Rob’s beeb in touch with his HO scale crawler crane:
“Hi Al,
I have just completed a HO scale crawler crane for my layout Farland.
It all started when I built my harbor. I first built a kit of a light steam-powered cargo vessel called a Clyde Puffer.
At that point, I had a cheap premade fishing boat, and my kit built a light cargo vessel. I wanted something else. I noticed a barge kit that I thought would fit in and then I had the idea to put a few containers in it.
Looking at that one day I thought, I need a way to get the containers in or out of the barge. I then came upon the idea of a little container crane.
After extensive looking, I realized I could not find one that fit in the area I had for it and decided to see if I could build it. I found some gears on eBay. I bought plastic extruded shapes from the Evergreen Plastics folks and after a couple of months of scratching my head, I had exactly what I wanted.
It just goes to show you, If you can’t afford or if you can’t find one that fits, build it.
It turned out better than I could have imagined in the beginning.
Kaustav’s been in touch with his weathered train tracks:
“Hi Al,
Hope you and rest of the folks here are staying healthy and cracking on with the great opportunity to make models.
As I mentioned in my last post, I have a lot of how-to material that I want to share – some of my experimental methods worked great building the little Indian Rialways diorama and I think these techniques have merit to build larger layouts too.
This time my focus is tracks.
Believe it or not, I used spray paint weathered train tracks, and it worked really well. Yes, it is not practical if the track is already laid, but for those who are about to lay the track or want to start a new model railroad, I feel there is merit in completing the whole detailing of track and then lay it. It gives much better control to bring out the details.
And I also found some shortcut that works great for track laying too – two sided tape. Not sure if anyone else has tried it before, may be will figure out in the comments.
By the way, I used both concrete and wooden ties in this experiement.
Here are some photos of the painted tracks, and a video to show how I did it. I will share the video of ballasting and weathering next week.
We’re going to start with an update from Bill today and his garage model railroad.
“Good Morning Al
With more evenings available to enjoy the hobby I decided I wanted to expand my garage model railroad.
Looking at my options I landed on an idea to use the counter space I have but rather than expand the HO switching layout I’m going to build an N Scale layout. I have a tote full of N Scale items and I thought it time to bring them out after about 25 years in storage.
I’ve attached some pictures and a video link of what I’m doing this time around. I still need to be able to bring a vehicle in the garage so I came up with an idea to add folding legs to one side of the table so I can push it up on the counter when not in use. When stored this way I only lose about one foot in the garage so more than enough space is left to bring in the Jeep.
This layout will have a continuous run with two laps around a 3×15 foot layout. On this layout I’ll be able to run trains and sit back and watch while sipping coffee. This one will have mountains as well as a fair amount of switching and be run off DCC.
My wife thinks I’m crazy and she may be right but I’m having fun.
The hobby took fire in me about 5 years ago when my family and I still resided in a smallish townhouse.
I started with a relatively small 4×8 board but alas, this was still too big for my townhouse and I had to contend with a board that had to be assembled and disassembled whenever I had to run my trains. Not good… The board only had tracks on it and I could not fix any scenery items to it.
From the get go I had a plan in mind for what I wanted to achieve. My models are predominantly old Lima, South African Railways models (some rare and extremely collectible). In my collection I have diesels, electric and steam. I always wanted to model the 1960’s to 1980’s era of the South African Railways and specifically the Karoo landscape.
In 2018 my wife and I bought a proper house and my wife was kind enough to allocate me a room specifically for my trains.
My “train” room is about the size of a single garage and I could finally set my layout ideas in motion.
I decided on double level, wall mounted layouts that would run separate from each other. The top layout will be my Karoo layout and limited to steam locomotive operations and the bottom will be a mix of rural and city.
I work in aviation security and I am away from home frequently. In order to ensure that I spend enough time with my family and on my trains (good balance must be maintained), I approached a layout builder (pensioner) to put my layout ideas and plans into reality.
Due to upgrades being done on the new home and issues at work, the work on my train room and layout could only commence this year. But o my, the progress…
The modules, and scenery) are being assembled away from my home and will be transported and installed once complete (about 60km away from me).
I attach a couple of photos from what has been done to date. Due to size issues, I may have to send more photos in a separate email…
In the previous photos, you will observe the models being measured and fitted. The idea is that should we sell the house and move away, I can dismantle the modules and (hopefully) reinstall them again in a new room/location.
In the attached photos you will observe my layout plan, the laying of the track and ballast and also weathering of the tracks.
I must ad, the ballast stone is original Karoo sand (collected by a friend) that has been sifted to HO scale.
The top part/Karoo layout is nearing completion.
I hope you enjoy the pics!
Heinrich”
A big thanks to Bill for sharing his garage model railroad, and to Heinrich too.
I think Bill’s come up with a fab solution for expanding. Very inventive.
And Heinrich hasn’t let lack of time rob him of a layout.
As I keep saying, your layout is whatever you want it to be, and if that’s somebody else building it, that’s fine too.
