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.
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.
Cameron has put together an excellent ‘how to’ on model railroad turnouts:
“Dear Al,
It’s been a while since my last post.
I have spent a lot of time over the last couple of months lying under the layout with wire cutters in one hand and a soldering iron in the other. There is now a big mess of wires under table that reflect a lack of planning on my part. I bit embarrassing but part of the process.
Following is a couple of tips on electrifying points on a layout that might be of use to a few of your readers.
Turnouts and Motors
Before I laid the track I drilled holes in the right locations for the point switch rods. I would do this again regardless of whether I planed to electrify the points or not. You never know how hooked you are going to get on this hobby.
I used Peco turnout motors which have been quite good. Rather than using the propriety plastic adapters I simply bent out the fixing prongs to act as a fixing lug. Perhaps a bit rough but a lot of modelers seem to use this method.
They all run off a 4amp 14v power supply which is not at the top end for this type of point but has been reliable.
Lining up the point motors under the track for reliable operation is one of the more difficult parts of the process. I did however find a pretty good process worth sharing.
1. I drilled two small holes through the top of the layout at each end of the plastic switch operating slide. These holes have two purposes. They provide a reliable guide marker under the table and, if drilled at the right spacing can be used to screw the point motor in place from under the table.
2. I set the point in the central position and held it in place with two tooth picks.
3. Working now from under the layout I lined up the motor so that the motor pin was in the middle ( evenly spaced) from each motor magnet.
4. The motors were screwed in place with a couple of screws and washers.
5. Remove the tooth picks and you should have a well aligned motor.
For me this method took a lot of the guess work out of the process of positioning the motor and ensured a lot less adjustment was needed to get them all working.
The other aspect of the point automation I thought was worth mentioning was the Mimic Panel. I made this out of a few electrical project boxes bolted together to form up a nice long panel. For the diagram I took inspiration from the London Underground maps. This type of graphic is really easy to read and looks good in colour.
The diagram was printed on paper and mounted on the face of the mimic panel under a sheet of clear acrylic/lexon.
Thats all for now. I will send through a post on the lighting next.
Cheers,
Cameron.
After the points were in place I decided that I wanted to light the layout.
A previous post, I think from Arnie, pointed me in the right direction with regards to how to control the lighting.
I wanted to have a lighting control dial that I could turn to different times of the day with each position of the dial turning on a different combination of lights. This is how I set it up.
Positioning the lights:
I fixed the lights in place from under the layout so I could take them out and change them without ripping up any of the buildings to do so.
I came up with this cheap fixing method that has worked pretty well.
I first drilled holes for each light before the buildings were fixed in place.
I then made a wire bracket from fencing wire (coat hanger wire would also be fine) that would hold the light in place but be fixed from under the table.
The below diagram and photo better describes this arrangement.
Cam”
Very smart! A big thank you to Cam for his model railroad turnouts piece – and for the lighting too.
