Model railroad layouts plans

Hall of Fame member Rob has been back in touch – have a look at how he does his N scale wiring:

“Hi Al,

I know most people will remember me by my Farland Howe layout which is a British-themed layout.

There are two versions of this layout, but I have also been working on an N scale layout loosely based on the area where I live.

The track through here was originally laid down by the Colorado & Southern (C&S) which then passed to the Chicago Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q). It is now Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF). Longmont has an interesting history with the railroad. It was an agricultural town but surrounded by mining towns.

Industries here that were or are served by the railroads are the Kuner Empson Cannery, the Gibson Tractor plant, the Western Sugar beet factory, and the nearby cement plant, Cemex. I did not include the sugar plant on the layout, there just was not room enough. Maybe someday.

I scratch-built the cannery, cement, and tractor plants but bought kits for the rest like stores and houses plus the power plant.

I also wanted this layout to be lightweight, so I used poplar for the framing and extruded insulation foam for the boards on top. I then covered the foam with a layer of 5/16″ cork. The track went directly onto the cork.

I also tried using wireway as is used in industrial control cabinets to contain the bundles of wires needed. That has worked pretty well although nothing is perfect to control the 1,000’s of wires needed for track power, turnout control, and LED lighting on a complex layout like this.

It is made up of three sections 48 inches wide by 40 inches long. The sections are held together by heavy door hinges. I can pull the pins and separate the layout into three sections.

Each section has its own lighting power supply, but control and track power are distributed to the various sections by multi-conductor plugs and sockets.

The turnout control board is also electrically connected to the center section by the same type of multi-conductor connectors.

I mostly run trains pulled by CB&Q locomotives, but I also have an EMD A & B set of Western Pacific power units plus an Alco PA and PB set of Rio Grande Western power units. Besides the foreign power, I have two CB&Q switchers and two GP30s, and naturally a few steam engines as well.

Thank you for all you do Al, we all really appreciate your blog and kits.

Rob”

A huge thanks to Rob – he’s done a fantastic job on his N scale.

Seeing the wiring under the tables makes it look like a daunting project, but as we all find out, it doesn’t matter whether it’s N scaling wiring, HO scale wiring, or whatever, it’s just step by step.

Hope you enjoyed it as much as me.

If you’re interested, I have started putting together a page of N scale layouts.

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 More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.

Peter’s been back in touch with an update on his HO scale farm scene :

“Hi Al,

Working on the On3 portion of my layout.

Still track work to be done running behind the buildings. More trees to add & grass tufts.

Peter”

Pete’s layout reminded me of Brian’s farm scene: HO scale town and farm.

And now to Brian who has sent in this wonderful cab ride video:

“Here’s a video to show all the sceptics that I do actually have a layout that runs trains.

😂😎😂

Hee hee, my sense of humour.

All the best

Kind regards

Brian”

Lastly, on to Peter:

“Good Morning Alastair,

A short update on my previous submissions.

I had built a diorama based on Don Breckon’s wonderful painting “Riverside Local”.

After part 3, I declared it finished until I install it in my eventual OO layout.

After putting it on a shelf, however, I realized that it looked too unfinished, so I went ahead and completed the river.”

I first had to build the far bank and then I poured 4 layers of Woodland Scenics Realistic water.

This gave a fairly good representation of the water and coloring in the painting.

Tony”

Tony was also kind enough to send in this garden railway too.

You can see all his posts here. It’s fantastic to see a layout come to life like this.

A big thanks to Peter for his HO scale farm update, and to Tony and Brian.

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

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Dick’s been in touch again – his N scale Union Station model railroad is really taking shape:

If you missed his last missive, it’s here.

Or if you want to see a lot more of what he’s been up to, have a look at this one.

“Hi Al:

Since last week I have done more work to the Union Station area in Chicago on the N scale California Zephyr Route.

Always so much more to do, I took these pictures this afternoon.

Street level above the tracks is beginning to take shape. The removeable box against the backdrop represents Union station.

It conveniently hides an outlet.

I staged a few vehicles in the area and to my surprise, I am needing a lot of automobiles.

Anyway “It’s a beautiful day in Chicago”.

So hopefully you can use these to show the progress over the past week or so.

Have a great week.

Dick Chapple Sr

Hardin Montana USA”

Now on to Sandy, who has been very creative:

“Alistair,

I really enjoy seeing what other folks have done and the tips.

I am getting back into N scale after 12 years (had a room size setup in Tucson AZ). Now I am limited to 4×8 feet.

I wanted a power substation, but could not find exactly what I wanted at an affordable price. So I made these.

Just balsa wood glued to lead refill pack lids using staples as radiators and pencil erasers as capacitors.

The fans on the end are sliced pieces of pencil eraser.

The insulators are wire nuts with pieces from my parts box.

The A tower is plastruc with toothpick ends as insulators.

I got the idea from seeing some of the projects you list.

Thanks,

Sandy”

A big thanks to Sandy and to Dick for sharing his Union station model railroad – can’t wait to see the next missive.

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

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.