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James’s stunning HO layout update

Jameie’s been in touch again with his stunning HO layout:

“Alastair,

Welcome again…if this is too much too soon, I understand.

I have stories behind all of these scenery setups…

Two workers returning to the office at the canning company at Barcelona peer.

Salvatore, a first generation from Italy carries bags of potatoes from the Desiderio food distribution facility.

John, and Ernie, both Originally from Ireland take a closer look at a car that’s made its way from the West coast.

These two brothers, Lowell and Lee, have never been able to agree on anything… they might even disagree if the sky was blue… if it was ever sunny.

Pasquale pushes that cart along all day and even though his English “isn’t so good” he loves chatting it up with his fellow employees

The King Brothers (they are twins) and they married two sisters… their glass blowing company sells beautiful pieces all over the world.

Oscar Rayford, owns the local concrete plant… he’s responsible for all the sidewalks in town

David Gray, a huge man… is seen switching here for a shipment of sand to Rayfords concrete. David, is one of the key actors in the theater group in Buffalo Creek.

Rick Wilber, a novelist that specializes in Science Fiction books opened a bookstore and it attracts a wide variety of people. They are anxiously awaiting the store opening on a nice Sunday morning.

Romito-Donnelly makes furniture and their key designer was Vincent Tondiglia, also an Architect, Vincent can be seen in his Little Italy studio drawing a new building. He is also this authors father in law.

Down in Lackawanna Jim Collins works along with many Irishmen at the Bethlehem Steel plant. Here, a pot is being moved.

Angelo is waiting for a local delivery to pass his tower… there are 4 NYC towers in the area, Angelo has worked in all four the towers for the railway and is the longest employed tower operator.

Hooker Chemical in Niagara Falls makes some nasty chemicals, we’d all come to find out years later, but in this time period their tankers can be seen everywhere.

I hope you find these interesting enough to post… if not, I’d certainly understand

Jamie”

Well, Jamie, it’s never too soon to post new pics, and they are definitely interesting enough – I loved them. And the stories behind each picture really do bring it to life.

If you missed Jamie’s last post, it’s here.

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here (It goes mad this time of year – have a look.)

A huge thanks to Jamie. Please do post a comment below if you enjoyed their layouts as much as I did.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you join in the fun, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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

Model train cardstock buildings

Kirk’s been in touch about his cutting maching – if you’ve ever made model train cardstock buildings, you’ll see the advantages:

“Hi Al,

I have been looking at hundreds of postings from you and have made a couple of observations that may be helpful to modelers…

1] Always try to ’round’ corners on backdrops instead of having sharp angles. Jeff’s last post of his painted backdrops is a perfect example.

This will let the scenery ‘flow’ much more realistically.

2] When a hill, ridge, or mountain meets the backdrop, ‘pull’ it away from the vertical surface slightly and let it ‘roll’ downward a bit.

This will add more realism to the depth of field.

Don’t know if this is worth posting, but feel free if you think it might be helpful.

Best to you,

Kirk”

And now on to Mike – who has sent in pics of this little gizmo:

“Hi Alistair,

I just wanted to introduce this machine, which is very good for scratch building, especially if you are as ham-fisted as I am.

I’ve used it a lot on my N gauge layout (still a work in progress).

This is the machine.

It comes with software to allow you to design on screen (about an hour to learn it) and a deep-cut blade is useful.

It doesn’t cut all the way through plasticard, but a bit of work with a blade completes the job.

These are some of my scratch builds using it.

First picture is the thing as designed on the software, second the result.

Fallen down stone building:

Your readers may be interested in this machine.

Mike”

What fabulous creations! Although Mike’s were all scratch built, there’s a range of printable buildings here.

Now on to Bill:

On his last post (which is here) he mentioned his switching layout video, but I didn’t post it.

So here it is:

A huge thanks to Bill and Mike.

I had a look on ebay and
(Here’s a link for it).

I think his creations are fantastic – and in N scale too! His model train cardstock buildings look great – particularly impressed with the bridge.

It looks like an impressive little gizmo.

Has anyone else used one?

Please do leave a comment below if you have.

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

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Switching layout model railroad

Bill’s been back in touch with his switching layout model railroad:

“Hi Al

As always I appreciate your work and your wonderful site.

Everyday I enjoy reading of others modeling work and see the great variety of model railroads you post.

This weekend I spent some time working on one scene on the second module of my 4×16 switching layout.

I have all my filler ties back in on my track and all ties and rails painted so it’s time to start adding ballast and scenery.

I’ve attached a few pictures of what I’ve accomplished today and a link to a video showing the scene in more detail. I look forward to hiding pink foam board at the soonest across the whole layout.

For this scene I painted the side walls in the foam with acrylic earth tone paints then added 50/50 white glue and worked it in with a brush.

Next was I added earth toned ground cover and then foam. I soaked the foam with 50/50 white glue and sprinkled on ground cover to build up depth and layers on the foam.

The coal is real and after setting in place I added more 50/50 white glue to hold the piles together. It was a fun little project and I still have much more detailing to do but that will be another day.

Thanks!

Bill in Virginia”

(Bill’s last post is here.)