Peter’s been in touch with his impressive N scale rock cliffs:
Now on to Tom:
“In the 1950’s I grew up with a Lionel train table my dad built in the basement of our house in Berkley Michigan.
About a year ago I decided to build a N scale railroad in my house. I first had to do a lot of reading about the changes in model railroading from the 1950’s.
DCC – what a change from having to section off different areas of your layout.
Also what materials are now available for landscaping from card stock buildings to ground cover.
THE THEME:
The theme of my railroad takes place in the early 1950’s on the Baltimore & Ohio rail line between Baltimore and Cincinnati. The village is in the mountains of West Virginia along Highway 50.
The main line along this route takes you through the mountains into the rolling farm lands of eastern Ohio. There are two spears one that will take you up into the village with a stop at the passenger depot. The second spear is to the local coal mines and trucking fright yard.
SPECIAL SCENES:
Forest with a fly fishing river
Cabin in the woods
Tunnel through Mountains
Rock cliffs
Local park, swimming and picnicking area.
Canoeing on a lake
Rapids that end in a fishing lake with a viaduct running over the fishing lake.
Cave/wild animal den
Apple orchard
Farm with live stock
Wood frame Farm Houses
Local auto repair shop/gas station
Corn fields
Biker bar
Trucking depot
Engine house
Coal Mine
Village
Town Hall/Fire Station/Police station
Barber/Beauty shop
Bank
News Paper Stand
Train Depot/Post Office
Family restaurant
Doctor’s Office
Consignment clothing store/Bed and Breakfast
General Store
Trading Post/Auction House
Butcher Shop
Farmer’s Market/Produce Stand
Gas Station/mini mart
Church
Tom”
Now on to Peter:
“Found this dilapidated sand tower on ebay and I made it all brass and a nice addition to an engine facility in O scale..
Peter”
A big thanks to Peter and Tom.
Loved what Peter did – he really did nurse it back to life.
And Tom’s N scale rock cliffs layout is a little stunner- not bad at all for a first effort!
Scott’s been back in touch with an update on his HO scale atlas track:
“Alastair: I love your site.
Over a year ago, I posted some pics of the DCC HO layout my wife and i have been working on since December 2017 and wanted to send you an update.
Many years ago I had an HO DC layout in a spare bedroom with mountains built into the walls and very difficult under table access to the parts of the layout where the train always derailed.
That layout came down due to a ceiling leak and i put the track, table and buildings (many of which i have had since I was a child in the 50s and 60s) into the attic in my garage.
In December, when our grandson was almost one, my wife and i started work on the present HO DCC layout in the basement.
My wife insisted on not putting the layout against the walls so access wold be easy and people could walk around and see the table from all angles. This turned out to be a brilliant idea as i no longer had to worry about placing every building so you could see the font of it and no longer had to crawl under the table to fix problems.
The table is designed to be seen from a height of three feet and the top is 5/8″ plywood squares screwed into 3/4′ x 34′ planks with 36′ x 1 3.4′ wood legs (unfortunately i did not install screw in spacers and has to use shims to level the table on the tiled basement floor.
The table surface measures 13 3/4′ x 5′ plus 7′ x 5′ for total area of 104 sq. ft.
The layout is made from old HO scale Atlas track (brass code 100).
The trains are DCC with NE Powercab controller.
We have 15 turnout switches and dc light bulbs in most of the buildings powered by an old Sound and Power & Light 9001 transformer. The bridge lights are X-Mas lights.
The setting is small town and rural 50s and early 60s. I run Broadway limited diesel and steam engines and many of my cars are from the 50s and 60s including the nuclear waste and chicken cars that light up and the nuclear missile and helicoptor carriers.
We have about 85 buildings, some of which are older than me (67) including a cardboard Purina Chow factory, old plasticville buildings, and a wooden butcher shop made from a German (possibly pre-war) kit where the roof lifts off so you can see the slabs of meat and the meat grinder on the counter.
We have more than 200 people and animals and hundreds of trees. We try to use natural substances where possible. Actual sand, rocks, flowers or twigs or grape vines for trees.
Mountains are mostly old school wire mesh covered in plaster cloth. Snow is dried out plaster sanded into flakes.
My wife finds ways to use household items or items you would normally throw away: the tear off seals on eggbeater boxes become radar dishes for the air control tower; paper clips and screening become wire mesh fences, the metal at the bottom of small glass candle holders become bases for the runway lights and interior building lights, the raft in our lake was modeled after one we saw in Antigua and is made from the plastic covers on office phones that are labelled line 1 and line 2 with paper clips for the rails, the windmills are made from discarded electric tooth brush stems with bristles pulled out, the farm silo is a toilet paper role with a rubber cap from some household item, the green rope swng in the school playground is a clip from something, the air unit on the roof of Kentucky Fried Chicken was moisture absorbant from a package we received.
The layout consists of two lines. The inner was based on Atlas HO No. 16 6 x 10 and the outer as freelanced with an elevation to 3”.
My wife designs the towns, does the streets and sidewalks, makes all of the signs, and is in charge of placement of people because everyone has a story and placement of each person must fit their story.
The two main towns are named for our grandchildren.
The industrial park is named for a friend who helped procure a number of the buildings. The houses are named for family and friends. When one couple told us they were moving, my wife had a for sale sign on their property the next day.
Here is the Atlas design for interior run and a pic of the layout in early days which was changed slightly to make the bridge cross water before turning.
Track plan for inner loop.
Hope you enjoy.
Scott”
What a layout – there’s a lot going on, but doesn’t look crowded. I loved it. A big thanks to Scott for sharing his HO scale atlas track.
I’m sure some will wonder where the trains are. All in good time. Remember, a layout can be whatever you want it to be.
A huge thanks to Scott.
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 grab the bull by the horns and get going on your very own layout.
Rob’s been in touch with his German model railway layout:
“I’ve been a fan of your blog for several years, and have learn so much from the contributors. I look forward to opening my email each day to see the wonders you send forth.
I’ve been working on my Murren and St. Goar Scenic Railway since I returned from a trip to German and Switzerland in 2009.
I wanted to recreate views and moments from that trip in HO scale.
I’d not done any railroading since I was a teen back in the 1960s, so it’s been a real experience relearning everything.
It’s encouraging to read posts of others who have questions and made mistakes we can all learn from.
My submission shows a small addition to my city (based on Freiburg, Germany) three streets off the Main Avenue.
There was a block of empty space left over from other building installations. I’d debated what to do with it for some time, and finally decided to just tackle the space with basically what I had on hand.
Our recent stay in place orders here in Michigan have provided many extra hours of time to ponder and work on train projects.
I tend to work on my German model railway layout in an organic fashion, and have found that I greatly admire those modelers who can build a layout with all those yards, mainlines and switches.
I’ve also learned that I’m not very good at that part of the hobby.
What, it turns out, I really like is doing building kits and creating landscapes for the train to run through.
Your blog has reinforced that there is no “right” way to do model railroading, and that ideas can come from any source.
Attached are several pictures showing the progress of the city block addition from start to finish.
View from the main station looking back toward to area where the new block addition was added. All the city buildings are lighted for night effect.
The block as it looked before I started. The backs of the buildings on the facing block provide the background. I added a narrow road opposite, next to the tracks as a first step.
I first added some grass for a small park which is to set behind the building on the block corner. Then I added stone paver sections to create a courtyard as seen in many German cities behind buildings. I found, and assembled a building kit that allowed a drive through from the side street into the courtyard to anchor the other end of the block.
I built some simple planters, added benches and found a sculpture piece for the park. My youngest daughter teaches first grade so she has many craft and classroom items that can be adapted to the layout. In this case the sculpture is a throwaway piece from a lettering kit.
Next I added some people, a tree, a hedge and a fence next to the tracks. These were all left over parts from other scenes on the layout.
Then I added the two buildings, one at each end to enclose the block. One building I already had built, but did not use for a different scene, the other was purchased to allow the drive through into the court yard.
View of the completed block.
Wwith the recent article on how to finish the edge of the layout causing some discussion, I decided to try adding buildings across the street on the other side of the tracks. I purchased a set of kits for those half facade buildings that one puts up against walls. Only I don’t have any walls so I just placed them on the table edge and put a backing board behind them so they won’t fall off.
I colored this row of buildings based on those I saw in Innsbruck on my trip to Switzerland this past summer. The middle building on the block is make up from leftover parts from the other kits in the set, and allowed me to fill the space completely.
I hope your readers fine them interesting and even useful.
Rob,
Murren and St. Goar Scenic Railway,
Ann Arbor, MI, USA”
“Hi Al ..Just loaded this video to answer a few of the queries regarding my inclines and how steep they are in % , and of course showing how those magnetic couplings do hold even with a rake of 6 coaches on the inclines.
I would also like to thank all who sent there best wishes for my wife’s Deb (aka the Stig ) recovery with her hand.
I did eventually get her to A & E and with a Xray showed she has a broken wrist, so looks like Dave is going to be busy in the home for a while yet…
