Model railroad layouts plans

John’s been back in touch with how he solved his crossover problem. Wiring, and clambering around underneath a table is a lot more troublesome as you clock up the years. John has come up with a smart fix though.

(If you want to get up to speed, his last post is here.)

“Good morning (here anyway) Alistair,

The crossover project-

When I first built a model railroad as an adult some 30 years ago, I thought sitting on the floor under the bench-work wiring was fun, kind of a Zen sort of connection to the underworld part of the layout, wiring the roots of that world and all.

Now in my 70’s, the “cosmic roots Zen thing” has left the building, and I’m looking for easier ways to do the “underworld” work, like sitting on a stool in my shop, or on a chair beside the layout.

Only occasional trips to the underground West Virginia Energy Railroad scenery for wire runs back to the control panel, which I normally bribe my grandson to do.

So that’s the back story, and here’s the result.

I installed a neat double-crossover some time ago, and operated it by hand while I worked out all the trackwork details and scenery.

It was time to install 4 switch motors and sync them to operate together. I decided that the crossover would operate in 2 states, either both tracks set to go straight through, or both set to crossover. My signals would be display hi-green for straight through, and medium approach for crossover.

I decided since there was a lot of wiring, and physical mounting of my home-made switch motors, (which were discussed in a previous post) and all the trimming and adjusting the operating rods for the motors to throw the points consistently, it would be easier done on my workbench than over my head from under the layout.

By the way, I purchased from a great company located over in the UK, BLOCK Signalling blocksignalling a servo control board to control the crossover.

I have several circuit boards from them, a reversing loop controller, a points indicator board for snap-type switch machines, and other signal controllers. This company is helpful, has a lot of clever stuff, is quick sending out product, and a good value for the money.

With saber-saw in hand I cut out the crossover. It was an earthquake for cars on the layout, but the buildings came through OK. Anyway, I mounted the section of plywood with the crossover on a wooden box so I could easily get to both sides, then wired up everything, mounted the switch motors, and tested everything a few dozen times.

I decided to use the micro-switches on the switch machines to control the LED green signals.

The red LED’s stay lit all the time as is the policy on some rail systems, this is to assure the signal is working, and is ignored if another signal aspect is lighted, a dark signal is assumed to be out broken, and is taken as a “stop” indication.

I wired in a 12v to 2.5v power supply to run the signal LED’s separate from the servo controller. With everything wired and dressed up it was back to the layout with everything already to go.

I attached a few cleats to assist in replacing the section with the crossover back into the layout. I also previously had the kid run the wiring from the control panel to the location of the crossover so it could be connected before setting the crossover back in the hole in the scenery.

Sitting comfortable on a chair, I made all the track connections and painted the scenery where I had replaced the crossover. Re-connecting the tracks was easily done at the comfortable level of the bench-work, and the trains run better than they did before all the destruction.

I found a great product for scenery repairs, Durham’s rock hard water putty it’s easy to mix in small batches, sets up in 15 minutes, can be easily carved soft for another 15 minutes, then like hard plaster after that, it takes paint well and doesn’t shrink much. In the pictures it shows as yellow.

Enjoy,

John from Baltimore”

A big thanks to John – it’s wonderful to see how all tackle your issues and come up with so many solutions.

I think that’s one of the fun parts of this hobby, there are a million and one different ways of solving a problem.

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.

Bill’s been back in touch with his N scale backdrop:

“Al

As always I continue to look forward to your posts each morning and seeing what wonderful creations peers make and send in.

I’ve taken some days off and put together a backdrop for part of the n scale layout.

With my layouts being portable I wanted to make sure that a backdrop was portable and removable as well. So with that in mind what follows is how I made mine.

I started with getting a full 4×8 sheet of foam board that was 1 inch thick. I figured I could get a backdrop that was 16 inches tall from that and also make a 1 inch filler piece to give me a little depth to work in scenery. I also bought 2 trim strips that were 1/4 x 3 x 8 that I would use as a clamping surface.

On the layout I added a small ledge that stuck out roughly 1/2 inch and was about three feet long for the backdrop to rest on.

I cut one piece of foam board to about 8 inches wide and then traced the outline of the layout scenery on that and cut to shape. This I glued on the full 16 inch foam board with foam board adhesive. Next I drilled thru the trim pieces snd foam board and added in flat head 1/4 inch bolts and wing nuts to hold it all together.

This gave me an excuse to buy some additional clamps so I bought 4 inch capacity ratcheting clamps. Three of these are used to hold the backdrop in place once on the ledge.

Next I painted the backdrop blue and a dark green where scenery would be added. I used latex paint. Any oil based paints will give you a melting disaster.

Once the paint was dry I put it in the layout snd took some pictures so I could visualize what I wanted to paint on the backdrop while I had it at the work counter.

Next I took a few colors of brown, white, gray, and a couple of shades of green and painted out the background I wanted. Once dry I took polyfiber and added it to close the gap on the backdrop and layout. To this I added various sizes of ground foam to build up layers and make an underbrush look.

Trees were made and planted as well. Next I painted white glue on the back drop and used ground foam to give the backdrop a 3D feel behind the real 3D scale trees.

I also have added in continuations of the roads and stream on that side of the layout. While I still have more to do like adding in some building flares and some painting behind the stream and the city piece of the backdrop I’m satisfied with the results so far.

It’s been a fun little project snd makes a huge difference when watching the trains run. I’ll make another for the n scale backdrop and will do the same on the HO scale layout as well. Always fun things to do and try in model railroading

Attached is a link to a video showing how I painted and gave a 3D feel to the backdrop.

Take care!

Best

Bill in Virginia”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

A huge thanks to Bill for sharing his N scale backdrop I do love his stuff – which is exactly why he’s in the Hall of Fame.

It reminds me of Heinrich’s painting a model railroad backdrop post.

And there’s Fred’s painting clouds on a backdrop too.

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.

PPS More N scale layouts here if that’s your thing.

Alan’s been in touch with some model train fun that had me smiling.

In yesterday’s post (which you can see here) we touched on the importance of having fun with your layout, whatever that may be.

Some like scenery. Some like running trains. And some like both.

But as long as you’re having fun, that’s all that matters.

And Alan shows this in spades:

“Hi Al enclosed pictures of my newly erected elevated Kato with the cheap Kato unit in dark green ascending and descending.

As you can see a mix of all sorts all mixed up but as Dangerous Dave commented, as long as you enjoy it forget the purists.

Also I have just built my local Leeds United ground in Lego – 4000 pieces and because planning permission from my wife has been declined it will be in the loft with the Kato layout.

Hope you can display

Alan in uk”

Alan’s lego stadium really did make me smile.

If you have any thoughts on having fun, and ignoring the purists, I’d love to hear them – please do post a comment below.

Everbody is different when it comes to enjoyment. I know some of you don’t concern yourselves with any scenery at all, and are perfectly content just running trains.

Other just throw themselves into the scnenery side of things, and effectively create large dioramas.

But do you know what? Both are fine. Both are fun. It’s your layout, do as you please…

Personally, I’m all for some model train fun whatever that may be.

That’s all for today, folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

It’s become very thin on the ground all of a sudden this end.

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

I know I keep saying it, but it’s the start that stops most people.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.