Model railroad layouts plans

Brian’s been back in touch with his HO gauge layout old docks:

“Hi Alastair,

More work done at the harbor. I find that while working on the waterfront extension, I look for things to continue with it and end up finding detail that is needed at the harbor. I then switch back to detailing the dock in the harbor.

That is what is so satisfying about this hobby, you can move around the layout doing different scenes and not get bored. Your current project will still be there when you get back to it.

The night shift reporting for operations at the dock. The harbor master standing at the top of the stairs making sure that all will be okay for the night shift before he knocks of for a cold one at the bar across the harbor. This harbor scene is almost ready for the last two layers of Woodland Scenics water to be poured.

All the best

Brian – the HOn3 guy Knysna RSA”

Brian’s HO gauge layout old docks scene is really taking shape – I love it.

(Brian’s last post is at the bottom of this one).

“Hi Al,

As I watch videos with newcomers to the hobby I keep seeing the same mistakes over and over again. I think this video could help some people.

To others, this is old news and they have already overcome their tendency to pack too much into too small of a space. I certainly understand when you start building your first layout that you want it to have everything you’ve ever seen on videos or pictures, but this video will help sort a few things out.

I started my YouTube channel in 2012 but was involved in engineering my entire working life. Along the way, I learned about inclines declines and the efficient use of space. All this experience, habits and knowledge helped me to build Farland B.

Farland B runs flawlessly. I could put a train on in the morning, shut the door, and come back in the evening and it would still be going as I left it. The reason? I used carefully applied good engineering standards to the design and construction. It makes a huge difference.

Rob McCrain – Farland Howe

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

A huge thanks to Brian and Rob!

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

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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

Paul’s been in touch with a very clever and cheap way to make a water feature for model train:

“Hi Al thought I would send you some photos of how I increased the size of my waterfont scene using toilet paper and PVA glue.

The included photos show the plywood extension and the initial steps in applying the TP & PVA.

The TP is applied about 4-5 layers thick with the PVA gluing the layers together.

You see me “pushing” the still wet TP with the paint brush to form waves which are heading toward the shore and bulkhead.

In these photos I angled the light such that it highlighted the waves that were formed by pushing the wet TP with the paint brush. You can see the 3D effect of the visable waves.

At this point you have to let the work dry which takes a few days because of the thickness of the TP.

Once dried my wife stepped in because I failed at an attempt to match the color of the existing water scene. Naturally if you were doing this all at once there wouldn’t be any need to color match and you wouldn’t have to hire an artist.

In these photos you can see the fan brush we used to highlight the tops of the waves with white paint.

You must remove most of the paint from the brush by passing the bristles over some waste material. What you are then doing is called a “dry brush” effect on the wave tops.

The next photo shows the jetty I built to protect the pilings that hold up the dock by the fishing shack.

This photo also shows the blending of the colors where the old and new water meet.

Lastly is a photo of the overall scene. The credit for this method of producing the water effect goes to Marklin of Sweden and his videos. The best part of this method is the 3D effect of the waves.

Paul”

A huge thanks to Paul for sharing his very cheap way to make a water feature for model train. Over the years there have been lots of water ‘how to’ posts, but I think this one is particularly good.

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

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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

John’s been back in touch. This time he talks us though wiring your layout for DC control:

“Hi Al,

Thought I’d send an update on the wiring of the WV Energy coal mining railroad.

I’ve decided that the railroad will have 3 DC power blocks, 2 will run most of the trains.

The first will be to run the trains around the weird-shaped loops, the second will be for the track going to the coal mines, and the 3rd will be for making up trains behind the scenes on the storage tracks under the mountains.

As I got down to wiring, I remembered various devices and LEDs required several different voltages, as does the lighting on the layout. This then required either a separate stand-alone power supply for each voltage, or some sort of board with various voltages available. I decided on the latter.

I bought a 15amp 24 volt DC supply, and have several DC to DC reducers that are adjustable. One is set at 12VDC, another at 3.5 for my motor driven switch machines and the LED’s associated with them (600 ohm resistor on those), and another for 2VDC for LEDs.

These little DC not DC boards are pretty cheap from Ebay, cheap enough that I don’t cry too much when I blow one up – which I have done to a few. I also found that the Atlas type switch machines like around 14V AC, so I added a transformer for that.

The main board and stuff is also under the mountain.

I found that I needed a place to work, so I built a work space and put it on drawer slides, that way I can still get around the back of the layout, and pull out the drawer for as much work table top as I need, since I had plenty of room under the layout, I made it 48” wide and 36” deep.

After things get running and my focus moves away from scenery and wiring, I’m going to make a railcar weathering, decaling, and adjustments area with all the stuff on the work-space to do those tasks. I also will be setting up locomotive maintenance, oiling, wheel cleaning, and if I ever decide to add sound to my loco’s, a place to put in the decoders for that.

My track plan has the mines as a 1 track entering, and a loop. I bought a auto-polarity reversing circuit from a company over on your island, they make some really trick stuff and are reasonably priced, fast shipment too! I may experiment with their signal controllers if I get trains running. Anyway, I will update on how the loop track works in the future.

Lastly for this note is that I’ve nearly finished the backdrops for the mine section of the layout. I bought light, nearly white yellow colored “mat” cardboard that is used to cut out for the framing of artwork and pictures under the glass, most I used are 32” X 40”. They are very smooth and quite ridged, and take the acrylic paint I use well. I found some plastic joining trim used for thin plastic sheeting, like is used on a bathtub surrounding wall, we call it FRP – fiberglass reinforced panels, and the trim fits the card stock pretty well. I chose the card stock because as can be seen in the picture “behind the scenes” the card stock is bent to follow the mountains. I think the backdrops came out pretty good, they were fun to do as well!

As always, thanks Al for your hard work on the website, and for all you do.

John From Baltimore”

A huge thanks to John for talking us through wiring your layout for dc control – some very clever stuff going on there. Can’t wait to see it all in action. If you missed John’s last post, it’s here.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming. And if you’d like to start on your very own layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Have you had a look at the latest ebay cheat sheet yet?.

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