Model railroad layouts plans

John’s been in touch with his small shelf layout:

“As you know, I normally build small layouts… Easily portable and inexpensive.

I also like little challenges as I love to build things.

Recently one of my little layouts took on a whole new meaning for me.

First, a bit of philosophy.

In life we often take many things for granted. We believe that the sun will rise tomorrow morning and we will be there to see it. We believe those we love will always be with us. We get caught up in life and we too often take both the mundane and the special for granted. We just believe it will always be there.

One day it all changes: It can change in a moment, in a twinkling of the eye. One minute what we always believed would be there is suddenly gone.

Labor Day, 2017. My wife, my daughter, and myself went to a beloved family vacation spot; Silver Lake, California. On that trip I took a little box with one of your print out kits. I wanted something to do when the family was resting… I like to keep busy.

I also wanted to show what is possible when one “does not have time” or “does not have room”. When I came back, I sent pictures and you posted the model.

When we took the trip where I built that little yellow shed, I had know Idea that would be our last family trip to that beloved location. Christy and I took one more trip for our anniversary in October but it was obvious that her lungs were failing and we would not return.

Around November, David Pye, a Facebook friend, made a “dare” on the Micro and Small model Railroads page he administrates. His “dare” was to grab some spare track (we all have some) and build a very simple, one switch, layout. This was a design the late Carl Arndt called a “Tuning Fork”. One set of points, two spurs, a shunting lead. 2/2/3.

I love to build things (it is my “drug of choice”. I build to relax and to take my mind off stressful things. I build to exercise my mind. I was looking for something to do and “Dave’s Dare” was just the thing. I grabbed some spare Bachmann EZ track and “Pye’s Point” was born… Yes, I like playing with words too. Most of my layouts have some little pun worked into them…

You also featured this… It is On30 — O scale narrow gauge running on HO gauge track.

How a little layout becomes something bigger, much bigger.

Of course my small shelf layout needed some scenery and the little shed I had built on that Labor Day trip was just the thing to fit in one corner by a road crossing.

Yes, this all has a point…

In January, I had surgery for an umbilical hernia…My mother’s heath was beginning to fail.

I know this story is depressing but it has a point, a very important point.

My son is in the Army reserves as a medic. He was also my mother’s primary caretaker for most of 2017 and all of 2018. In June he had to do his two weeks annual training. While he was to be gone, my sister and I would be in New Mexico to take care of my mother.

Again I brought my little modeling box with me… No kit but a lot of ideas and scratchbuilding materials. Again, to relieve stress, I build.

My mother was failing and she passed just a little over a week after I arrived to help take care of her. During that week I built several buildings for Pye’s Point.

When I returned from New Mexico, the structures were placed on Pye’s Point. Scenery was finished and it was made “Presentable”.

This is how it sat from June to the present.

Noting special, I took it for granted.

Christy (my wife) passed in January.

I purchased the home I will retire to in August and began a slow moving process.

This month I decided to build a simple “Roundy Round” to pass the time and again relieve stress.

My first plan was to duplicate a previous layout… But the track that I was going to use is already 400 miles away from my Southern California home.

I decided to build another On30 layout in a 3.5 foot by 6 foot space… — And use some structures I had already made.

At the time, I was also breaking up a couple of old small shelf layouts and salvaging them for their structures.. Less stuff to move that way. “Pye’s Point” was slated to be just one more layout to be junked and the buildings recycled to the new layout. Then in one moment, in a twinkling of time, everything changed.

As I got ready to pull down the layout I saw that little yellow shed… and then the other structures… Pye’s Point became a “Memory Box”, a repository of some very special memories.

I now intend to improve the presentation box to make it suitable for a special place in my new home. It will reside in my study with two other special layouts that hold different memories.

The Yellow Shed by the Crossing is a reminder of my list “happy” family trip…

The buildings on the right hand side (the “business end”) of the layout remind me of my last moments with my mother…

What fools we mortals can be. We can be foolish in the things we take for granted and equally foolish in how we choose to keep our sentimental tokens.

John”

After I read John’s post, it did make me think of just how many of your posts include fond memories from many years ago.

John’s right. This hobby absorbs memories without us knowing. And it’s beautiful when they return.

That’s all for today folks.

A big thanks to John for sharing his small shelf layout.

Please do keep ’em coming, and if you want to take the plunge and start your layout and memories, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Please do leave a comment below if you’ve got a memory you’d like to share.

Ken’s been back in touch with his O gauge train turntable:

If you want to get up to speed, his last post is at the bottom of this one.

“Following on from my scratch built 0 gauge turntable I sent you previously.

I had some additional space so put in a water tower with puddles and scratch built a gantry.

The support beam is coffee stirrers, my wife contributed a broken chain necklace which leaving the hook clasp on made a good lifting chain.

I dug into the fibre board base to make an inspection pit brick lined with plasticard and added a work shop.

I scratch built flood lights, added figures and some old sets of carriage wheels to finish the scene off.

Across the bridge and opposite is a goods yard where a wood delivery load is being lifted onto a waiting lorry.

Further along, the fish van is unloading, the two wagons there are the only ones I have seen with sliding doors and are manufactured by Faller.

I bought them very cheaply on eBay and only had to convert them to 3 link chain connectors and change their colour from a very garish yellow and brown to grey!

I am thinking about adding a canal in front of the goods shed but that will be another day!

Thanks for looking

Ken”

Now on to Gary:

“I model in HO. I recently moved and had to tear my layout down and have not started my new one yet. I have big plans for 15 by 19 foot layout.

But last year I helped a friend of mine who is one of my suppliers I buy glass from (I’m in the mirror business) build a O gauge shelf layout that goes around through his business.

He was able to make the tempered glass shelving to put a layout on himself, using GarGraves track because of the realistic wood ties.

The layout runs through three offices a conference room and across a 67 foot hallway where are used three older Lionel bridges.

I painted them with rust oleum rust be gone. Then spray painted them black and weathered them.

Although these probably are not Proto typically real. I made flat carloads with sheets of glass from styrene. Thought I would share some pictures.

When I start on my new layout I was try to share some pictures with you then of it as I build it.

Gary”

And lastly on to Dave:

“Hi Al, just a short one, latest challenge doing the rounds.

How many trucks or coaches you can pull round the layout then reverse round and see if they all keep on the track without derailing.

I managed 14 coaches, I could pull a lot more, but to reverse anything over 14 I had problems

Regards

Dave”

That’s all for today folks.

A big thanks to Ken for sharing his O gauge train turntable, and to Gary and Dave.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if this post – or any of the others – has made you think you’re missing out on a lot of fun, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

Nick’s been in touch with a simple model train layout that looks fab:

“Hi Alastair

I re-inherited the Hornby rolling stock and tracks I bought for my son 25 years ago, after he moved.

During lockdown, I decided, as you keep exhorting people, to just get started.

My layout is fairly simple compared to some of the amazing creations that you showcase, but it was at the level of my limited ability, and I was able to get it completed in about one month – my wife even helped with the hillside painting!

I utilized your printable buildings for the cul-de-sac.

I’m very much enjoying running the trains as a way to pass some time in these cold Canadian winters.

Keep up the great work.

Best regards

Nick”

I think Nick’s layout is superb, simply because I’m very, very biased – he made a start and his houses are fantastic (they are from the printable buildings).

Now on to Mike, whose last post is here.

“My friend Al:

Greetings again from Michigan.

I’ve recently completed another building for my Western town based on a setting from “Rio Bravo.”

Using etched foam for adobe and printed images for other facades, if you look closely, Ricky Nelson is in the window ready for action.

Then an attempt to get a Delorean up to 88 miles per hour.

However, I’ve finally settled on a theme for my extensive layout, a Railroad Fun Park called “Gracieland” named for my daughter.

The plan is to create various settings reflecting the use as a people visited theme park where railroad trains cart one around to explore the scenes.

My latest attempt at scratch building is chain-link fencing to keep patrons from wandering on to the tracks.

I know it’s not an original idea, I’m not even sure where I got the idea, but cutting strips of window screen material at a 45 degree angle fairly replicates the look of such a fence.

Using painted dowels as posts placed in a jig I constructed, the fencing can be glued to the posts.

I lay them out to dry on wax paper before trimming the posts and adding the horizontal bars.

End result is crude but looks pretty convincing. I’m continuing to improve the process.

None of this would have been possible without consultation provided by your web site. Many thanks again. I strive to improve.

Cheers,

Mike
Grand Rapids, MI USA”

Now on to Paul, who just goes to show a little thought can sort most problems in this hobby.

“Hi Al,

I am sending you 2 photos of my SW7 switcher which has been causing me trouble because it was so light.

Most of the time, it had difficulty going over switches that didn’t have power to the frog or some areas of track that were not perfectly spotless.

The situation was the fact that it weighed only 9 ounces. I could help it along by placing my finger on top to give better contact.

I tried many things such as cleaning the wheels and even cleaning the track in front of it as it ran along.

I powered all the frogs that seemed to be causing the problem.

Finally, I decided to remove the engine’s body to see if I could add weight inside. That was hopeless because it was so stuffed inside with gear and electronics. The engine is only 6 inches long.

The next step was to see if I could add weight externally and also justify the act of doing so and still have realism.

I found some new brass toilet bolts in my junk box that weighed in at almost 3 ounces.

As you can see, those are now sitting on top of the engine. I cut the heads off the bolts, but didn’t want to lose that weight.

So I decided to use the heads to bind the threaded parts of the bolts around the engine’s exhaust stacks.

I then hot glued the heads to the bolts from underneath. I painted them black so they blended in and sat them on top.

They added 2.85 ounces to the engine and made all the difference in operation.

Now I had to justify what I did to the model train world. In keeping with the current state of the world regarding Covid-19, I rationalized that this engine was assigned the task of moving refrigerated cars which carried the vaccines from place to place.

So therefore what you see on top of the engine are the cooling coils for the refrigeration system that was retrofitted to the engine to make things happen.

Case closed.

Paul”

A huge thanks to Nick, Mike and Paul.

Nick shows it’s all about making that start. Nothing happens without it. What’s more, even a simple model train layout is still huge amounts of fun. It’s a sensible starting point.

And Mike’s layout is a great example of how your layout can be anything you want it to be.

Lastly, Paul shows us that even when the head scratching moments drive us mad, a little thought and ingenuity can often save the day.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you want to make your start – just like Nick did – the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al