Model railroad layouts plans

Bob’s been in touch with his NYC O gauge buildings:

“Alastair,

Here is my first contribution.

When we went to Savannah 2 years ago to visit my Father in Law; there was an advertisement in the hotel for an eatery “Barracuda Bobs”.

I took pictures of the advertisement and of course we had to go there to eat. It was right on the river. I picked up a shirt with the logo; but I was glad that I took the picture of the advertisement; because the sign was not on the building.

I decided that my town needed a restaurant more than a bootery, so off came the boot. I had trouble with the sign because to have it two sided the head would be 180 degrees out. Getting nowhere fast; I asked my son Eric about it. He said to send the file to him and he would take care of it. I got two pictures back a day later! The restaurant’s website has a picture of their bar which is beautiful. I copied it and printed it on “Modeler’s Inkjet Transparency” available from Evan Design.

Around sometime in 2010 we met our son Eric at a bookstore on Front St in Brooklyn. It’s almost directly under the Manhattan bridge (DUMBO). It’s Berl’s Poetry Book Store. It’s the only book store in NY that is totally poetry books. I expressed the thought that I would put the store on my layout. Berl had some post cards with a great picture of the sign. We moved in 2014 and the store never happened. I just recently got the urge again, but was running out of real estate. I decided to renovate Bob’s and put the book store on the second floor.

Using a Dremel tool I cut into the building wall and install a double door that I had removed from another project. If you’re like me your trash bin is pretty sparse. Then I salvaged pieces from a torn down pedestrian bridge and cut down the width of the staircase. I cut back the landing and only used 2 posts. Then I attached railings on the stairs and platform. A discarded piece of the platform was a good size for an awning over the door. I had previously created signs using the picture on the postcard and printed them on card stock.

I brushed on yellow glue and attached one to the wall. I used two more to create a double sided sign. I used a piece of poster board in the middle and used some scrap dowel to plug it into the front wall. I added lighting over the doorways and interior as well as hooded lamps to illuminate the signs. The diodes that I used over the doors and interior were a little bright. I don’t recall if I picked up the suggestion here or on another forum to use Tamiya x-26 clear orange to tone down the brightness and add a warm glow.

I topped off the project by adding the sandwich sign advertising poetry readings by my Son and Daughter in Law. My Wife’s comment was that no one will hear them with all the noise in the bar downstairs.

Bob”

A big thanks to Bob – his NYC O gauge buildings look fab – the lights really do set them off too.

Now on to Jim – who will remember from his absolutely stunning layout, that sadly, he had to dismantle.

Jim’s sent me this upate on his new layout. I’m crossing my fingers that it is the first of many:

“Al

Thanks for the opportunity to share my layout. I did not expect such royal treatment. I am overwhelmed by the comments. So I will try and answer some questions.

I too am 80 years young.

The time it took to do the basic layout was about 2 years. The remaining 7 years were used to make the various scenes, buildings etc.

The sky (wall) was a blue grey, although it did not show up in the pictures, like an overcast day. I did not want the back ground and sky to detract but rather enhance the various scenes.

The rock work was made with a wall plastering material we have in Canada. It is called Durabond 90. The number stands for the length of time in minutes it takes to set up. It is a material use to patch malls. It is much softer than hydrocal.

The one drawback is, you have to put a primer on before painting, otherwise, it is very easy to carve, paint and work with.

The trestle was scratch built from a Hunterline kit plans.

Now, here is a modeling tip.

Instead of one sheet of 2” foam, I use two sheets of 1” foam, glued together with foam adhesive.

This allows me to go down in height and still have a flat base. You have to plan ahead a little as to where you want to cut out the first layer and not put too much adhesive between the two sheets of foam.

Here are a couple of examples of using two 1” sheets of foam with the cut outs. One you can see the cut out for the stream and the other the cut out for the turn table.

Al, thanks again for your site and hard work.

Jim”

A big thanks to Bob for sharing his NYC O gauge buildings, and to Jim too.

Love what Bob has done – I have no idea why, what really makes a layout for me is a theme, or a connection to a place.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you want to get going on your very own 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.

Paul’s been back in touch. He’s added a HO scale turntable to his layout.

You may remember Paul’s last post from the pics, which you can see here.

“Hi Al,

I thought I would send you photos of a recent project. I wanted to have a turntable on my layout which would be available near my shunting layout to turn the switcher engines.

I also needed a work area for car and engine repairs and a place to store idle engines. Adjacent to the shunting layout was my mountain and it looked like prime real estate for the project.

In presentation of my still photos you will see how I recaptured this space.

I installed the turntable after determining that the location of the roundhouse would dictate where is sat.

The problem was that there wasn’t enough room for the roundhouse until I decided to cut through the wall into my workshop.

Once the RH was in place I was able to bring tracks into the turntable. I also needed a WIP (work in place) area for minor repairs.

Looking to the left side you can see a boxcar up on jacks while the work crew replace some damaged wheels using the jib crane that I fabricated out of scraps.

Paul”

A huge thanks to Paul for sharing his HO scale turntable.

I think it’s a fab addition to his layout, and as we know, they are never finished…

I do like seeing how you solve the problems your layouts come up with. Just goes to show, where there’s a will there’s a way.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you want to get going on your very own layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Ivan’s been back in touch with his model train O scale people.

Last time he was adding people to his carriages (that post is here).

This time he’s added an engineer and fireman.

“Several years ago I purchased a Bachmann Industries Ohio River & Western Passenger Train Set On30 (no longer sold) pulled by a 2-6-0 Mogul steam engine, #12 w/o DCC, to go around our Christmas Tree.

I also run an American Flyer #293 S gauge train set, from my childhood, around the tree. I contacted the Ohio Railroad Historical Society and asked them what engines ran on the OR&W RW line.

The last engine built to run on the line was a 2-6-0 Mogul #16.

The train set was based on the original railway that was a 112 mile long narrow gauge railway, which operated from 1875 till 1931. The train ran in Ohio from Bellaire (east point) to Zanesville (west point near Wheeling, WV).

I ordered a new Bachmann Industries, Inc. “On30” Spectrum 2-6-0 Mogul Steam Locomotive and Tender, Painted Unlettered Black, (DCC Equipped and sound ready).

I installed a plug and play 16-bit Sound Trax Module and purchased a Power Cab to run the system. I attached new letters and the number 16 on my new engine.

In my previous submission, I had installed people in the passenger cars and said I had ordered an O scale Engineer and a Fireman to place in the engine.

In fact, I also ordered ho scale Engineer and a Fireman, to go in my Bachmann B&O ho scale 2-8-2 Light Mikado. By using a variety of craft tweezers, the ho scale Engineer and Fireman, were fairly easily inserted and glued in place.

However, the On30 Mogul was a different challenge. They would not go in through the window, because the boiler is in the way or through the back, because the back is closed off.

I researched on line to figure out how to remove the cab from the Mogul. It is prudent to check a verity of suggestions.

The first suggestion said to take an exacto knife and cut the glue along the base of the cab. Problem is, there is no glue, it is friction fit.

Another bit of information said to lift the cab up and tilt backwards. This was close. I found that the first thing you need to do is to rotate the whistle assembly away from the cab. I did not do this at first, so the cab would not budge.

After the whistle was rotated, I used my pocket knife and inserted it at the base of the cab, wiggled it a little to get a slight raise of the cab then did the same to the other side.

There is an alignment tab on each side. I alternated this procedure several times to raise the cab. The front of the cab fits in a grove on the boiler. Patient, it doesn’t want to move.

There are also a couple of pipes in front of the cab to be careful with.

I apologize for the clarity of the photos; I used my cell phone and an old TV tray to work on.

Engine 4508 is the Bachmann B&O ho scale 2-8-2 Light Mikado.

Engine 4508 has Engineer and Fireman installed through the window and back, no problem.

This is the OR&W Baggage Care with previously installed passengers and luggage.

The OR&W Baggage Care has newly arrived passengers sitting on luggage.

Note the whistle assembly over the front of the cab to be rotated on the Bachmann 2-6-0 Mogul.

With the whistle assembly rotated, the cab can be pried up a little at a time from each side.

This is the right side of the engine, with elevated cab and tab on the bottom of the cab.

With the cab removed, see the grove on the boiler in front of the piping going to the gauge.

Positioning the bent arm on the cab window sill, one foot will extend below the cab and one leg will extend into the area of the boiler and must be ‘amputated’.

After the bodies have been mutilated to fit, a leg and an underarm can be glued and positioned.

Engineer in Place.

Fireman in place.

After the gentlemen are in place, the cab is reinserted into the groove and slid back down in place. This part goes smoothly. If the piping in front of the cab has been moved, slide it back to its original position. Rotate the whistle assembly back into position and you are ready to go.

View from the rear of the engine with OR&W RW employees in place.

Ivan G.
Poca, West Virginia”

It was quite a timely post from Ivan, because not long ago I got this question in from Susan:

“Al,

Your readers are a vast ocean of knowledge and experience. I wonder if it would be possible to ask a question of them and get their input on something.

I have bought sets of HO scale people. Some lots are not painted and are not connected to anything. I would like to hear your readers’ opinions on the best way to paint them. Do they hold the people freehand and paint the tops, let dry, then paint the bottoms? Do they attach a row of people to something (a piece of balsa wood?), and with what, and then paint the lot together?

I know there are probably YouTube videos offering ideas and other websites with suggestions, but somehow I trust your readers and their creative solutions more. I don’t want to get stuck in a method that might be difficult for me when one of your readers could have an alternative that would be better.

The bottom line is, what’s the best way you’ve found to paint HO scale people?

Thanks!”

Please do leave a comment below if you can help Susan.

A big thanks to Ivan for sharing more of his model train O scale people – I think the fireman and engineer add a lot of life to the engine.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you want to join in with the fun, the Beginner’s Guide is here

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.