet.

3. The train rack being right on the edge of the baseboard. Trains have a habit of jumping off the edge when they derail. And adding scenery like mountains and tunnels when your track is rightup against the side is impossible.

4. Not building your tunnels so you can get inside them. It’s no fun fishing out derailments and cleaning the track when you can can’t get to where you need to.

5. Not being able to reach (comfortably) every square inch of your layout. This is why some layouts have holes in the middle.

6. Making the baseboard too high. Sure, it makes wiring underneath your layout easier, but it also make things harder to reach (see above) and harder for the grandkids to enjoy your model railroad.

7. Making your baseboard too low. You’ll get constant backache and wish you’d never started the hobby.

Please do leave a comment below if you have any advice you’d like to share.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you pick the hobby back up, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.