It’s been a while since I’ve been in touch. Presently enjoying your e-book “How to Create a Breath Taking Model Railroad for the Complete Beginner.” Highly recommended.
The last time I showed what I was attempting to do in HO scale with my homage to the Westerns with Old Tucson and Hill Valley from “Back to the Future” (I’ve included a few photos). Shortly after getting that far, I had a complete change of mind and decided to scrap all the HO and go into N scale for a smaller table set and more real estate.
I began with several Bachmann starter sets, but soon discovered KATO almost by accident. I sold off all the Bachmann but the Durango-Silverton (as I had the pleasure of riding that railroad a few months ago), and I went full forward with KATO engines and rolling stock.
Now that I have settled on a layout in n scale (photos included), I am starting to recreate the Hill Valley set at 54 percent the size of the original HO buildings.
First to complete: the N scale courthouse. I can see it isn’t going to be easy, but Winter is coming to offer plenty of homebound time for the work.
Cheers, and thanks for all your inspiration.
Mike
Grand Rapids, Michigan”
A big thanks to Mike for sharing his N scale courthouse.
You may well remember Mike’s earlier posts – here’s one. They are great fun.
Frank needs some help with his reverse loop in his layout. Can you help?
“Hi Al,
Big fan. Read all the daily postings and have learned a lot.
Like many of your posters, I too had a Lionel as a kid. It’s now gone, who knows where.
Started an HO double track oval for my kids in the 80’s. Still had everything and started up a new layout when the pandemic caused a lockdown.
Found out that HO was just too big for the room I had available. So I gave half of everything to my two son’s for my grandchildren.
This year I jumped in with both feet into N scale DCC. And so my problems Started.
I’ve read everything on line and bought a basic DCC wiring book and cannot grasp REVERSE LOOP WIRING.
I’m building my layouts as 4’x3’ modules. I’m attaching a layout photo of one of my modules and hoping you or one of your readers can educate me as to where I need to isolate the track and where to place my LOOP REVERSER(S).
Do I need a reverser for each loop???
Incoming train enters the module at the upper right left hand track and exits at the upper right, right hand track.
Thanks in advance.
Frank – 73 years old”
Please leave a comment below on Frank’s reverse loop problem if you can help.
Now on to Ed:
“Hi Al. The set is coming along.
I’ve sent a few pics of your printouts.
The layout has one central circle with two turn around on either end along with an upper residential level.
The ramps are slightly steeper than norm, I used different voltages for up and down controlled by photo eyes and relays.
I have a drawing that can be used for 3 rail or 2 rail, let me know if anyone interested. Next step is to move switch remotes to over by former, then put up using signals, then photo eyes for computer (plc) control.
Ed”
“Hi Al:
My first of 3 surgeries is delayed because Medicare did not pre-approve the surgery.
So I spent the past week rebuilding my two Montana Eastern Railroad boxcab diesels.
As a reminder, these are 7.5″ gauge, 1.5” scale based on the 23T and 25T General Electric diesels.
I needed 4 new batteries, the new ones are much wider so I rebuilt the floors, and now have cut the bodies in half to widen them.
The job to hook up the electronics and get the diesels back on the track normally would take all of an hour, but it took all day long, as I have to find ways of leveraging everything into place.
It is extremely difficult to lift anything at all right now and especially to bend down, or get on my knees etc and having to crawl around until I can finally stand up again…
I have some pictures of the boxcabs new floors and how they look cut in half.
Also have a sound system, amp, and speakers on the way. I bought the sound card from “Mylocosound”, they are an Australian company.
Also, I was asked about my two riding well cars, so I thought I would send some pictures of them along with some henscratch showing measurements that should be enough to use to build some if anyone is interested.
So I will send the pictures along a small group at a time as usual Al.
I hope someone finds this interesting.
Thanks so much again Al for all of your work to keep us active.
Dick”
I was very pleased to get the bodies and roof sliced through the middle and accurately for a change.
All pics show all sides and ends etc of this articulated set of well cars.
A big thanks to Dick, who is also kept busy with his N scale layout.
Lastly, Cassio’s been back in touch with his latest vid:
There’s no narrative with it, but that’s okay because his English is better than my Brazilian.
That’s all for today folks. Who can help Frank?
Please do keep ’em coming because it’s still painfully thin on the fround this end.
And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you want to stop dreaming and start doing.
Ken’s been in touch with his model train track bridge update:
You all know how much I like seeing a layout come to life:
“Thank you for all the great tips and advice, I have included pictures and a dialog of my progress since beginning my new layout in September.
I now live 2 hours away from Guadalajara, grew up in L.A. Calif. and after the service moved around a lot and now am retired in Mexico.
My new layout begun last September, it occupies a space of 13 feet by 13 feet.
It has been almost 20 years since I last had a layout, that one was in a basement room that was 30 feet by 30 feet, it never got beyond track laid and operation but was fun.
I am determined this time to get as complete as possible, this however now has some challenges as I now live in Mexico, and some things we take for granted as always being available just aren’t here or are so expensive as to be prohibitive.
With this in mind I started, the bench work is made from ½ inch plywood, the reason for this is simple, solid lumber costs more and is not kiln dried, so prone to warp and shrinkage.
I started by cutting up 2 sheets into 3 inch strips, these for the legs and bench framing, the legs are L shaped, the joints are glued and screwed together.
The bench work is L girder in design, again all joints are glued and screwed together, also in assembling the bench work I planned on 4 sections that could be separated as we are contemplating a move to another city and do not wish to destroy what I have.
The only part that remained from my previous layout is a bridge that I hand built as a removable bridge.
After 20 years three moves and subsequent time in storage it was in sad shape, this became the first project, rehab, that is done except new paint.
Then where to place it, the design of the layout and the length of the bridge made the choice easy.
I needed a way into the center of the layout and so one corner became the bridge central.
The main track concept is a main loop around the entire layout, this required a double track bridge, the bridge, and then up and down ramps to the main level.
Also there is a coal mine incorporated with its own trackage, this would also require another bridge, and then there is a loop on the main level connecting everything that needs a bridge.
The 2 remaining model train track bridge designs have not been decided as yet mainly because as I go I think of different ways to do things, such as a lift out section with trestles.
These first pictures show basic benchwork completed.
Here the bridge is seen, this is the location it will be in, the height above the bench is 8 inches.
This section of the bench is 4 feet across all the rest are 30 inches.
This is the location of the coal mine, here I am working on the track layout. I have numerous switches from before, number 5 and 6, left and right, plus some Atlas that a friend gave me, these plus what track I still have I set to work.
I lost count of the variations I tried till I finally arrived at this one.
The considerations were, being able to pull empties in, un couple, run around, and push into appropriate track, number of tracks, length of tracks thus dictating length of train.
The first of many designs. I find it easier to lay things out full scale.
Final design, the sub road bed base is construction fiber board, after putting it down I ‘painted’ it with a mix of white glue and water, firmed it up and stopped the fuzzing.
Then after trying all the regular methods of fasting the track and visiting several hardware stores, and told every time, no, senor, I don’t have that, I resorted to a silicone glue and now all track is glued in place. After all the mine track was laid and I was admiring my work I made a nasty discovery, I had left out the un coupling magnets. Trust me I will not make that mistake again.
Here are the cars that make up the mine consist. The purple cars are from Tyco, that I have modified to meet my needs, I chose these cars because they have operating bottoms, and my plan is to have an operating mine loading cars and a point of drop off, the wife has suggested a coal fired power station.
The Shay is from NWSL, I bought it in the early 70’s, and plan to use it as the main motive power for the mine. The name on the cars is that of my daughter.
The pink insulation foam board is the base for the scenery.
Here I’m beginning work on the upper level, I had to make the road bed, I used the fiber construction board, cut on a table saw, 2 inch width, then beveled 35 degrees.
Then for the curvable pieces I used a band saw to cut diagonal cuts, all done at my local carpenter shop, they are friends of mine, in fact I helped them get and set up the shop. I create quite a cloud of paper fiber dust every time I do this.
Here you see the tunnel for the mine track under the main upper line, also what will become a turn table.
After I was congratulating myself on such a brilliant job laying out the mine track I realized I had no way of turning the loco’s around, so I came up with a turn table and then an engine shed for the loco’s also needed a track for car repair.
Here is the first attempt at what will be rock walls, I am using drywall compound and clothes dryer sheets over the insulation board. I got the idea for the sheets from an on line blog, works great and there is no cracking. In the background to the right is the ‘concrete pad for the engine house.
My tunnel portals are hand made from ¾ inch plywood, cut with a saber saw, installed using silicone glue, coated with drywall mud, sanded, and painted. May not be the ideal but it is what I came up with.
Did I mention the only hobby shop is a 2 hour drive from where I live, and if he does not have ‘it’ in stock, it takes a month for ‘it’ to get here, plus it is twice the cost of ‘it’ in the US, and it does not matter what ‘it’ is.
Also no liquid items can be shipped in, so alternatives need to be found, be creative, or plan a shopping trip to the US.
The tunnels 1 track, 1 road and the road, why you may ask are all the cars and engine still there when I am working on the messy scenery.
Good question. I don’t really have a good answer, I do know however that all will clean up and work fine.
All the mine track and locomotives are straight DC, there will be an interchange point where the cars will be left and taken over by loco’s in a DCC system.
Ken”
A big thanks to Ken for sharing his model train track bridge update.
John’s post on his model train bridge springs to mind after reading Ken’s.
That’s all for today folks.
Please do keep ’em coming.
If you’d like to share something, just hit reply to any of my mails to get in touch. I’d love to hear from you.
Don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to get going on your own layout.
