Model railroad layouts plans

Paul’s been in touch – he shows us how to create a model train cab ride:

“Hi Al,

I decided to have a go at building a camera train.

Not knowing how well things would go I bought 3 of them. The cheapest I found them in the UK was £14.09. They arrived in a couple of days too.

The “manuals” could be a bit better and I found that the app it asks you to download doesn’t work on later versions of Android. Luckily I had an old tablet running Android 6 that still works and it installed fine on that.

The devices I bought tart transmitting immediately without the need for a password (even though a password is printed on the sticker). As the range is limited to 10m though I don’t think it’s an issue.

They look like this:

And come with a USB charging lead.

As the manual isn’t very explicit here are what the switches do:

There is also another very small button tucked under the microphone cable that resets things if the unit stops working and the web site says they can take a card up to 32GB to store video. The app also stores videos without the memory limits.

“On/Off” does what it says.

“Mode” switches on WiFi. The unit sets a network up called THPC000027ULNEF and tablet connects to this. The switch has to be pushed towards the camera end of the device for this setting. Its other setting is IP, and it’s apparently possible to assign the camera a fixed IP address. I haven’t found a way of doing this yet, but I’ll report back if I do. Perhaps this is where the password might be relevant.

Note that all 3 units set up a WiFi network using the same name so having two cameras operating at the same time might be difficult. Again though, if the cameras are operating using fixed IP addresses perhaps this is possible.

Anyhow…

I fitted the camera to a container wagon like this:

It’s fine on straight sections, but the field of view is very narrow, and on curves the camera is looking tangentially rather then following the curve. The tighter the radius, the greater the difference will be between the desired and actual sightlines.

This is made worse by having the camera mounted at the front or back of the wagon, as on tight curves the camera won’t be over the tracks at all, whereas on larger radii it might be.

I tried with (left to right) 243mm, 280mm, 317mm 354mm and 541mm radius curves.

The pictures below show the two extremes of a 541mm radius curve and a 243mm curve, with the camera front mounted:

Here the camera is just about inside the 541mm curve.

Here the camera is completely outside the 243mm curve.

All is not lost though…

The camera will always point tangentially to the curve, so it will point at 90˚ to the long side of the sleeper immediately below the centre of the wagon it’s mounted on.

If I mount the camera at that point on the truck it will always be inside the curve, so we’ll see at least some of the track ahead. The greater the radius, the more track we’ll see. The camera will still be pointing tangentially but if it’s above the mid point of the vehicle the perceived deviation between the actual and desired sightlines is diminished.

A shorter vehicle with the camera mounted above the electronics is one way to achieve this (but then overhead clearances might then be an issue). Another is to have two linked vehicles with the electronics on the rear one and the camera on the leading one. The shorter wheelbase will make the camera stay inside the curve more, even if it’s mounted at the front of its truck.

I hope this helps other modellers out there.

All the best,

Paul (in Manchester UK)”

Thanks to Paul. Dean also has a helpful post on making cab ride videos with a camera:

Camera for N scale.

Now on to Dick.

He’s always been a thoroughly decent chap when I’m short on stuff to post – you’ll know his layout from the links below.

And now he’s sent this in which is a delight to watch:

“Hi Al, this is my you tube video link of the portable layout I set up with the help of my neighbor friend Dick Stern (oldtaz) who has sent you wonderful pixs of his N scale layout.

The video is just over 7 minutes long, all taken by oldtaz’s cell phone.

We had over four hundred visitors who enjoyed our efforts.

Many were intrigued by the track plan. It was a folded dogbone double track mainline with 4 sidings and two crossovers, but large enough to confuse people as to where the trains were headed. The music quits early on the video and I can’t seem to fix it, Earlier I had good music on there which was a problem for you tube so had to change to the music on it now.

Neither of us are healthy enough to do this public display work anymore which is why we both have N scale layouts to work on now.

I have spent a lot of time on my large California Zephyr Route N scale layout the past 2 months.

With 3 weeks left to work on it before I have extensive back surgery, progress may slow to a crawl for the next 3 months.

So I will be sending updates of the California Zephyr Route again very soon. It is a huge layout and I am the chief cook and bottle washer with no helpers.

Anyway I hope there are some that will enjoy the video.

To all of our model train friends on your site, please be well and safe and you too Al..

Thank you so much for this site for us to connect with each other and share our enjoyment with the hobby.

Sincerely

Dick Sr
Hardin Mt USA”

Here’s Dick’s N scale.

And here’s Dick’s other layouts.

That’s all for today folks.

A huge thanks to Paul and Dick.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget, the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to stop dreaming and start doing.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Frank’s been in touch with his 4×8 HO scale train layout:

“Al,

I enjoy seeing the info you share, but I have never shared my layout with you so here are some pics.

This is a 4×8 that has been in the works for 10 or so years.

I now have it in a loft that is 16×20 and I am building a new layout and this 4×8 will not work into it well at all so I will be dismanteling it in the next few weeks to get started on the new one so I thought I would share some of it with you.

Thanks,

Frank,
Salina Kansas”

A big thanks to Frank for sharing his 4×8 HO scale train layout.

There’s quite a collection of HO scale layouts on the site now – so I’ve created this page and I’m slowly adding to it:

HO scale train layouts.

Now on to Laurence:

“Hi Al,

thought your readers might like to see my layout.

I started to build it for my grandson last summer, but I’m afraid I got carried away a little bit. The layout is OO on a 6’x4’ plywood base. The tunnel and rocks are made of insulating foam which I found to be great to work with and when painted looks very realistic.

I wanted it to be busy but not overcrowded, so I tried to give enough space for different parts of the layout, ie: quarry, farm, station and manor house.

There’s still more to do, but there always is when you build something like this, you always find that little bit that’s missing. Hope your readers enjoy my efforts.

Yours Truly,

Laurence”

A huge thanks to Laurence and Frank.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you want to blow the dust off your old train set and have some 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 Silly Discount bundle.

Lawrence has been back in touch with the progress on building O scale train layout.

Here’s what he’s been up to:

“Al

An update to my O scale layout and some info on projects not on the layout.

First, I wanted to replicate the elementary school I attended grades 1-7 in Cherry Valley Massachusetts. The problem with that is that it was torn down over 30 years ago.

After a year of digging in the memory of two of my sisters and myself. I started on the project.

I know it is a brick building with doors and steps on the front and both sides. A two-story building that had the first, second and third grade on the first floor.

The fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh grades on the second floor. A large hallway separated all the grades side to side and front to rear on both floors.

What size to make the rooms? We remember the older students were in five rows, front to rear. And there were 5 or 6 students in each row. Then up front was the teacher’s desk. That means they were relatively large rooms. The assumption was made that the rooms on the first floor was the same size.

And we knew that it was an old building when my father attended the school in the late 1920’s. The first and third grade teachers not only taught us but also my father, LOL they let us know that many times. All buildings in Massachusetts have steep roofs because of all the snow we get.

Not to put that data on paper. Using the enclosed conversion chart, I drew a top-down view and a side view (doors and windows in place) on paper in actual O scale. Sorry I did not think of making pictures as I went.

From the paper I copied the layout onto 0.04 styrene sheets and cut them out. Glued a printed brick wall onto all four sides. Glued a clear plastic piece for each window with a 3 mm wood strip (for the window pane).

Added 3 mm strips around each window and doors. Added one quarter square strips vertically and horizontally to ensure the styrene stays flat. The stairs are layers of balsa wood and covered with the printed brick wall paper. I used Elmers wood glue on all the above, this did substantially better then CA glue to keep the items blued together.

The sides were held together with magnetic corner clamps to apply the styrene glue. I also added one-inch square gussets top and bottom of each corner to prevent future warping, shown in the picture. The roof gussets were put in place (next picture) and then the roof added.

The second picture shows the school sitting on the layout. It looks big but taking measurements in comparison to the other O scale buildings on the layout the sizes match. The second picture is a close up of the school. The next pictures show the side wall with the bracing, the roof from the inside and the corner gussets.

The next two pictures show the finished product of scratch built pedestrian crossovers. One is over two tracks at the same level. The other one is over two tracks where one of the tracks is raised up four inches. I did buy a kit that shows how to make staircases in O scale. Only used the kit to draw the pattern to get the proper step and rise of the staircase.

Now to get off the layout. Herein are two items associated with trains that have nothing to do with working on the train layout.

I have seen lots of puzzles of trains. Enclosed is the train puzzle that I just finished. I have six more on display in my train room. I also saw a cross stitch picture of a train. I had to have it so now I am in the process of sewing it, also displayed here. If you want something you just have to get out and do it yourself.

I not only want to thank Al for all the work he puts in to get all these layouts to all of us. But I also want to thank each and every one you that sends the work and information into A for the enjoyment of all of us.

Lawrence from Madison Virginia”

A big thanks to Lawrence for sharing his building O scale train layout.

I thought the idea of adding his school to his layout was a fun project – he sounds like he’s enjoying the other stuff too. And that’ what it’s all about.

That’s all for today folks.

Don’t forget The Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to start on your own fun.

Please do keep ’em coming.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.