Halloween themed model railroad

Liz has been in touch with Mr P’s Halloween themed model railroad.

But first, some background.

You’ll remember Liz’s fantastic layout from this post: HO scale small layout.

Sadly, she’s now taking it down, as you’ll read:

“Greetings from Texas, Al.

As always I can’t say enough about how much I love your blog and the community you’ve built around it. I, like everyone else here, look forward to finding your emails upon waking in the morning. Bless you for all you do!

Since my previous correspondence in July, a lot has transpired. My father (Windsor of Windsor Valley fame) sadly passed in August under the tender care of a wonderful hospice care team that took wonderful care of both him and myself.

I dismantled much of Windsor Valley (carefully and saving every single part of it) so that I could move it from his apartment to my home. One of the benefits of using a folding ping pong table as my platform was that it made the layout much easier to transport without damaging it.

My plan is to rebuild, improve, and expand it. It’s his legacy and will always carry the memories we shared together. I miss my dad…and I miss Windsor Valley. Reconstruction will hopefully begin soon. Here are a few photos of the tear down and moving process:

As for the Halloween treat…

Last year my husband and I started work on a Halloween layout in O Scale which quickly became our permanent year-round layout.

My husband (Mr P) hand built the platform using wood bending techniques he learned just for that project. What he created was a beautiful multi-level platform with a fun and interesting track plan that allowed for lots of continuous runtime.

He did all the wiring and also used Arduino to manage the timing of the lighting, Halloween village structures, and even a couple things that aren’t even on the platform. I’m wowed by all his hard work.

I created all the scenery and even built a few structures for the layout. There’s an old western train depot that I scratch built last month which I was pretty pleased with. We still have more work to do on it, but we’re enjoying every moment of it together. I’ve included a few photos and a video.

halloween model railroad

model railroad bench



model railroad bench

model railroad bench

halloween model railroad

halloween model railroad

halloween model railroad

halloween model railroad

model railroad loading platform

halloween model railroad

halloween model railroad

And here’s the link for the video I made (forgive my shaky camerawork):



(Watch it on youtube here.)

If anyone is interested, Mr P has photos of the process of building the magnificent multi-level platform which I can share in the future.

Thank you again, Al, for your wonderful and inspirational blog. And thanks to everyone here for all the work, creativity, and encouragement they share!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Cheers,

Liz P in Texas”

A huge big thank you to Liz and Mr P for sharing their Halloween themed model railroad.

It reminded me of John’s: HO scale haunted house.

And there’s Jim’s too. I get sent all kinds of stuff, so I thought I’d start putting it somewhere, on another blog. Anyhow, turns out I was barking up the wrong tree with that one.

But I always remember Jim’s Halloween decorations – they are amazing – have a look and see: Jim’s halloween fun.

Having said that, I adore all the car pics some of you sent in. So if you have an old classic sitting in your garage, please do mail me. I really enjoy them.

That’s all for this time 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.





Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.

HO scale speed

Bill’s been back in touch with some thoughts on HO scale speed – have a look and see what you think:

“Hi Al,

Here’s my latest model railroad operations video, along with a few photos of my layout.

I find photography to be a lot like fishing: Sometimes you cast 10 or 20 times and only catch one. And sometimes they just ain’t biting!

Speaking of operations, I had a few comments to the effect that my locos were running too slow. So I did a poll on my YouTube community tab, and only 4% thought the speed was too slow.

I’d be interested in what you and your readers think.

Take care –

Bill”

ho scale speed

ho scale speed

ho scale speed

ho scale speed

ho scale speed

ho scale speed

model railroad freight train



model railroad freight train

model train hopper

HO scale freight train

model railroad hopper

model train freight curve

model train freight locomotive

 ho scale speed



model railroad feight

HO scale engine house

coupling loco to freight HO scale

model railroad double locomotives

HO scale street view

ho scale speed curve

model train loco freight

 HO scale freight train

model train freight

 model railroad freight yard ho scale



A big thanks to Bill.

When it comes to running your trains, finding the right speed is something that comes up often on the blog.

I do concede it’s very tempting to let your engines zip around at full throttle, but I’m definitely in the camp of slower speeds to create realism.

Personally, I thought Bill’s train speed was spot on.

I remember one post recommended running HO scale at about 20 to 25% of its maximum speed, which translates to around 25-35 scale miles per hour, which sounds about right for most freight trains?

Let me know in the comments in below, I’d really like to hear your thoughts on this one.

But at the end of the day – as you all know – I’m very fond of the only mantra that matters:

“Your layout, your rules!”

If you enjoy running them fast, then fast it is. And it’s the same for slow.

Having said that, I’m sure you’ve all experienced derailments with trains whizzing round tight curves – and it’s always heart stopping when you see them leap off the edge of your layout into the abyss.

Anyway, I thought Bill’s question was really interesting – please do leave a comment if you can add to the HO scale speed conversation.

And lastly thanks for all your suggesions so far, for a new name for ‘boring Carl’.

In the running so far are Stone Cold Carl, B.Ricks, Cantankerous Carl and Clipboard Carl.

If you have no idea what I’m on about, to get you up to speed, there are four new printable buildings on the site. They are:

Smokey Joe’s lock up

Carl’s brick store

Fat Bob’s store house

Big Tom’s timber store

But some of you thought Carl could have a more fun name.

So if you can think of one, please leave a comment.

Whoever comes up with the best name, wins all four buildings.

Some of the names really have been making me smile, so have some fun.

That’s all this time 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 More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.





Lights for model train layout

If you’ve ever wondered about whether adding lights for model train layout is worth it, have a look at what Rob’s done:

“Hi Al,

After putting considerable effort into adding lighting effects to my layout over the last year or so, I thought it might be time to demonstrate how it all came out.

I even replaced a house on the layout with one I scratch-built so that I could add lighting.

The original house model was a resin casting but did not include openings for the windows as many of them do. Without windows, I could not have added lighting to the interior.

My farm area has always been my favorite area on my layout, so I decided to put in the effort to build a semi-duplicate for the original house, except it would have windows.

Running trains in the dark has always held a certain magic. With this in mind, I have produced a video of trains running with their windows lighted. I also let the camera dwell on some of the little scenes around the layout.

You’ll notice I have added traffic lights to the one intersection I have on the layout. Maybe that car trying to turn left will finally be able to get around the corner. 😉

The video:



(Click here to watch on youtube)

Here are some pictures of the new house in the build process.

oo scale house scratch build

 lights for model train layout

oo house scratch build

 lights for model train layout



oo scale house scratch build

 lights for model train layout

oo scale house scratch build

oo scale scratch built house

 lights for model train

A big thanks to Rob for sharing his take on lights for model train layout.

There are many more posts on the blog about LEDs, it’s a popular topic.

Here’s some more if that’s what you’re after right now:

model railroad LED layout lighting

LED lights for model railways (another one of Rob’s).

LED lights for model trains

LED lighting (another of Rob’s).

How to connect led strip lights to power supply

Model train LEDs

And when it comes to LED lights, there’s always one of Fred’s posts I think of – here’s a pic from it:

N scale harbor airport night

(You can see Fred’s post here.)

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





Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.