Model railroad layouts plans

Brian’s been in touch with his shelf model railway:

“Hi Al,

I built a simple 00 gauge model railway for my two sons in the early 1980’s.

At the time I was photographing and writing about the colourful and interesting freight movements in the north east of England which culminated in a book published in 1989 ‘Railfreight Today’.

At the same time as building a railway for the children, I was buying odd freight wagons that interested me, with a view to one day having a layout of my own.

With other interests, that never happened, they languished in boxes, surviving a number of house moves for 30 years – until like others ‘Lockdown’ arrived.

I had decided that due to space restrictions, my layout would go in the garage partly along one wall. But with all the usual garage paraphernalia, it was not going to work. Then I hit upon an idea.

The layout would be built within my sturdy metal shelving system.

This meant a layout 3 metres long and 0.5 metres wide, with an additional temporary, one metre length of hidden sidings on the adjacent worktop!

Naturally, for me, I wanted a layout to be freight only, no passenger trains in sight! I wanted to run longish freight trains (limited space), but more important, I wanted shunting to be done.

I didn’t want the hassle (and cost) of moving to DCC. My wagons and locos were from the 1980’s ‘Speedlink’, Railfreight era. I looked at plans of end to end layouts, played about with SCARM and eventually came up with a basic layout, which inevitably was altered multiple times.

Then the penny dropped. I would create a very, very scaled down version of Tees Marshalling Yard at Middlesbrough!

The Speedlink trains would enter and leave as longish trains. These would be split and marshalled in the yard and small ‘trip’ trains would take and collect wagons from the various private sidings etc. (hidden from view), where I could load and unload commodities. This offered me plenty of different shunting puzzles – ideal.

Problem with ‘Lockdown’, the model railway shops were closed. But, I found that some online shops were open for business. I wanted the layout to work electrically and with as few joints as possible so settled on all Peco flexi streamline code 100 and kept the postman busy.

Having walked around many industrial railway settings, the track was never pristine ballast. I decided I would spray paint the baseboards (shelves) black and would not lay down any ballast. The black paint would give it the grimy conditions I wanted.

The track was glued down with dilute PVA glue and additionally pinned near the pointwork. There are just two electrical feeds and I can control two locos from my ageing late 1960’s H&M ‘Duette controller. I have included two loops, which allow for engines/wagons running around.

I was fortunate in seeing a Gaugemaster industrial backdrop that had the appearance of Teesside. One of my ‘better buys’ which work a treat are ‘Train Tech’ buffer stop lights. I have one fitted behind every buffer stop on the layout. They draw very little current. Although not authentic for my era, they let me know which track is live and where I am shunting to, particularly at night! – brilliant.

Being on a shelving system, where ‘garage items’ are stored, above and below, was going to make the layout dark. I found on the internet a string of low voltage LED strip lights with a rheostat, which I mounted under the shelf above. I can have the short trip workings operating to and from the yard in daylight and by turning the lights down, the long ‘Speedlink Services’ depart and arrive overnight, very authentic!

The hidden sidings (three) are built onto a box construction that sits on top of the adjacent work unit, I can quickly connect ‘when playing’!

These sidings are ‘hidden’ from the main layout by a modern road overbridge and a freelance through goods shed, giving access to more docks/sidings beyond. The only other building on the layout is a ‘Portakabin’ (mess room) at the opposite end of ‘the yard’.

My mint condition wagons and locos (I bought a few extra) needed an upgrade to what a working railway should look like. I set about ’destroying’ the out of the box immaculate look, by weathering them all, to something resembling Teesside in the 1980’s! Something I really enjoyed doing.

I even varied the weathering on each side of the wagons/locos to double the size of the fleet, as viewing is from one side only! Of course, it could be any fictitious place and I can run almost any freight wagons and locos I want – joy?

So now, thanks to ‘lockdown’ and after thirty years, I can now enjoy amusing myself looking back in miniature, to an era of wagon load freight.

Brian”

Absolutley loved Brian’s weathering. A big thanks to Brian for sharing his shelf model railway.

Whenever a shelf layout comes in, I always think of John’s: Shelf layouts

Now on to Eric.

(If you want to catch up, Eric’s last post is here.)

“Hi Alastair

I am back and have a few short movies others can view. These are from different locations on the lower layout and yes had to bring the fire helmet home to use the camera.

I put a short description on each movie..

Also the lift out portion used to gain access to the West area with the shooting range that was on top of the cliff has been taken out and a new piece has been put in its place with a new town being built. The funeral home is in the town with a railfan camera mounted on it.

Well it is late here a need to be at Fire House in the morning so I will sign out.

This is a shot of North bound trains coming out of a double tunnel and they are heading toward a small town that has a active Haz-mat spill in to the Wide Mouth Creek.

East bound trains heading toward the entrance of the double tunnel. The view is from atop the portal.

Coming from the west, rail workers are insight. They are waiting the passing of the two trains to check conditions of the rails that had been repaired months ago. They will continue to monitor.

Railfan camera East view from the top of the funeral home, this is the small town that is being added to the layout.

Thanks Al and thanks to all the wonderful ideas and layouts all over the world from all the viewers.

Eric The Firefighter St. Louis, Missouri Area”

A big thanks to Brian and Eric.

That’s all for today 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.

Taz has been in touch with an update – his N scale car lights (and truck lights) look great.

And if Taz’s narrative doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will.

(Old Taz’s last post is here, if you want to get up to date.)

“Hi Al

Richard from Montana.

My layout is n scale and it’s called Whiskey Run.

It’s been a while and I hope everybody is in good health. I’ve been reading and watching all of the posts.

It seems like everyone’s getting along well and having fun. There’s a lot of wonderful layouts on your site.

If you remember, we built 2 stills in our mine and that’s why my layout is called Whiskey Run instead of Tinker Ville.

We are still running one still in the mine, just for our own relaxation. There’s been some additions since we last talked.

The undertake, Will Barry has started a used car lot so, now, he can sell you a used car or a plot of ground. I’ll tell you though I think his wife sells more cars than he does. What a knockout.

Then there’s Frank Forter. He owns the drive in next to the car lot which is called Pig Out. Frank owns the pig farm east town. Thank gosh it’s east of town as our wind comes out of the west.

Frank uses all of the pig except (you thought I was going to say squeal, didn’t you?) No, it’s the tail. The squeal is what he plays over his loud speakers.

He has pickled pig’s feet, knuckles, deep fried ears for the dogs, roasts loins and whole hogs. He also will come to your party to roast on site. His shop was an ice cream shop. The owners found out they couldn’t sell ice cream in the winter time, so they went back to California and left large debts. Frank paid off the debts and is making a going business of selling his own pigs.

Ernest came too and worked in the mine until they found out he could repair anything. Several friends set him up with his machine shop. One day a couple of the miners played a trick on Ernest they brought a pocket watch that hadn’t run in years to fix. After they gave it to Ernest, he tripped going in to shop and dropped the watch. It started running and he just put it on the shelf waiting for them to come back.

When they came back get to watch he charged them $10.00. And told them they wound it too tight. The watch probably only cost $3.00 when it was new. The miners haven’t bothered him since.

The sawmill has added a lumber yard. Tall Paul is letting his son run the lumberyard and shipping yard.

Tall Paul took a freight car back east. We are not sure way but he kept talking about Somone by the name of Bab. We think it was a lady he knew. Said they were making Bab work in the iron mines. He said he wanted to bring Bab out here with him? We’ll see.

The filling station on the highway coming into town is owned by Speedy G. He also owns the oil depot down the highway. It is called Gonzales Oil.

Speedy is out of Mexico. He has 5 boys and 2 girls running the filling station for him. This is the full-service station. When you pull in there, they check the oil, the water, the air in your tires, and wash your windshield they also check out your teenage son or daughter depending on who’s doing the checking?

They have a U-Haul service and a wrecker service. When was the last time someone checked your oil, water, your air, and filled your tank with gas? I will Bet there’s some of you’ve never had that happen! (I had a 1929 Hupmobeal that did not have a dipstick. It had a float with a wire sticking out of the block. It was fun to ask to have the oil checked. Just to see the frustration on their face.)

The salvage yard is something new. The Twix brothers came back from the service and decided to start a salvage yard with all the junk that’s laying around on every farm around here. They bought a crane, a duce and a half, a Jeep and a 3-quarter ton truck, from army surplus to start their business. They have cleaned up a lot of farms around the town and paid off their debts already.

(Crane as an Electro magnet, it raises the magnet up and down and the crane moves side to side. You can load the gondolas with scrap iron with this crane. The dozer goes back and forth to Push scrap iron to the crane. I built the joystick from scratch. I also made the Electro magnet. All is wired to my control box.

At this point on the work bench, I am lighting all of the cars and trucks that are going to be on the roads.

N scale car lights – the cars all have one light in them and I’m using fiber optics open it out the headlight and tail lights, then I put a thin coat of red paint on the tail lights.

The trucks I have small lights for headlights and tail lights.

The lights in the trailers, I’ve drilled small holes where the marker lights are to and field them with colored resin. The light in the trailer shows through the resin as marker lights.

The roadway will have 3 strips of copper tape one centered and once centered to the outside of the road. These will be painted then when the car or truck is placed the paint can be removed. Then the pickups on the cars and trucks will be soldered to the copper tap. (See test photos.) after ruining 2 dozen cars I think I found the easiest way to do the best. These are resin poured cars. Now I have more cars for my junkyard. I will let you know how they come out when I’m finished.

Have fun and like my mom and dad would say. If you have nothing good to say don’t say anything!!!

Richard in Montana (Old Taz)”

A big thanks to Old Taz for these pics and such a fabulous narrative – they put a big smile on my face.

His N scale car lights look fab too – they really add to the layout.

I do love a layout that is full of personal touches – like Sheldon’s HO scale.

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

Al

Well you all know how important starting your train layout is, and that’s exactly what Paul’s done:

“Hi Al im kinda new to your site and a complete novice at building a model railway layout.

I had to go with Marklin Z gauge due to space constraints. I’m going with a 30″ x 72″ board of which there will be two so 60″ x 72″ when side by side.

Im going to make a kind of coffee table to house them with one of the boards sliding out from under the other and raising up to join though i haven’t got that far yet.

I’ve just sorted the main board and built up start of scenery with 25mm foam built tunnel and some raised track which has 2 outer loops and an inner loop all connected with points.

I ran a train round for the first time last night to make sure everything fits and it did yay lol

I’ve attached some pics hope you like my efforts

Paul”

And now on to John:

“I have been at this 20×16 layout for almost a year now and i think i finally got the first layer done.

I dont have a “plan” i just know what i want in my head.

My first layout was 4×8 and i realized that for HO this was way to small for everything i wanted and to incorporate the things my dad and i wanted to add to his layout when i was a tadpole.

2 mains lines merge to 1 in the what will be the country, a few sides and a lil train watching and switching, has a bit of everything i guess.

I am from Baraboo WI so the Barnum and bailey circus is in my veins and as a little kid, every day i seen the circus train.

One town over North Freedom has a RR museum and you can ride the old steams, in my mind how can you not love trains lol.

After double the size of my old layout this one seems small too, just never enough room for my imagination.

John”

And Lastly on to Wayne, who has been doing as much as he can before he goes on his road trip:

(His last post is here.)

“Sorry Alastair, this is as far I got with the plaster. I just wore out doing this much. I guess the rest will have to wait until I come home in Aug.

I placed the barn, house, and my big tree so you could kind of see what it will look like later on.

Keep up the good work with the postings, I will keep following it on my trip.

The old biker Wayne.”

A big thanks to Wayne, John, and Paul.

I do enjoy seeing a layout come to life. There’s something satisfying in seeing the choas of building, and then the calm of the finished article.

(I know, they are never really ‘finished’.)

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get going on your layout and join the fun, 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.