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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.)

A huge thanks to Bill for sharing his switching layout model railroad.

I do love it when I see his name pop up in my inbox.

He seems to have had a lot of fun with this part of his layout. What a project!

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.

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

HO scale The General

Ralph’s been in touch with his HO scale The General layout:

“Hi Al,

Following up on my email yesterday, here are three photos of my 68″X68” HO layout.

These pictures give an over view of the layout which include a country fair, a small airport, an auto racetrack and grandstand, and a tunnel with a station on the top.

I’m thinking that a monorail running over the layout would be a fun addition… but have not been able to find such a product.

I have three trains running…..

#1. A Marklin vintage model with a 3020 locomotive & passenger cars from 1947-1954

#2. A Marklin intermodal train which circles the airport.

$3. A Bachmann “The General” which runs on an elevated figure 8 track.

Ralph”

“Hi Alastair,

I just placed my order. I hope I can get some inspiration to take this to great places.

Phil”

A big thanks Ralph for sharing his HO scale The General layout.

Thanks to Phile too. I know some of you are often puzzled when I post pics of a layout that hasn’t taken shape yet.

But for me, it’s the whole point of this hobby: creating something from nothing.

Looking at one hell of a mess and then scratching your head over wiring is all part of the process.

Every layout you have ever seen, at one point, was a rat’s nest of wires, tools, track and profanities.

All you have to do is make a start because no layout happens overnight.

So thanks to Phil – who can help with his monorail idea?

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

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

DCC reverse loop wiring

Dave’s been in touch with a DCC reverse loop wiring problem.

As usual, there are lot of helpful comments at the bottom of the post already.

“Al,

Here are 5 pics of the layout and a diagram.

Sorry for the mess but I’m trying to ballast the outside loop.

The problem is the reverse loops and how I should wire them.

I have NCE as my DCC control although I have it running on the outside loop via DC right now.

I understand I need to insulate blocks or districts, but do I continue to wire the track the same within the district ( Blue wire on the north rail, white wire on the south rail) and use a module for seamless transition? I do not want to use a DPDT switch if at all possible.

Thanks Al”