Model railroad layouts plans

Start HO scale – here’s how to take the first steps for your model railroad:

“Hi Al, (From a longtime follower and great admirer)!

My love for trains started about 60 years ago and some of the trains on my layout today are some of my originals as well as my wife’s.

That HO train hobby stopped when I got my drivers’ license and was rekindled when our first daughter was about five years old. That lasted for about another 10 or 12 years when my wife packed everything up and neatly put them in the attic.

When the third generation was coming for Christmas about five years ago my oldest daughter called and said “Dad why don’t you put up the trains for the kids!” Luckily the trains were still in good shape and I had about six weekends to build a 4 x 8 layout. When the kids showed up for Christmas, it became immediately obvious that it was all worthwhile.

After the holidays I realized it was time to build a much larger layout. And I will admit it was not only for the kids!

My HO layout is called the Wismer Valley Line. The following objectives informed my plans:

1) Replicate to the extent possible, very long American freight trains, pulled by multiple locomotives, up long grades.

2) Focus on the specific shape of the plan and get as many trains as possible running concurrently.

3) Incorporate the vintage trains into the plans. FYI – The major Railroads on the layout are from areas of the country where my three daughters have lived as adults.

Maybe as important as anything, make my own rules. e.g. It’s OK to have the Pennsylvania RR running alongside the Union Pacific, at least in my barn!

The first thing I did was get your beginners guide!! This is a tremendous resource even if you have previously built train layouts.

Secondly, was to find someone local willing to give me ad hoc advice. This advice began with the key suggestion to avoid grades (especially curved ones) if I wanted to pull long freight trains and avoid derailments. I opted for a bi-level layout. Overall size is approximately 17 feet long and 11 feet wide at the widest point. The shape was dictated by the interior of the space including doors on either end.

The longest freight train, on the upper level outside track is pulling about 60 cars, using four locomotives (NO dummies!) in tandem (over 30 feet in total length). The rolling stock are from the late 1950s the early 1980s and the past five years (which included additional vintage railcar purchases on EBay).

I rebuilt about 100 of the vintage cars installing (Kadee) couplers and well machined wheels, along with new trucks when necessary. The wheels are critically important for long trains in order to minimize drag.

In planning the layout, as can be seen from the plans, I spent a lot of time working on the maximum radius that could be attained by each track. I am surprised to see that more of your readers have not mentioned this issue as longer locos simply can’t make it around tighter curves. Maybe it was just the unconventional layout combined with this many trains that created the issue. My original plans turned out to be invaluable as I used them constantly to measure and adjust the radius of each curve.

The deck is, bottom to top, plywood, Homesote, cork and then the tracks. All seams taped and spackled. Total weight exceeds 600 pounds.

My biggest engineering challenge was the concrete floor in the old outbuilding on our farm. It is neither flat nor level! The solution was to overbuild and use 24 heavy-duty casters so the entire layout can be pulled out from the wall to allow for total access. There are also 4 cutout/lift-out windows (which eventually will be disguised by scenery), where I go underneath and come up out of the hole, enabling me to reach every square inch of the layout.

I spent significant time making sure everything was as level as possible, despite the uneven concrete floor. When working on it, it is pulled out from the wall about 3 feet. When running it, it’s back in the corner. With all those casters, once I get them going in the same direction, it’s not too bad to move; and they have the added benefit of finding their own version of level.

The deck is 43 inches off the ground. If I did it over again it would be a couple inches higher to allow for easier access.

I’ve included a few photos of the plan, and build out as well as a video of the six trains moving at the same time, and a short video of how I test the track.

Original plans and beginning construction:

Construction continues:

Up and running:

And now on to Ben:

“Hi Al!

I’ve been a member of your email club for a few years. I’ve sent in pics of stuff I’ve made before.

I had an 8×4 L-shaped switching layout, but divorce happened and I no longer have it. I did keep all the buildings, trees, cars, etc.

I started a new layout, but it’s a lot smaller. It’s about 4×2.

Going to be switching again since it’s small and it’s the kind of layout I prefer.

So far the track is laid and I made a background. I’ll send more pics as I progress.

Ben from So Cal”

Not too much of Ben’s layout yet – but that’s the whole point, and it’s why I post them: it’s all about making a start!

Right now, it’s an ideal time too, because we have a hobby that is perfectly suited to the circumstances.

Of course, a layout is a big step. So why not start with a diaroma?

Here’s one that Ben did, which I think is just fab.

Now on to Eric.

“Hello Again Al

This Monday I was able to go and see the once in a lifetime great master piece of the rails, the UP 4-8-8-4 Bigboy.

I traveled South from my home to Washington, Missouri. Yes three of us from the hobby shop none from the the fire Dept. All too young I guess to play or see trains.

Yes I took pictures and video but nothing like the one I am sending you. Thanks to my daughter for finding on YouTube.

So hope you can share.

Eric the firefighter”

(Eric’s last post is here.)

That’s all for today folks.

A big thanks to John, Ben and Eric.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you want to your start, on your very own layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Look for the ebay cheat sheet? It’s here.

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.