Model railroad layouts plans

Brian’s been in touch with an excellent post on model railroad scenery ideas.

Have a look at what he’s done;

“Hi Al,

I have been making silicone moulds and resin castings for much needed detail around my layout.

If you are short on model railroad scenery ideas it’s a great way to fill a corner of your layout.

Herewith photos and descriptions of how and what I used for this process. I have been asked before on your site on how I make the castings and what I use.

I want to stress here that I make the moulds and castings for my own use only. I do not sell any of them as that would be illegal and a copyright infringement.

Here goes. (Some of the photos are not the best quality as they were taken before I had a decent camera).

This photo is of one of the scrap yards I have on my layout showing a lot of cast vintage vehicles glued together.

I am planning a third scrapyard for my layout. They generate a lot of shunting, deliveries and collections from them. Hence the gondola car in front.

Here are the products that I use, silicone and it’s catalyst. Mixing instructions are on the labels. It is normally by weight and ratio – 100:10. This is the silicone product.

Below is the resin product. Mixing ratio is 1:1. When purchasing this resin product, ask about its expiration date as they do have a shelf life.

Next, I select the parts that I want to male moulds of and select a suitable tub to use. I stick the parts to the bottom of it using “blue-tac”.

From here, I fill a jug with water, pour it into the mould above to the depth that I think would be sufficient, then measure the amount of water, usually in millilitres and that will tell me how much silicone I need for the mould. (No wastage of the silicone)

Below is the tub filled with the correct amount of silicone covering the parts underneath.

After approximately 5-6 hours of curing, depending on the weather, the silicone can be removed from the tub and the parts are easily removed.

Here are the moulds in use with resin poured in them and after approximately 15 minutes, the parts can be removed and the moulds are ready for making more.

The resin turns white after curing.

Below is an HO scale V8 engine block on a pallet that I also made a mould of and used lots of the castings in and around the buildings on my layout.

Below is the V8 block out of the mould. (Excuse the terrible photo)

Below shows a size comparison with an HO scale figure.

A generator set casting, right is the original and left, the casting before painting.

Top is the original and the finished generator casting set below it.

Below is the start of the painting process. Will later be weathered and rusted up.

Out of the mould and needs trimming.

Almost finished.

The above vehicle was moulded in this old photo slide box.

The advantage of using this silicone is that no mould release agent is needed either in removing the mould from its box or the part from the mould. The parts do not need washing after removal as there is no residue on them.

This casting of a small compressor is only 12mm long.

Below is the mould for a building that will be placed on the side of a bigger building.

Below is the raw casting out of its mould.

Here it is painted, weathered and placed next to a workshop.

A few more different castings to show what can be done.

A footnote – do not worry about using painted products for moulding as the silicone does not damage or remove the paint. (The original generator set used above is a perfect example).

Again, I must stress that these moulds and castings are expressly for my use only and are not sold or given away.

I hope that this article has explained how I arrive at all the finer details around my layout.

Brian – the HOn3 guy in Knysna RSA.”

A huge thanks to Hall of Famer, Brian. Clever stuff.

Hope you enjoyed that as much as me, I never would have guessed in a million years that’s how Brian makes his scenery.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if today is the day you start on your own layout.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

HO scale shelf layout ideas – look what Henry has done to hide a staging yard:

“Hello Alastair

A great part of our hobby is creating illusions. I am creating the illusion of unit coal trains running between a coal mine and a coal fired power station.

I do not have the space to model either industry to scale, so a photo backdrop helps to create the illusion.

But where do the coal trains go? My answer, a hidden staging yard.

How do you hide a staging yard on the upper deck of your layout?

You build a mountain.

Here are some pictures of how the mountain progressed.

Once fully installed, you cannot see the staging tracks, so I installed 2 mirrors above the staging yards, so that you can see the clearnce markers (white ties).

Occupation indication is via current sensors in each track, that changes a LED from green to red when track is occupied.

Henry”

Here is a youtube video showing the whole mountain with a few trains running past.

A huge thanks to Henry – nicely done! Always good to see HO scale shelf layout ideas. It reminded me of Mike’s: 2×8 HO scale layout

I do love seeing how you all solve your glitches and problems.

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.

Barry’s DCC bus wiring has to be seen to be believed:

“Hi Al, after seeing Cameron’s article, I decide to send in some photos of my test track.

I have to clean out my double garage (9M x 6M), to make room for my track, so I only have a test track at the moment.

I decided to use Digitrax DCC equipment, which is why I built the test track (8′ x 2′), so that I could get all the equipment to work with the computer software.

I tried JMRI initially, but found it too hard to work out, so went with Rocrail (both programs are free).

I have since bought Train Controller Gold, as this will give me better control in the future.

The reason my wiring is fairly neat, is because I am an “A class electrician”, and I am used to working with higher voltages than 16v, and I was taught as an apprentice to be neat and tidy (and it is a habit I cannot change).

The photo of the steam engine was taken from my back door, and they try and run the steam engines when the weather permits.

The town I was born and grew up in is called Goolwa (in South Australia, and I still live there), is home to Australia’s FIRST railway line in 1854.

This was built to transport river goods (Goolwa is on the River Murray, near its mouth), to a place called Middleton (on the Southern Ocean). When I start on my bigger layout, I will keep you posted on my progress.

Barry”

A big thanks to Barry and my word! That’s the neatest wiring I have ever seen.

Now on to Bill:

“Mr. Lee, Check this out if you have not seen this before I think you will enjoy. Located in Lethbridge, Alberta Canada. I stumbled on this on the way to Calgary a couple years ago.

Bill”

“Al;

The other day out in my garage where the doggie is I noticed some white stuff like stuffing on garage floor. Come to find out its from a pillow my son thru away and he missed the trash can………..Immediately I thought about snow drifts areas that linger from not getting enough sun exposure…..sheltered areas….gullies fencelines…etc. I dont think it would work for larger areas of snow cover but who knows It probably would if there werent plans for alot of other scenery….

Just wanted to share SO check old pillows before they hit the dumpster, trash truck…..

DG”

“Al,

I’ve been away from the model railroading hobby for several years due to it becoming less important than other things in my life, so I’m not up on the latest available technology. But I’m beginning to think it’s time to get back to a hobby I’ve had since I was a kid (I’m 56 now).

I always ran my trains to what I perceived as scale speed, but alas, some throttle packs don’t do well at slow speeds. Yet, others do. There are several factors that affect the ability to operate the models at near-scale speeds, such as condition of the motors, cleanliness of the track and the powered trucks’ wheels, weight of the train, and the throttle’s potentiometer (throttle).

Aside from those kinds of things, there’s the scale itself; the smaller the scale the harder it is to achieve scale movements. This is because, while we have succeeded in reducing the scale of the railroad world with amazing detail, we can never reduce the scale of their molecular structures! The laws of physics cannot be denied! But, as control and materials technologies progress, better control at slower speeds may be achieved.

I applaud someone drawing attention to this aspect of the art. I’ve observed realistic-looking layouts operated at unrealistic speeds, but also many of the same genre operated with very good realism. I suppose it comes down to a matter of what the layout owner decides is acceptable. And that’s okay.

But for those of us who pursue the finer aspects of the art of model railroading, this is a great point of discussion. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I really appreciate your daily communications.

Russ”

Thanks to everyone for today’s missive.

Hope you enjoyed it as much as me.

And if your head is spinning at just how much goes in to a layout, it’s all made simple and easy here.

Best

Al

PS Latest Ebay cheat is here