Model railroad layouts plans

Dean’s been back in touch with the latest on his woodland scenics scenic ridge railroad.

“Al, as you and your readers know, for the last several years I’ve been working on two small layouts.

The first of these is the Scenic Ridge Railroad made from a Woodland Scenics kit. It’s virtually completed.

The second of these is my Conejos Valley railroad which is probably about 95% completed.

For some time, I’ve been trying to decide what to do next. One possibility was to totally tear down both layouts and start all over with a brand new one, but I hate to do that.

So, I had the brilliant idea: why not combine the two layouts into one. That will keep me busy for some time and provide a larger layout with more possibilities.

Below is a plan that I came up with. I used the free computer planning software SCARM to draw the plan.

I started in my thoughts by adding the first red line connecting the two together. But this had the problem that if you started at one layout, say the bottom one and ran a train over to the top one, there was no way to get it back except by backing up the train over the red line again. Which was not really acceptable. I could have added turntables or wyes for each layout, but there was no room.

Two people had the brilliant idea of adding the second track, which I’ve shown in blue below. That allows the train to go back and forth between the two layouts without any problems.

(Watch on youtube here.)

So that’s what I’m going to be doing in the next few months. Standby to watch my progress.

Thanks, Al and all my followers for the support and interest.

Dean”

A big thanks to Dean for sharing his woodland scenics scenic ridge railroad.

If you want to get up to speed on his layout, here are his last two missives:

Scenic ridge layout

Scenic ridge railroad bridges and tunnels.

And now on to another Al:

“Al, thought I would share these photos of 3 of your printable buildings that I built with strip wood and scribed siding for the Altima and Tide Creek.

I have been working on an expansion in an attempt to get continuous running but building a suitable lift bridge is a head scratcher for me. Again thanks for all you do and to all fellow modelers who share out there.

Al”

A big thanks to Al for sharing his pics. It’s taken me much longer than I thought it would to get the printable buildings on to the new store.

I have managed to get the barn on there, you can see it here: Printable building barn.

Next, on to Hall of Fame Dangerous Dave:

“Hi Al,

my last visit to North Yorkshire moots Railway about 3 weeks ago, it was there steam gala, some nice locos shown.

Cheers

Dave”

(Watch on youtube here.)

That’s all this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the big day when you spring into action, 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.

Liz has been in touch with Mr P’s Halloween themed model railroad.

But first, some background.

You’ll remember Liz’s fantastic layout from this post: HO scale small layout.

Sadly, she’s now taking it down, as you’ll read:

“Greetings from Texas, Al.

As always I can’t say enough about how much I love your blog and the community you’ve built around it. I, like everyone else here, look forward to finding your emails upon waking in the morning. Bless you for all you do!

Since my previous correspondence in July, a lot has transpired. My father (Windsor of Windsor Valley fame) sadly passed in August under the tender care of a wonderful hospice care team that took wonderful care of both him and myself.

I dismantled much of Windsor Valley (carefully and saving every single part of it) so that I could move it from his apartment to my home. One of the benefits of using a folding ping pong table as my platform was that it made the layout much easier to transport without damaging it.

My plan is to rebuild, improve, and expand it. It’s his legacy and will always carry the memories we shared together. I miss my dad…and I miss Windsor Valley. Reconstruction will hopefully begin soon. Here are a few photos of the tear down and moving process:

As for the Halloween treat…

Last year my husband and I started work on a Halloween layout in O Scale which quickly became our permanent year-round layout.

My husband (Mr P) hand built the platform using wood bending techniques he learned just for that project. What he created was a beautiful multi-level platform with a fun and interesting track plan that allowed for lots of continuous runtime.

He did all the wiring and also used Arduino to manage the timing of the lighting, Halloween village structures, and even a couple things that aren’t even on the platform. I’m wowed by all his hard work.

I created all the scenery and even built a few structures for the layout. There’s an old western train depot that I scratch built last month which I was pretty pleased with. We still have more work to do on it, but we’re enjoying every moment of it together. I’ve included a few photos and a video.

And here’s the link for the video I made (forgive my shaky camerawork):

(Watch it on youtube here.)

If anyone is interested, Mr P has photos of the process of building the magnificent multi-level platform which I can share in the future.

Thank you again, Al, for your wonderful and inspirational blog. And thanks to everyone here for all the work, creativity, and encouragement they share!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Cheers,

Liz P in Texas”

A huge big thank you to Liz and Mr P for sharing their Halloween themed model railroad.

It reminded me of John’s: HO scale haunted house.

And there’s Jim’s too. I get sent all kinds of stuff, so I thought I’d start putting it somewhere, on another blog. Anyhow, turns out I was barking up the wrong tree with that one.

But I always remember Jim’s Halloween decorations – they are amazing – have a look and see: Jim’s halloween fun.

Having said that, I adore all the car pics some of you sent in. So if you have an old classic sitting in your garage, please do mail me. I really enjoy them.

That’s all for this time 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.

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.

Bill’s been back in touch with some thoughts on HO scale speed – have a look and see what you think:

“Hi Al,

Here’s my latest model railroad operations video, along with a few photos of my layout.

I find photography to be a lot like fishing: Sometimes you cast 10 or 20 times and only catch one. And sometimes they just ain’t biting!

Speaking of operations, I had a few comments to the effect that my locos were running too slow. So I did a poll on my YouTube community tab, and only 4% thought the speed was too slow.

I’d be interested in what you and your readers think.

Take care –

Bill”

A big thanks to Bill.

When it comes to running your trains, finding the right speed is something that comes up often on the blog.

I do concede it’s very tempting to let your engines zip around at full throttle, but I’m definitely in the camp of slower speeds to create realism.

Personally, I thought Bill’s train speed was spot on.

I remember one post recommended running HO scale at about 20 to 25% of its maximum speed, which translates to around 25-35 scale miles per hour, which sounds about right for most freight trains?

Let me know in the comments in below, I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this one.

But at the end of the day – as you all know – I’m very fond of the only mantra that matters:

“Your layout, your rules!”

If you enjoy running them fast, then fast it is. And it’s the same for slow.

Having said that, I’m sure you’ve all experienced derailments with trains whizzing round tight curves – and it’s always heart stopping when you see them leap off the edge of your layout into the abyss.

Anyway, I thought Bill’s question was really interesting – please do leave a comment if you can add to the HO scale speed conversation.

That’s all this time 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 More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.