Model railroad layouts plans

John’s been in touch with his HO scale track plan 20 x 20.

(his last post is here.)

“Alistair,

Thanks for the kind words on the article and pictures you posted.

The comments are gratifying, a few of the commenters asked for the track plan.

I’ve included the track plan that didn’t show up in the post.

Thanks,

John From Baltimore”

And now something I’m always banging on about – making a start.

Robert’s doing a fine job because he’s fighting with lack of space too. But that should never be an excuse, as he’s shown:

“Alastair –

I live in a Manhattan apartment where space is at a premium. I have started an N scale layout on a 2-1/2’ x 5’ folding-leg table in our guest room. Here you see it’s earliest stages. I’ve built the table from a modified hollow-core door, attached the legs, and glued down the Kato Unitrack. It’s DCC powered, which simplified the wiring to no end!

Next stage: buildings. I’ll make cardboard templates of the footprints of various building possibilities, and see how they fit.

Stay tuned!

Robert”

“Dear Alistair,

I’m a sort of bystander in the world of model railroading but I have somehow gotten on your mailing list and I really enjoy looking at your email every day with different layouts.

I grew up with my Lionel trains in the ‘60’s but never had a permanent layout. My wife indulges me with a mantelpiece revolving display, and I get out the old Circus Special when my grand daughter visits but I’m one of those “yet to start” types you try to encourage.

But anyway, I was hauling a load of scrap metal from our farm to a salvage yard in Burnt Prairie, Illinois today when I spied the cab of this old locomotive among the mountains of junk at Lewis Scrap Metal.

I thought it might be of interest to your readers to see where old UP 2749 came to rest. I included a photo from the Union Pacific website of the locomotive in 2008- looking a little rough even then.

Keep up the good work-

Mike
Griffin, IN USA”

A big thanks to Mike, Robert and to John for sharing his HO scale track plan 20 x 20.

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.

Jim’s been back in touch with a stunning HO scale cab ride on layout.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s one of the best ones I’ve seen.

You’ll remember Jim from some earlier posts, and seeing as his weathered freight cars feature in this video, here’s some of his earlier stuff.

“Greetings Alastair.

I’m continuing to add more realism to my layout and have been installing more electrical lighting. The latest are trackside signals. And hope to add more. These are NJ International and operate manually.

This update includes a cab ride GoPro video and an iPhone video and some stills. There are two consists highlighting several weathered freight cars.

Should you consider posting this video, please know for some reason, the YouTube video playback may not be very clear as it sometimes plays at 720p HD and sometimes at 320p. In any event, I hope you enjoy the visual and sound effects updates. And great thanks for providing this entertaining and informational site as I’ve seen so many wonderful and highly detailed layouts from so many talented modelers.

Best regards,

Jim AZ”

“Good morning Alastair:

I love the information and ideas of your train world. I thought it might be helpful to some modelers to find inspiration out in the backcountry.

Recently I spent two days traveling with my cousin in Southeastern Nebraska. It is primarily Fran country. Rolling hills and mile after mile of farm country dotted with small towns. The smallest I saw was Pop. 75. Some in the low hundreds. The county seat had a mere 3,300 residents.

These small towns are full of old buildings that fit my 1950 and prior theme. Buildings from the late 1800’s in fact. My cousin was the head designer for the Lincoln, Nebraska Museum before he retired a few years ago. He is a local historian as well. I wanted to share a couple of ideas that the average scratch builder or beginner can do.

The first building is the “Roca Station” from a very small town Roca, Nebraska. It was restored and moved by the historical society. My cousin was the chief project manager for the station Reno and move. I changed the overall scale of the building to suit my layout. A little artistic license…

The second building is a small bank built in the 1800’s. I included a photo of the “foundation” I have created to simulate the original. It is a mattboard frame with talus rocks glued on. I simulate the mortar with drywall mud. After it dries, a Dremel and a small wire wheel sands off the surface to reveal the stones.

Again, a lot of the layouts are spectacular. Not all of us are wealthy enough to build them or even skilled enough to do the purist work. That is no criticism of those fortunate ones. Instead an encouragement to many of us who simply enjoy the hobby on a more manageable scale.

I am at the point now on my layout where only a small amount of ballast work left. I have started to wire up, and have multiple posts from your followers to help there since I am not that skilled at electrical. So at present buildings to fill the planned areas.

Cheers mate and a great day of modeling for all.

Mike
Clermont, Florida”

A huge thank you to Mike. And if I’m not mistaken, Mike also sent in these amazing scratch builds too.

Thanks also to Jim for sharing his HO scale cab ride on layout.

Please do keep ’em coming. That’s all for today, folks – except for this call to arms:

I enjoy sitting on the couch as much as the next man, but there comes a time when you have to strike out: is today going to be your day? Is today going to be the day you take the plunge with the Beginner’s Guide?

Course, I’m biased, but why not join in on the fun? I know it’s a great spectator sport, but it’s even better when you roll your sleeves up and start tinkering.

And for me, that is the key: tinkering. Over the years I’ve noticed not one of you is in a screaming hurry, because where’s the fun in that?

It’s all about tinkering. Scratching your head over the numerous problems a layout presents, and enjoying the process as it unfolds. It really doesn’t matter how long it takes, it’s a wondeful way to pass the time.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

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 tells more about his HO scale foam board bench work.

His previous post is here if you want to catch up.

“Hi Al,

John from Baltimore here.

On the last post you so kindly put up of my coal mine and lighting improvements, several people commenting expressed an interest in how the layout started and grew, and what the final track plan is.

The layout is now 2/3 of the way done from a scenery point of view, some fill in mountains right and left of the mine, and backdrop painting. I went back through pictures and put together sort of a timeline photo montage.

The first picture was the inspiration for my layout, the real Keddie Wye at the north end of the Feather River Canyon in the Sierra Mountains of California, my railroad transported the scenery to the East Coast of the U.S.A. in West Virginia. As mentioned at the beginning, I determined that most of the highly detailed work would be done in my wood shop, which is outside in a garage.

This meant that the modules could not be wider than the doorway to the basement of the house. Designing the modules and working out a track plan left me with a decision that 2 of the modules had to be built inside at the layout location, as they were too big a footprint and I had a storage island we wanted to keep which is under the mine mountain where I have storage tracks. So the storage tracks below the mine mountains, and the city module were built in place.

We never used the sink on the island (no idea why it was there) but wanted to keep the storage cabinets under the island provide. The mine and train storage tracks were built above the island, and the isle behind the layout is access to bulk food storage, also, the compromise with the wife for that access that gave me access to the storage tracks! A win-win.

Since most of the detail work in the city was done on the buildings, it still could be done outside and the buildings placed on the module inside, as an example the 3-stall roundhouse has kit-bashed building additions, air conditioning, water tower, added piping and a radio antenna on the roof, and were built in the wood shop. There’s no scenery on the storage tracks.

On the schematic, pink is the first bridge module, blue is the next town module, purple the storage tracks and finally green for the mine module.

Building the bench-work for the city module in place also gave me plenty of space for my modeling junk underneath, I use boxes and plastic bins. So far the only trains I’ve run are for testing the tracks for continuity and clearance for 85’ passenger cars. Wiring of the switches, signals and blocks to come soon as I can get to them. I tried not to repeat photos I’ve sent in earlier, but maybe a few crept in here.

John From Baltimore”

A huge thanks to John for sharing his HO scale foam board bench work.

It’s been wonderful to see all his updates, and this recap really does show just how much busy he’s been. Amazing stuff, and I can’t wait for the next update.

Now on to Dangerous Dave who has been back in touch.

He sent this in:

“Hi Al, bit of a poor day here today so decided it was time to run a few trains and give the garden a rest.

Regards

Dave”

That’s all for today folks. Please do keep ’em coming.

And if it’s time for you to start laying tracks again, don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

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