Model railroad layouts plans

Dean’s been back in touch with some more N scale scenery ideas.

Every time he lands in my inbox, his layouts and scenery just get better and better:

“Al, it’s been a while since I’ve updated everyone on progress on my Santa Fe Northern Railroad N Scale layout as my life got too busy. Over the last couple months, I’ve been updating the scenery and here’s some recent progress.

I’m trying to model the area around my house which is a little different from other parts of the country—dry with little growth except for scrub foliage and dried grass plus Piñon and Juniper trees at lower altitudes with pine trees at higher.

The first photo shows a mountain that I built with excess blocks of 2 inch foam covered with plaster cloth and drywall compound, then painted with my standard brown base paint.

After that I used my usual Woodland Scenics ground cover fine turfs (Earth, Burnt Grass, Yellow Grass, Light Green) and clump foliage (Light Green, Medium Green) for small bushes and trees,

The pine trees on the mountain are from Fazhbary (Amazon) and came in a bag with 44 pieces of model trees, 1.4 – 5.9 inch. Since the largest one were too big for N Scale, I cut off the tops to put in this part of the layout. I covered making and coloring rock formations earlier. When done, the mountain looked like the first photo. Since the tunnel portals had to be custom size, I designed them and printed them with PLA on my 3D printer.

Here’s another view. I printed out the roads on paper then glued the finished road pieces to 2mm Foam Paper

Here’s a model industry fuel tank and truck from Whistle Stop Models. I found the Pennzoil Logo on the web

At this point I wanted to model a gully in the low area between the two levels and road going up from the lower level to the higher mountain level, which is actually 2” above the lower level. I use 2” construction foam as a base for all the layout.

First I trimmed the edges of the foam board and cut a piece to support a new road between the levels. The slashes were cut at two places to allow the foam to bend, then the piece was pinned and glued with hot glue. The support structure was finished at this point.

Then I covered the area with plaster cloth (next two photos)

After the cloth had set up, I smoothed on wall board joint compound then sanded it smooth where needed

Here’s what it looked like after painting my standard brown base color.

I built up the dry wash gully area (arroyo) with fine sand wet with diluted while glue and marked off where I wanted the gravel road to go with blue tape. The yellow paper is cut lengths of card stock which form the patterns for continuing the road. The black area on the paper on the above level indicates where I’m going to put a coal mine using a Walthers Diamond Mine kit that I’m working on.

At this point I finished the area with various fine turfs sprinkled on thinned white glue. Next, I finished the gravel dry wash (arroyo) and the gravel road from the upper to the lower level by painting on full strength white glue then sprinkling on Woodland Scenics gravel (a very fine material). Next two photos

Final finishing of the scenery. Next two photos.

So, here’s what the area looks like now. I’ve started to add clump foliage for small trees and bushes

Thanks to all of you for your continued interest and comments. Let me know if there is more info you would like to see on what I’ve done here.

Dean from New Mexico”

A big thanks to Dean for sharing his N scale scenery ideas – I’m already looking forward to his next update.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you think everyone else is having all the fun, 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 store.

They are great fun to make and great value too.

Bob’s been back in touch with something completely different: a Konflikt 47 locomotive!

(You’ll remember Bob from one of my fave posts on the blog, his 16×16 HO scale.)

“Alastair…good afternoon. Bob in Texas with something different (you know how much I like to submit unique ideas to your marvelous blog). See what you think.

I don’t know of anything that excites an old model railroad hobbyist like myself more than sharing my passion for the hobby with newcomers, especially if they are family. My sons grew up around model trains but except for playing with them around a Christmas tree they never really showed much interest.

They are adults now with families of their own and I am happy to report that they have recently developed a new-found interest in the hobby. They are very talented (photography, model building, miniature painting and 3D printing) and share a passion for playing tabletop miniature wargames. Their favorite is called Konflikt ’47.

I’ll try to explain the game as best I can. Konflikt ’47 is a post World War II tabletop miniature wargame that extends World War II into 1947. The opposing forces are the United States and Germany.

In addition to conventional weapons, each army now has access to more advanced military technology as a result of “rifts” that have opened between our World and a parallel futuristic dimension. At its core, Konflikt ’47 is really just a game of military strategy…a futuristic version of capture-the-flag.

I asked my youngest son if he had considered incorporating a train into the game since locomotives were essential for troop and equipment movement during World War II. He liked the idea and thought a train would add a new dimension to the game.

It would be a troop/equipment transport, a weapons platform and could serve as a strategic barrier. Ideally, the train would be a realistic scale and fit the context of the game (a futuristic steampunk appearance). He consulted his older brother who was enthusiastically on board (sorry for the pun).

The miniature soldiers are about 35 mm tall so O scale locomotives would be the most realistic but it’s been a long time since I had any Lionel trains. Fortunately I still had some old Christmas locomotives, trolleys, rolling stock and track from my HO scale days so I decided on On30 scale.

I initially fabricated the locomotives on two old 0-6-0 Christmas steam engines but my sons didn’t like the red drive wheels (they didn’t fit the futuristic style). So I mounted one locomotive (powered) on an old Christmas trolley and the other locomotive (non-powered) on a gondola car.

The layout was very simple with a single track dividing the game board diagonally. One of the structures in the middle of the game board was designated a railroad station and the army that occupied the stations controlled the train.

I do not pretend to understand the rules governing the movement of troops and equipment but I did observe that measuring devices and dice were essential. I do know that my sons thoroughly enjoyed the game (it lasted for several hours) and they thought the train was a great addition. They are already planning a more complicated layout. Is that a big smile on my face? Let me know what you think.

Bob”

A big thanks to Bob for sharing his Konflikt 47 locomotive – I do agree with him: sharing your hobby with others, especially family, is time well spent!

I also got this in from Frank, which is another board game scratch build:

“Hey Al

Just sharing an image from a game I play called Heroclix. It’s a Marvel based game that I’ve always said needed 3d maps.

I used one of your models and modified it to make this building. Looks fabulous!

Still learning how to treat the edges and make sure it looks clean but first time not too shabby.

Best

Frank”

A big thanks to Frank.

Whenever I see scratch builds like this I’m reminded of Matthew’s Thunderbirds island:

That’s all for this time folks. Thanks to Bob for his Konflikt 47 locomotive, and to Frank too.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you blow the dust of your old locos and find some track too, 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 store.

They are great fun to make and great value too.

To get the building, just jump on the newsletter.

The download will be in the first email you get from me.

If you don’t want any more mails after that, that’s fine, just unsubscribe.

(If you don’t click on any of the mails after that, they’ll stop soon enough anyhow.)

If you’re already on the mailing list and want the engine house – just mail me and I’ll send over the link.

If you have any problems getting this free download, please mail me!

Best

Al