Model railroad layouts plans

Kaustav has been in touch with his model track ballast ‘how to’.

Have a look at his vid:

“Hi Al,

I am following some great new posts in the blog and it is exciting to see how model railroaders are doing some quality modeling.

I finally was able to finish my ballasting demonstration.

I’ve used some unique techniques in this experiment, both during the painting stage that I mentioned earlier and also while ballasting and weathering. Especially for small and micro layout makers who will not have to ballast 10s of scale miles of tracks, these methods are particularly effective to produce some really good looking tracks.

Hope you all enjoy this and if any of you try these techniques, I’d be really interested to know how it turns out.

Cheers and keep building!

Kaustav”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Thanks to Kaustav – it reminded me of Steve’s post: Model train ballast.

“Hi Alastair,

Heres some photos of my layout that I’ve been working on here in Erie, Pa.

Take care and stay safe.

Bob Jacky”

“Hi, I thought I would share this with you.

My layout is 10’x 16′ and is ho scale with dcc controls.

I started building a little over 2 years ago after moving to my new home.

I have an upper and lower tracks which are connected to each other by way of a helix in one corner. I have a turntable and roundhouse that I wanted.

I have spray painted all my track a rusty brown color.

Alot of scenery to do, but I wanted to make sure that they were no issues with my track work or wiring first.

There is no theme, I’m just doing freelance and incorporating whatever I think will look good together as far as structures, scenery and my imagination.

Thanks,

Chuck”

My word – quite a project Chuck has going on there. Can’t wait to see an update!

A big thanks to Kaustav for sharing his model train track ballast video, and Chuck and Bob. It’s wonderful to see so many people making a start, because that’s what it’s all about.

That’s all for today.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if today is the day you take that very first step for your own layout.

Best

Al

Brian’s been busy with his HO scale waterfront shelf layout (his last post is here if you missed it)

“Hi Al, layout expansion.

Seeing that I like waterfronts so much, I decided to use a corner for a new harbour.

It will be called Pelican Bay mainly for small freighters and fishing boats.

Below is the start of the planning stage (middle right) and what I had in mind. I will be utilizing buildings from my old layout that were built about 7 to 8 years ago.

Here I used a wall section from my old layout which gave the shape that I needed.

Before placement, I had to paint the grey wall to look like this, a random stone wall.

I used the wall and buildings to mark out where the base had to be cut.

Here the base has been cut, wall in place, buildings placed and made sure there was enough room for the boats to dock or pass.

This is the continuation of the bay around the corner to the freight terminal building.

Here it is all coming together with base painted the right color, Podge was painted on in a thin layer to get the feel before pouring the WS realistic water. As I have said many times before, I only use WS water as I have always had great success with it in the past. (WS = Woodland Scenics)

Two views of the final layout of Pelican Bay with the waterfront lights placed.

A few night shots of Pelican Bay. Not a good clear picture below as my ‘blue overhead light blew’. As said before, all the buildings on my layout have full interior and lights.

This is where I am at the moment.

I have put buss wires under the layout, droppers from all the lights, connected it all up and all is working.

I will need to buy a a load of switches for all the lights. These will be mounted on the facia front.

That’s all for now and will keep updating as I progress.

All the best

Brian – the HOn3 guy – Knysna RSA”

A huge thanks to Hall of Fame member, Brian for sharing his HO scale waterfront shelf layout.

I really do enjoy his posts and how he works.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget The Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to join in on the fun.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Jim has been in touch with his Bachmann EZ track ho scale layout:

“Alastair,

Just wanted to drop a line to say that I finally made a start! It has been a little over two years since I bought the Beginner’s Guide.

My wife says that I pored over it like it was the Dead Sea Scrolls!

I also read the daily posts voraciously and viewed all the videos and photo submissions with great interest.

I purchased your print-out structures (and have already built several of them for my grandsons to use with their wooden train sets and all those “really useful” engines).

I built a 10’ X 16’ shed, initially for my grandsons to leave their train layouts set up in, but with plans to eventually “appropriate” some of the floor space for the 4’ X 8’ benchwork of an HO scale layout.

I scoured ebay and local sources for bargains in rolling stock and locomotives.

I decided to start with Bachmann EZ track ho scale layout because I got a steal on a big lot of new and barely used track at an estate sale.

Last week I finally cleared the decks of other projects and got cracking on the benchwork and layout.

The track that is shown was just put down today.

I will be modeling the late transition era of my childhood in the 1950s and 1960s, for the Southern Railway in the southeast corner of my state, and a non-prototypical branch line called the Runharde and Tyre Short Line.

I am looking forward to getting my track wired in the next week or so and running some locomotives.

My plans include a farming community in the foreground of the first couple of pics, an industrial area in the left midground, and a ridge with train tunnels in the background.

There will be passenger and freight depots and some freight sidings. I will be modeling some actual historic railroad structures from the area. I will take some better pics when there is more detail to show.

Thanks for all you do for our hobby. Thanks as well to all the participants who share freely from their knowledge and experience.

Cheers!

Jim in Tennessee”

Thanks to Jim. And just for balance, here’s an N scale too:

N scale bachmann track plan.

Now on to Bob:

“Here is my first venture in model railroading.

A 3′ x 5′ N Scale layout with town, mine, city park & lake, school & church.

Still working on adding more detail and fine tuning.

Lot of small detail hard to see like boy flying kite & ballon salesman in park, baseball game going on school grounds, boys skateboarding up street, etc.

N-scale needs a lot of patience and steady hands working on such small details. But well worth the effort.

Thanks

Bob Beckstrom

Menlo Park, Ca.”

Now to to another Bob (His last post is here).

“Al,

My new around the wall layout is coming along slow and steady.

When I started laying track and dropping feeders, I realized that my old way of doing it (positive on the outside; common on the inside) could easily get messed up.

So I took my clear inspection car and put a piece of red tape on one side and a piece of white tape on the other. I roll the car along as I am dropping feeders and I can see which side to put the feeders.

When I first started the remake of my layout I bought five different quarts of flat latex paint: two blues, a green, and a brown.

The brown turned out to be closer to tan so I went back to get another quart of paint. While looking through the brown paint samples, I found one called Rusted Earth. I thought that might do what I was looking for.

When I got it home, I tried it on a scrap of wood. When the paint dried, I thought that would look great on the tracks.

The picture show the first coat on a section of track. To my old eyes it looks like a decent representation of rusty rails.

Bob Filipiak, Virginia”

A big thanks to Bob, the other Bob, and Jim for sharing his Bachmann EZ track ho scale layout.

Jim’s madse a great start, for me, having a theme is the ingredient that transforms a layout.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the The Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to start having your own fun.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.