Model railroad layouts plans

Bob shows us how he makes his excellent grass cover for his HO scale layout:

“I wanted to put some tall grass on my layout so I started out using paintbrush bristles, and created some muddy water.

It turned out pretty well, but I really wanted to create the grass that grows around the wetlands in NY and NJ. I never knew the name; but a nursery owner told me it was Pampas grass. The photo is a stock photo to show the real stuff. The wild variety is somewhat taller and browner.

I tried to add a spot of glue to the existing grass and drop some ground cover on it. The result was disastrous. The bristles couldn’t hold the weight and fell over. Not to be deterred, I thought about what I could use for stronger grass. My straw garage broom came to mind and I promptly gave it a haircut.

The materials needed were the broom bristles, some carpenter’s glue, and ground cover.

I drilled some 1/8 holes in the board and proceeded to dip a straw in the glue, dip it in the ground cover and turn it over a get a small amount of glue on the bottom and insert it in a hole.

Note: If you’re inclined to do this, do it before you lay down any ground cover. The reason that you see a drill bit sticking up is because when the drill was pulled out, the ground cover tended to shrink back and cover the hole. This made the job very tedious.

I was happy with the interim outcome but not the time spent. It took me 1 ½ hours to complete this section.

Since I had about another foot to go I wasn’t eager to do the job.

I came up with a solution that I think worked very well. I took a block of scrap wood and used my drill press to drill some pilot holes.

Then I tacked in 1 ¼” nails into the block creating a puch with randomly placed nails.

Then I cut a strip of cardboard to fit between the two roadbeds and to the length that I needed. I then proceeded to punch out the cardboard.

I then started the original process of dipping in glue and ground cover. I used needle nose pliers to guide the straw into the holes. When I was satisfied with the amount of grass I used some ¾ inch screws to fasten the cardboard over the exiting groundcover.

I then used scenic cement spray to create a base for more ground cover. I sprinkled in the soil and grass. Then I hit it with more spray followed by some realistic water.

I let everything set for 24 hours and then applied thick mud and more water.

I am going to add more mud and water before I call it a wrap. Here’s the outcome.

Bob”

A big thanks to Bob – he’s come up with a really nice effect there for his grass cover.

Whenever it comes to grass on a layout, I’m always reminded of John’s How to add grass to your model railroad post.

Now on to Hall of Fame member, Dangerous Dave.

After Mike sent in his woes on track cleaning (which is at the bottom of this post), Dave has put this video together:

“Hi Al..After reading the comments from Mike’s post with the problems of dirty tracks and wheels, I thought it was time to show a video with a few ways of keeping tracks and wheels clean.

I hope this shows how important it is to keep the tracks clean, and done on a regular basis , for smooth running.

Regards

Dave”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here (still going strong).

That’s all for today folks. A big thanks to Dave and Bob.

Please do keep ’em coming.

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

Remember, it’s the start that stops most people…

Best

Al

Starting with a very short update from Gary today, who is doing a fine job of adding to the Model train yard layouts on the blog:

(If you want to see Gary’s last post, it’s here.)

“I am still working on the scenery for the Commissary Yard of my Sunnyside layout.

I like the pathways and the roads and the fences and will try to incorporate them into the scenes that I have built into the yard. It has taken me a long time to work on the Commissary Yard.

I am not very good at scenery, but I have sent you some pictures to show you my progress. I am working on a parking lot construction scene and when completed, I will send you some more close up pictures of the scenes in the Commissary yard.

As always, thank you. Stay safe and stay healthy during these times.

Sincerely,

Gary”

Next, on to Mike, who has some very sobering advice:

“I don’t expect this will be published, but I have to write it.

March 2015 a friend showed me his layout and trains moving and it caught my interest. I jumped in with both feet as we say.

I began laying track after selecting a DCC system and modeled my layout after a very busy HO layout (mine is N). It took a lot of work with 19 turnouts on 6.5 X 3.5 foot 2 inch foam. So much so that I literally became a MODEL railroader rather than a model RAILROADER. I only ran my first loco after 3-4 months of track laying and decorating.

Then it happened, I put together a 5 car train and ran it a few times around the perimeter of my complex switch yard. Shortly, after only a very few minutes of run time my loco began hesitating all around the track. I conferred with a friend and he asked when I had cleaned the track. WHAT? I knew nothing about cleaning track. HAD I KNOWN,THE ANGUISH OF TRACK CLEANING, I NEVER WOULD HAVE BOUGHT THAT FIRST ITEM.

I was not deterred and added a second table extending my layout. Long story short, I bought every track cleaning devices, yes the $179. brass car only to find limited success. I finally realized just a few weeks ago that I had not “ran trains” often enough to help with the track staying clean. Reason being is noted in the next paragraph.

In the final analysis I probably have “ran trains” less than a total of 2 hours in the past 5 years while I spent thousands of hours building a 5 by 16 N Scale layout with 3 levels of elevation, adding 2 crossovers (which always served to derail a Loco, much less a train car) and an additional 10 turnouts. I actually NEVER ran a train of rolling stock on my new addition. Just a lone loco to test and continue to test the track and finding trouble spots, which I never solved entirely.

Therefore I am selling out all my rolling stock, locos, salvaged track and tools. I will replace this hobby with a stained glass shop and a Drone.

Thanks for listening.

Mike in Southern Indiana, USA”

Thanks to Mike for sharing his pain – and I’d love to hear your comments, please do post below!

Lastly, this came in from Hall of fame member, Dave: a video of him running his trains….

“Hi Al,

just a short video… doing as it say it the title…running a few trains.

Well what can be better?

Regards

Dave”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

A big thanks to Gary for sharing his update on the Model train yard layouts.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

Please don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide, if today is the day when you get off the starting blocks and get going on your own fab layout.

Best

Al

John’s very kindly been back in touch – he’s shared this kit build for his HO scale mine layout:

(If you missed his last post, you can catch up here.)

This time he talks us through his excellent mine:

“Several recent articles have discussed the building of kit buildings, and scratch building. There’s another option I use for most of my industrial facilities, and that’s kit-bashing.

It’s fun to imagine the end result, and fit something into a logical group of added walls and buildings.

The first pictures are a couple of good, medium sized industries, only slightly related, the Walthers New River Mine, and the Glacier Gravel kits. One good point was that both had corrugated siding for some of their buildings, the gravel pit also had some conveyors that went well with moving coal around.

In order to aid in moving the module, and to assure the tracks that run under would not be prone to derailments, I decided to build them on a solid plywood base.

As this and all my models moved along, I started asking questions, like would they need a powerhouse? A source of compressed air and steam? Why would they run these inside an industrial building? Would they need light? Maybe skylights? Would there be walkways to connect the roofs of the buildings? How about electrical power?

The answers to these questions then became the “add-ons” to the base building. I also found the clearance height of the gravel pit tracks was less than the coal mine, so those parts of the building were raised and while I was at it decided to raise the clearance for the tracks for the coal mine.

I also re-arranged the various out-buildings, and connected them with walkways, pipes and ladders.

To explain my arrows, pipes and air lines are made from the sprues that the pieces of model kits come on. After a few kits there are plenty left and they are different sizes. I bend them by heating over a soldering pencil, flanges and valves are styrene discs cut out by a paper punch.

The transformer was an old pill bottle, and wiring is thick thread, painted for stiffness once glued to the insulators.

When I think the model is done, I paint it to look like it was built in the Jurassic period…OK, maybe not quite that old, but 30, 40 years old. Coal mining is a tough, dirty, and normally short-lived industry, as the mines play out on a few years, so building maintenance is not a top priority. I always add lots of “rust” to the sides.

Many fine modelers use airbrush to paint and weather, I use artist brush’s, dry brush, and acrylics. I have used chalk powder but find it’s hard to get the look I want, and spraying to set the powder often changes what I thought I had.

These are the box front pictures of the 2 model kits to be “bashed”:

Picture below is the combined kits before painting

I suggest to all our modeling friends, try kit-bashing. It’s fun, and opens up many possibilities that solve clearance and other problems, like, what can I do with that corner? I know, build a triangle shaped building by kit bashing some side walls of a barn!

Take care and as always keep modeling!

John from Baltimore”

A huge thanks to John for sharing his kit build, or is it kit bash? It’s fab to read his thought process – no wonder his layout looks so good.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you want to stop dreaming and start doing, just like John did, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Remember, it’s the start that stops most people.

Best

Al

PS Don’t forget thelatest ebay cheat sheet is here. Still updated daily.