Model railroad layouts plans

Rob’s chosen model trains Colorado for the them of his new layout:

“Hi Al,

I still have all of my Farland Howe Layout but I have started a new one called the Colorado & North Western.

It has origins much closer to home and is N scale. I am going to model an area in and around Longmont, Colorado, USA.

It is intentionally very lightweight so I hope to take it to shows.

The layout comes apart into three sections held together by door hinges so it is easy to pull the pin and separate them.

There was a bean cannery here, a Gibson tractor factory, the local powerhouse for the city, and a cement plant that exists nearby. All of these require service from the railroad.

In the beginning, the Colorado and Southern laid tracks through and up into the mountains nearby. This lasted until 1910 or so when the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad bought them.

The C&S continued to operate the mountain schedules for some time after the purchase.

Eventually, in the early 1970’s the Burlington was merged with the Northern forming the Burlington Northern. Then of the BN merged with the Santa Fe Railroad and became the BNSF as we know it today which still serves the area. They have a wye and a small yard here with several trains to and from the cement plant nearby daily.

I am working on the North End of the layout now and starting with the limestone mines that feed the cement plant with raw materials.

Most of the buildings and structures that make up the cement plant are already in place on the layout but the scenery has not been started there.

The cement plant builds and structures are mostly scratch built but some were kits like the silos.

I wanted to layout to be situated in the early 1950s or very late 1940’s so I could run steam when I wanted to.

This is the Burlington era of early Electromotive Division Diesels and the stainless steel-bodied passenger coaches of the California Zephyr Train that came through Denver and over the Rocky Mountains going to San Francisco. This was an exciting time to me. I road this train in 1964 and 1965, but it was well past the heyday then and did not have the glamour of the earlier times.

The video shows me using rock molds to face the limestone mine I am building. I think your readers might enjoy the video.

Thank you for all you do for the model train modeling world.

Rob – Farland Howe”

Jeanne’s also been in touch with this sage advice:

“Tips for old folks. Build your platform tall enough so it doesn’t kill your back.

If wiring under the platform make sure you have clearance to get under there. Consider putting platform on casters so it can move out to work on all sides.

We are 85 and 70 and wish we had paid more attention in the beginning….15 years ago.

Had no clue we would love railroading so much…

Jeanne”

I do love all your advice and tips. Perhaps the advice I like best is simply this: your layout can be whatever you want it to be.

And Larry is a good example of this:

“I am very much enjoying your daily emails, photos, videos, and resources.

I haven’t ordered any of your printed buildings yet, and when you see my attached photos, you will understand that I really don’t have room for more items.

I was given my first 027 Lionel set when I was 4 years old. I am now 65, and I still have it and many more trains and accessories since then.

By the time I was 10, I developed a deep love of Matchbox diecast vehicles, and from that point on, I have accumulated a collection of over 800 pieces in that collection as well.

So, my life project has been combining my Matchbox collection with my 027, HO, and N guage train collection and blending items not in the same scale, all within a 10′ x 12′ “train room.”

Obviously my layouts are not large or particularly intricate (The main N guage layout is 4′ x 6′), and there is virtually no “constructed scenery,” unlike so many of your amazing scenery layouts.

But, I am very proud of my many layers of hobby in quite a small space, and I want to encourage those who aren’t very “artsy” in scenery construction or don’t feel they have much space.

Why such a small space? My sweet wife doesn’t like a crowded house, so I have a crowded train room/train cave, and we are both very happy.

Perhaps my collection will expand into other areas over time, now that we are retired, but I always smile when I am in my room. Nothing in the real world can touch me there, and it doesn’t get much better than that.

Keep spreading joy with you emails, and thank you!

Larry from Florida”

That’s all for today folks.

A big thanks to Hall of Fame member, Rob, for sharing his model trains Colorado theme, and to Larry too.

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

Mike has been busy on his wild west model train layout.

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

His two posts show in spades it’s all about making a start, and I really like how he’s created this scene:

“Hello Al:

As promised, here’s an update since my conversion from Lionel O gauge to Bachmann HO. I hope this email finds you and all the other HO enthusiasts safe and well.

I’m close to completing my “Hill Valley” area now that I populated it with some trees and shrubbery. Now I need to add the lamp posts, phone poles, mail boxes, and things to fully detail the location. That’s my next project.

Meanwhile, as I suggested previously, I built a street scene from an old movie location I remember visiting years ago called “Old Tucson” out in Arizona.

A return visit in 2001 lead to the discovery that my favorite landmarks (most of the site) had burned down in 1995.

It left me so depressed that I wrote a book about it. Anyway, the site survives in many films and with photos pulled from “Rio Bravo” and several other Westerns, I was able to reconstruct the Main Street for my layout.

I found it helpful to first visualize the buildings by blocking them out in wood. Unfortunately, that makes it difficult to light them from inside. I will strive to improve.

I can’t describe how much fun this is, and it’s a great diversion from the outside state and world events.

Also can’t thank you and your web site followers enough for the encouragement and inspiration provided by their postings and ideas.

I know I still have a lot of detail work to do, but I’m looking forward to it.

Cheers.

Mike
Michigan U.S.A.”

A big thanks to Mike – can’t wait to see the next update on his wild west model train.

His scene reminded me of the old wild west saloon in the print out scenery range too:

There are more pics on the saloon and one of John’s videos, at the bottom of this post here.

That’s all for today.

Please do keep ’em coming folks.

And if you feel like you’re missing out on the fun, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Gregory’s been in touch with his XtrkCad track layout:

He made his start here, if you want to get up to speed.

“Well I am happy to see the positive response from my project, so let’s keep going:

First of all, I ended up using XtrkCad for a number of reasons. It is very hard for me to understand the underlying principles of CAD. Somehow, I was able to understand XtrkCad. (I tried SCARM, Anytrack, 3rdPlanit, CadRail. Ugh. I almost gave up!)

XtrkCad let me do two things that the others could not.

Create curves with 7” radius in HO scale.

Remember, some of these tracks are running in urban streets and this is common for street running.

Secondly, it allowed me to create a custom turnout, to match the Richard Orr single point turnouts. This was the biggest issue for me.

Downside is that there is no 3D. But I will address that later.

So I started:

The right side is the Howard Street area and the elevation is 0”

The dark line in the middle is a two sided backdrop and the left side is the run to Waukegan and is at elevation 4”. So the backdrop will have tall flats on the Chicago side and shorter flats on the Waukegan side.

The High Speed line to Milwaukee will disappear under a viaduct and remain hidden.

On the Chicago side, the topmost track will disappear behind some industrial low relief buildings. (Actually, I have some from Al that should work out just fine.) I didn’t put any industrial switching in just yet.

Then reality started to rear its ugly head. On the right side, I have 10 tracks running parallel and only 4 feet to fit them in.

The easiest one to get rid of was the center track running through the station. So I removed that and put a double crossover on the Waukegan side. The siding behind the buildings at the top had to go too. They were the least useful in this plan.

All of those tight turns and switches in an inaccessible area under Waukegan had to go too. That would never be a reliable situation.

So I made it a simple loop that would run along the edges of the railroad. It gave me pretty much access to those tracks (and overhead wire).

This is the loop that the Electroliner would run on. I have a brass model from Nickle Plate.

There are a few others available, but none of them are real reliable runners. So simplicity wins out. And if I want to run in the other direction, I just have to
switch the trolley poles.

They were articulated trains (one truck supported the ends of two cars). They had a top speed of 110mph, but the highway crossing gates could not come down fast enough, so they were restricted to 90 mph.

The North Shore also had freight operations. So the Steeple cab locomotive will pick up cars from the Railroad interchange (right next to the 2 sided backdrop) and drop them off at the Merchandise
Dispatch warehouse (double track spur on the Chicago side) and to various industries north of the city.

I put in a few spurs, just to reserve the space. This will be refined later on.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Electroliners, here are some pictures.

They were articulated trains (one truck supported the ends of two cars). They had a top speed of 110 mph, but the highway crossing gates could not come down fast enough, so they were restricted to 90 mph.

The North Shore also had freight operations. So the Steeple cab locomotive will pick up cars from the Railroad interchange (right next to the 2 sided backdrop) and drop them off at the Merchandise Dispatch warehouse (double track spur on the Chicago side) and to various industries north of the city.

I put in a few spurs, just to reserve the space. This will be refined later on.

The interchange tracks curve a bit at the far end. I anticipate that they will go under a bridge or something and butt up against a mirror.

This should create the image that they continue to go on, past the edge of the table. The mirror has to be set at an angle, so the viewer won’t see himself/herself when looking at it.

That’s it for today. There are still a lot of adjustments to be made.

Gregory”

And now on to Mike, who has also made a start:

“Hi Al….Started this year…Hollow core door and will have a 4ft extension off the back left…

Mike”

Mike’s made a great start. And it doesn’t matter how small your start is – just make one. That’s how the fun begins.

A big thanks to Mike and to Gregory for sharing his XtrkCad track layout. I think he’s enjoying the planning just as much as the doing.

Please do leave a comment below if think there’s anything that may help Gregory.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

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

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here. Still going strong and goes mad this time of year.