Model railroad layouts plans

Richard’s been in touch with this wonderfully documented HO layout build:

“Hi Al,

Richard here from Tuttle, Oklahoma…

This is actually my 3rd HO scale layout, it consists of Peco Code 100 turnouts and flex track, set later than the transition era.

All buildings are kits that I weathered and assembled.

The scenery is 1inch foam boards covered with plaster cloth and painted… the favorite part of the layout is the drainage area from the mill pond.

The dam is a piece of 3/4” board with 3 holes drilled into and plastic straws inserted for the culverts.

The cascading water is cellophane tape painted with artist medium… then painted and detailed…

As far as rolling stock, it’s a conglomeration of eBay, local train shop, and wherever… lol

Anyway, here’s a few pictures… hope you’ll find it interesting….

Construction began with 2×3 legs with a 1×4 L girder design with a 6 x 6 foot table size. Then topped with a 3/8″ plywood covering and 1inch foam board.

As you can see, layout of building cutouts were used to help align track and building layout. Now the cork roadbed was laid. Track was beginning to be laid starting with the turnouts.

This next series of pics shows the buildings purchased… and the excavation of the dam and drainage area for the sawmill… the pond will later hold the logs that are unloaded from the railcars and will be recessed as if “floating” … as you will see in future pics.

Track has been laid using “spikes” only and then the foam board painted green for any missed plantings.

Mountains are being built using 1″ foam board in layers by just using my imagination and random breaking and stacking. You see how the tunnel portal looks as if it’s built into the mountain….

More mountain construction… plaster cloth over the foam board… once dried, painted with a thinned plaster paris mixture… the tunnel really looks good in its new home

Now the best part of the build… the mill pond drainage area… as you can see the original creek was fairly deep so a dam was constructed along the rail line to utilize unloading of the logs…

Mill pond drainage

Mill pond drainage area finally completed

On to the mill pond and sawmill…. started with excavating the foam from the mill pond area… poured in a thinned mixture of plaster paris and while still wet pushed in the logs to appear submerged and then once dried, painted the water a dingy green to simulate dirty mill pond water.

Then applied a gloss artist medium to give it a sheen appearance. The sign on the sawmill was printed on my printer and weathered. Trees have been added and many, many bundles of lumber stacks that had to be assembled.

The lumber shed is a rail load out point along with truck loading. The tunnel portal shows signs of the older steam engines smoke stacks, which on occasion a steam powered climax makes an appearance.

An overall view of the raw material side and the production and retail industry side separated by a backdrop

Well…. there’s the ole girl…. Steam powered climax and diesel powered F7

Well, Al…that pretty much sums it up… by the way… a new larger layout is in the planning stage…

Thank you for allowing me to share this endeavor… of just under 2 years in the making.

Richard of Oklahoma”

A huge thanks to Richard for sharing his HO layout build – what a layout and so well documented too.

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Please do leave a comment below if you’d like to.

That’s all this time. 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

Ray’s been in touch with his DCC N Scale:

“Hi Al,

Like so many, I have enjoyed your blog very much and have used so many tips and tricks from your readers.

It has been a while since I have sent you something to share, primarily since I am in the process of reconstructing 3/4 of my layout.

When I first took up the hobby 6 years ago I started with a 4 by 8 foot piece of plywood and had a blast building a N scale layout.

About two years ago, I also upgraded to DCC N scale which was a total game changer for me. I would add on to the layout piecemeal as time went on until the layout took up my entire basement.

The problem was my benchwork was a mess, because my carpentry skill is so poor and the benchwork never totally matched up.

So I decided to take down the entire section that you will see in this video and start all over.

I made sure the bench work was consistent and covered most of it with 3/4 in foam board.

I relaid all the track and made sure everything ran smoothly before I started the scenery. I then recreated all of the scenery, taking my time, making sure I captured the look that I wanted.

Again, a great deal of the tips and techniques I used came from your blog.

I have been doing this “rebuild” for approximately 4 months and have really enjoyed the process.

Since I retired a year ago, this project has helped me stay busy.

I will keep you updated as I finish the project (if we ever really finish).

Thank you for providing such a great service to us modelers.

Best,

Ray

Massachusetts”

Ray’s reminded me of Yale’s layout: N scale DCC.

Now on to Don:

“Hello Mr Lee,

I will introduce myself as an old fool, when you see my plan you probably will suggest the adjectives are inadequate.

I was married in the late 1950 s and acquired a few locomotives since then but never completed a layout..

Recently I had an opportunity to purchase a portable 5 by 20 foot DCC layout.

It was built on a 5 by 12 foot trailer with storage for an 8 foot extension. The trailer had a removable frame supported tarpaulin for highway travel.

Two men could assemble and disassemble it in about 20 minutes. An old guy alone much much longer !

I am in the beginning of making it into a rigid one piece structure with castors at each end so I can move it around at will. This will give me a 5 by 16 and 5 by 20 foot storage areas that I could use for additional fair weather divisions.

I have included a snapshot of current condition

If you feel your readers would be interested I would provide followup.

Donald”

Next, Ernesto has been in touch.

There’s bit of a langauge barrier, but like others, his pics do all the talking:

“I gladly share some photos of my model

Ernesto”

A big thanks to Ernesto, Donald and Ray for sharing his DCC N scale.

Donald – yes we’d love to see more of your layout!

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day join in the fun, 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.

Gary’s been in touch with a fab way of making model train grass.

“About 4 years ago I started making my own ground foam. Found that the process was very simple and inexpensive to to do.

I use it for making my trees, bushes and grass on my layout. Most of the tools needed I was able to buy used.

I picked up my food blender at a yard sale. Got my cookies sheets at Goodwill. I did purchase my Magic Bullet eBay new.

I found a local upholstery shop a bought a large garage bag of seat cushion foam for $20.00.

I have also used, used foam that I found from chairs and couches people had put out for trash. Although I recommend inspecting them before you use them for pet or food stains.

I mix up a batch of stain in a clean 5 gallon bucket. I have used latex paint, and Rit Dye. But I have found the best thing is a product called “Tints All” (which I purchased on EBay)

It’s available in a variety of colors. And I have found adding a little latex paint helpful for changing the color.

Then I take the ground foam and cut it into small pieces. Usually about 1” x 1” squares.

Then I put them into the blender. Filling it up about 1/2 full. I then add about 1 1/2 cups of water to start and turn the blender on high for about 10 minutes.

I sometimes remove the little cap on the lid to add more water if I notice that the water has soaked into the foam so much that it’s blending up well.

After the foam is blended good I drain the water off of it and then remove it from the blender by hand squeezing it in my hand to remove as much water as possible.

I then dump it into my 5 gallon bucket with the dye in it. I usually put 5 to 10 blender into the bucket before continuing on.

Once I have enough I then stir it really well and let set in the bucket for 2 to 3 hours. I have just left it in the bucket over night.

I then start removing it from the stained foam from the bucket with latex gloves. I wringing the excess dye out back into the bucket.

I then place the foam on cookie sheets that I had already prepared with layers of paper towels on them. And leave the out overnight to dry. I have also put them out side in the sun. But, you need to make sure it not going to be windy. Because as the foam drys out it becomes lite enough that it can blow of the cookie trays.

It’s not just for model train grass – this size will work great for using them for bushes and trees.

For bushes I set some to the side and put them in a smaller bucket and add some Elmers glue and mix throughly. When that drys, you end up with a product very similar to Clumped Foliage from Woodland Scenics. Which you can easily tear apart as needed.

For Fine Foliage I put some of the dried foam into the magic bullet. It grinds it up and makes great Fine Foliage

I then put it in old Parmesan cheese containers. Which work great for storage and applying it.

I also use ziplock bags to store the clumped and coarse in.

Trees in the cow pasture picture are from Menards and not ones I made.

Always enjoy your emails. This is such a fun Hobby. Just glad a can share a little knowledge with others. And hopefully some will enjoy it and find it useful.

Gary
Sellersburg Indiana”

A big thanks to Gary – what a wonderful ‘how to’ on making model train grass. Cheap and very effective.

John also has a very good techique to add grass to a layout.

There are these posts too which are helpful when it comes to grass:

Static grass.

Static grass applicator.

HO scale bushes.

Add grass to layout? John shows us how

Model train grass.

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