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Large N scale layout

Rich has been back in touch with an update on his large N scale layout.

It’s 24x10x18 – so quite big:

“Hi Al.

I have been able to put in quite a bit of time this past 2 weeks, adding overpasses, walkways between station tracks, adding road systems, a scenic divider between Denver and Salt Lake City, more vehicles, added backdrop buildings and a tad bit(that is a little more than a tid bit but not as much as a scosh bit) more of color.

I have been buying figures as decent deals come up but I won’t add them until bigger jobs get done so I don’t damage things with my clumsyness.

The roads I did by painting on the layout base. The fun for me is to figure out how and where to build all the infrastructure to make sense of it all. I will improve these as I move forward.

I am trying to do as much as I can before I am faced with possibly more serious back surgery which may slow things down a bit(probably more than a scosh bit).

In the meantime I am very pleased to report that trains are running well and smoothly over all of the layout track, so I can just sit back at various places to train watch and be surprised by the various train meets that occur.

I repurpose a lot of pieces of “stuff” as much as I can. This time I have some overview pictures of the whole layout, I cannot get it all in one picture. Also including some pictures of each town as I have done some work in each area this past 2 weeks.

I sure do enjoy seeing all the input from the model railroad family.on Al’s site and appreciate all of Al’s work to keep this site up.

I cannot get the layout all in one shot, that’s the difficulty with a large N scale layout.

Reminding all that the two long walls are each 24 feet long, the Chicago wall is 10.5 feet long. The aisle is 18 feet long.

Thanks ever so much Al for allowing me to be connected with all the fellow railroaders on your site. I hope there are some things of interest for everyone.

Sincerely Dick (little r) Chapple Sr Hardin Mt USA

Be well and safe Al”

A huge thank you to Dick for sharing his large N scale update – can’t wait for the next one.

If you want to get up to speed, Dick’s last post is here.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to grab the bull by the horns and start your own layout.

Best

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here. Still updated everyday.

HO buildings – Eric adds to his layout

Eric’s been back in touch. He’s been adding HO buidlings to his layout.

It’s really starting to take shape now:

“This part shows roads, buildings, vehicles and folks in place.

We have a local biker bar, few stores, warehouse, office building, vacant warehouse on the south side and wonderful “Lilly’s Pleasure Palace” with young ladies at work 24 – 7. I think there maybe one waving 👋 down a vehicle Part 5 or 6, look close and then outside the building.

Three young boys vehicle broke down when coming into Town Maxville, those older cars are heavyee. There was also an old Chevrolet p/u that was on its way to town and a sports car pulling a trailer coming through the tunnel.

Don’t know where he is planning on going??

Well building lights were added, a small park in the Northeast corner and a fountain in the center of the town park.

The fountain was made with a plastic 2 liter soda cap cut in half and painted then very small stones glued to the outside edges and filled with a mixture of white glue mixed with blue paint. This dried and then the water spray was added which was white glue smeared on wax paper, wait till dry shape and you have water shooting out of fountain.

Ok Al, thats is it for now, thank all of you for the comments and standby for part 5.

Stay safe, it is going to be a hot one in St Louis this week with 105 heat index.

Eric the Firefighter”

That’s it for Eric and his HO buildings – His last HO scale update is here

If you’d like to add some buildings to your layout, there’s the printable buildings, or you can try scratch building, like Cameron: How to build HO scale buildings.

Now on to Gus:

“Al,

I really enjoy your site. I thought I would send a few pictures of my layout four years in the making. The layout is 9’-0” X 17’-0” (274 x 518). We can run four trains. Some of the scenery is store bought and a lot is scratch built from materials around the house.

The table is built aircraft style with ribbed construction and 2 x 4 legs that have gusset braces at 8 perimeter locations. The center is supported by 4 2 x 4’s. The deck is two layers 1/2” plywood.

The trackage is the old fashion Lionel tubular track set on foam track bed. There are about 800 hand cut ties glued under the tracks with o scale ballast.

The layout is powered by two Lionel 275 watt transformers.

The lighting is divided into five separate circuits and are powered by five multi tap transformers.

All of the building scenes are built on 1/8 thick board so that I can remove each scene and place it elsewhere on the layout.

The mountain and tunnels are made of scrap styrofoam and sculpted using a hacksaw blade attached to piece of wood and heated red hot with propane torch then covered with plaster cloth.

All main buss wiring is # 12 with # 14 feeders. Wanted to make sure minimal voltage loss. One thing for sure is that you learn to correctly wire the layout so you don’t burn up things.

Have some of the usual accessories. Coal loader, stationary crane, water tower, culvert loader and a circus car. The locomotives are Lionel, K-Line and Williams 1950 to present.

Thanks for a great site and all of the ideas. It great to see what you folks do across the pond.

Gus”

A big thanks to Eric and Gus.

Eric’s done a fantastic job of documenting his update, it’s great to see it from the start to the final stages.

That’s all for today folks – please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to get going on your own layout.

Best

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

HO sawmill layout update -Joe’s

Joe’s been back in touch with his HO sawmill layout – you’ll remember his last post from this.

“Hi Al; These are all since January:

As in the past, I spent time during the winter putting lighting in building and around the “town”. This is the power plant for the saw mill and planning mill.