Model railroad layouts plans

Dan’s been in touch again with more pics of his stunning HO train layout:

Followers of my posts: I have just about run out of things of interest on my layout.

I took hundreds of construction photos as well as a very large number of finished works.

I am often rephotographing the HO layout in different lighting conditions as well as angles.

I like slogans and word play for signs.

Close up of the coal sign

The poor guy with a spelling problem

What more can you say?

Once again the painters at the mill. I did this model in the early 70’s. You can see the obvious reference to a certain plant.

HO train layout:

The HO station at Almost is almost to the summit

Sunset

Long after sunset at the train tunnel

HO train layout

Before radios, train orders were picked upon the fly. (When orders were to be signed the train had to stop.) The train man is about to grab the orders. Some time the orders were handed up via a “Y” or similar shaped frame. The station operator would stand near the moving train and “Hoop” them up.

Here he is about to grab the layout orders. This stand has 3 arms. The head end would get one and a helper loco would get one if needed.

The trestle often needs repair. One of the safety boards has gone missing. The work train has arrived to do the work.

It takes a brave person to step out to the HO platform.

Looks like some Ho Bo’s have made camp below the trestle.

The phone box. Often the train had to get permission to enter a junction

A large group has gathered to celebrate the 20 anniversary of the layout.

A banner has been stretched across the track. (Today it would say 32 years!)

That is enough for now.

I think I can do two or three more of my HO train layout. I have done the scenery on 5 other layouts and designed and done the scenery 3 of them. In the comments let me and Al
know if you want to see them.

Santafedan”

A huge big thanks to Dan for sharing his HO train layout again – there is so much happening in all the little scenes, it really does bring the layout to life. Stunning stuff.

You can see more of Dan’s HO layout in the Hall of Fame.

Next, on to Ron, who put a smile on my face:

“Dear Al;

I just read your recent post where you said ‘I have been having a tough time of it at the moment. When you get to my age, the technical side of running, a blog can be a bit mind numbing.’

Alastair, I totally, completely understand where you’re coming from! I’ve been in your shoes.

I need you to know something friend: from this end, from the readers end, I have learned more from you and your blog than I’ve ever learned from any magazines or books!

Your blogs are full of illustrative pictures, descriptions, and better than that, even how to’s!

Alastair, do not forget, do not ever forget the lasting impact you’re having on those of us who are just beginning; those of us who don’t have a clue and are looking to you for guidance.

Keep up the good work, my friend! Believe me when I tell you there are multitudes of us who so appreciate all that you have done, all that you ARE doing and all that you hopefully will continue to do!

Godspeed, my friend!

Ron”

Ron really put a smile on my face, because I genuinely want the blog, the Beginner’s Guide, the printable buildings, to do one very important thing: getting folk to make a start!

It’s all about that start. One of my fave sayings is “It’s the start that stops most people”. So true.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a HO train layout, N scale, or any scale – just start! Enjoy yourself.

Anyhow, I’m rambling now.

You can grab the Beginner’s Guide here. I know many of you buy it every year just to support the blog, so thank you so much.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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

Brian’s been in touch with pics from his very first layout. Have a look at his HOn3 brass K-37 on his narrow shelf:

“Hi Alastair.

Photos below are of my first HOn3 layout built when I lived in an apartment many years ago.

I mentioned in my last post that I would find the old photos of my first narrow gauge layout, and here they are, attached. They were scanned and saved as jpegs for use on computers.

At that time I only had space for a narrow shelf layout (15 inches wide). That included the front drop down scenery.

I built an ‘L’ shaped layout around two walls.

The quality of the photos are not the best as stated in my previous post and were taken in the late 19 seventies.

Below, the track was laid in place. The backdrop backing is 3 mm Masonite and the cloud sky is a commercial one fixed to the wall. The base under the track is ceiling board to deaden the sound.

Some of the intended buildings placed temporarily to visualise what the end result would be and where to mount the foam scenery.

Below is the ‘L’ section with a trestle bridge over the valley with foam forming the mountains.

HOn3 brass K-37:

Here polystyrene foam is used to form the mountains on the main section.

Below, create stone (plaster) was used to cover the foam and Woodland Scenics rock molds were used to cast the rock faces and then applied to the front face of the mountains.

Crete stone gave the right earth colour as a base coat before adding the greenery. A cast stone arch bridge was cast to span another hollow in the front.

More of Woodland Scenics grass was added using white cold glue before putting on the greenery to the face of the mountains.

A closer view of the cast stone arch bridge.

Here you can see how the control panel was incorporated into the scenery in front.

A PFM HOn3 brass K-37 locomotive crossing the trestle in the corner. Unfinished scenery in the foreground.

A lot of action here on this section as well as at the engine terminal facilities. The water tank still needed to be completed.

Below is a card stock mock-up of the intended coaling tower. (I assembled a Campbell scale kit). The Rico station is a plastic kit assembled, repainted and weathered. In front is a brass C-16 painted and weathered. I painted all my brass locomotives and weathered them as well as the rolling stock.

Passenger cars at the station, picking up passengers and the locomotive will collect the cars for their intended journey.

A view of the scratch built HOn3 turntable. Powered by hand.

A brass Westside model C-16 crossing the trestle with a string of scratch built refrigerator cars.

HOn3 brass K-37 trestle bridge

The HOn3 brass K-37 returning with stock cars to the town.

A view of the storage track in the foreground next to the turntable.

Storage track on the right with the caboose on it and showing the unfinished water tank kit.(Durango press kit) as well as the finished coaling tower kit.

Top view of the HOn3 layout. Roundhouse roof skylights still had to be cut out.

A view from inside the newly (at that time) scratch built three stall roundhouse before all the interior details were added.

A stock car train being readied for dispatching in the yard.

This view shows the installation of the DC control panel with a home built DC controller resting on the face of it.

Unfortunately this is as far as I got with the building of it.

I had to build an HO scale display layout for a hobbies fair. I used to get involved every second year with the Round Table and YMCA to provide model train displays at them.

The above layout was sold to a friend minus all the buildings, locomotives and rolling stock. He added it to his home layout in another city.

All the above was built in the late 19 seventies.

It was a great learning curve from here. (And boy, have I learnt a lot since then ).

From the very early 2000 thousands I switched to DCC, putting decoders with all the bells and whistles in all the locomotives and have never looked back.

All the best and please big Al, keep up the excellent work on the blog.

Brian – the HOn3 guy from Knysna RSA”

A huge big thank you to Brian for sharing his HOn3 brass K-37 loco pics. His very first layout!

You can see his second ever layout here too:

HOn3 brass locomotives

And there’s loads of Brian’s stuff in the Hall of Fame.

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.

Roger’s been in touch with his model railroad design and he’s looking for comments:

“Hi Alastair.

I have been following your website for a couple years now and gained much knowledge from all the contributions. I appreciate greatly what you are doing.

I received a Tyco train set for Christmas when I was about 12. Simple figure-eight but I loved playing with it. Not long after I dropped the (bakelite?) controller and it shattered.

Fast forward about twenty years when after college I started my first real job and ran into a hobby shop owner who was a model railroad enthusiast. He introduced me to the local club and I quickly became enamored of the hobby and a member of NMRA.

I purchased a Tyco starter set followed by numerous high quality building kits, engines and cars and made a start on a railroad. Just a simple loop with one siding on a 4×8 sheet of plywood supported by 1×2 framing. Then life got in the way and I set aside my railroading for another 45 years.

Now retired and widowed, I dug out my boxes of railroad equipment with the intent of starting again.

After going through your Beginner’s Guide and numerous other websites, I decided I needed to properly design before building using one of the popular computer design tools.

I have tried several and have settled on SCARM because I was able to do a complete room design, a capability I was not able to duplicate with any of the other tools.

Before describing the pictures I need to say a bit about the design requirements.

First, all of the equipment I have is HO-scale and I don’t want to go smaller – my eyes and fingers won’t let me.

One of the engines I purchased years ago is a Rivarossi Big Boy and I want to be able to run it. Hence, the minimum radius will be 21-inches. Specs say it will run on tighter curves, but my experience on 18-inch curves has not been good. I’m hoping 21-inches will be enough.

Next, the only room I have in which to put the railroad is a relatively small 10×14 feet, and it also must serve for general household storage. So, practically, I have only about 10×9 feet with one corner cut off to allow access to a closet. The design is based on Atlas code 100 trackage with #6 switches, but can be changed if I see a reason to do so.

Finally, I want to model the area around Peace River in Alberta, Canada. There is a railroad through the town and the oldest remaining train station in Alberta from the steam era which I hope to include at some point. For those interested there is much available online about the history of the area and the railroad.

Given these limitations for my model railroad design, I have developed a preliminary design open to any suggestions.

There are lots of opportunities for switching and storage, as well as some space for buildings and scenery, which I have yet to work on. As indicated above, it is done in SCARM, and I think your readers will appreciate the capabilities of that software.

Figure 1 shows the track layout and underlying benchwork – 1×3 framing with 2×2 posts.

Figure 2 shows the layout within the room walls and existing shelving. Note the window and doors are also identified.

Figure 3 is a 3-D SCARM presentation of all the components, including layers of solid-foam board for mountains and a river and bridge in front of the window.

I’m not entirely satisfied with the current design. I tried three other configurations which I felt did not work as well. I would appreciate any comments you or your readers may have about my starting attempt.

Roger”

A big thanks to Roger for sharing his model railroad design – please do leave a comment below if you have any thoughts on it.

I know lots of you start with Tyco trains – you can have a lot of fun with them, like Stephen: Tyco HO trains.

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.