Lewis has been in touch with some model train scenery pics:
“Well it’s been a while since I talked with you but this is Lew.
This is how far I am, money’s tight so I try to use whatever I can to form mountains and roadways and so beefing up the table some more.
I changed the lake configuration so that it was inboard instead of outboard and it has made storage a lot easier as well as more stability when moving the table.
I hope it’s a somewhat interesting to some of the guys and I’m sorry that I don’t know how to describe things as well as these guys do that send all of these things into you all the time, but I thank you for all of them and hopefully they’ll see something here that trips your trigger who knows.
Lewis”
“I introduce myself and just say thanks for all of the great posts you do daily.
Here a a few shots from my N scale model layout. I hope you enjoy these. My layout is 36″ x 120″ and I am about 60% complete still a lot of small detail work that has to be done.
Dave”
Now on to Pete, who shares what this hobby is all about:
“Alastair – I thought that you might be interested in a N-scale project my pre-teen grandson, Liam, has undertaken recently.
I know it might pale as compared to most layouts presented here recently and in the past. However, I believe it shows quite a deal of planning and innovation on Liam’s part.
He started with an old table from his favorite Brio trainset and superimposed this N-scale layout. Since he is very passionate about airplanes and airports, he said: “Papa, let’s add an airport next to the town!
Liam performed most of the airport runway painting and building placement in the town, including placement of the “castle” overlooking the activities.
He also added the cars/lorries and parking areas to handle the airport cargo.
Haven’t observed much from your “younger” fans, so this as might exemplify the next generation of “train spotters”.
Thanks for the review & Cheers Mate!
Pete
Washington State, USA”
A big thanks to Lewis, Peter and Dave for sharing their model train scenery pics.
Now on to Hall of Famer Dave:
“Hi Al…
I was up on the N.Y.M.Railway a few weeks back with the return of the famous British icon Loco A4 Sir Nigel Gresley.
Managed to get a few shots in along with a few other Locos
Brian’s been back in touch with the latest on his HO scale waterfront layout.
If you want to get back up to speed, his last post is here:
“Hi Alastair,
Herewith the continuing saga of the Cascade Creek HOn3 railroad on the lower level of my double deck shelf layout.
I decided that it is time to get moving on the second corner on the lower level of my layout which has had me scratching my head for months on what to do there.
I printed a black & white photo of the corner and started sketching what I would like to do there.
Below is what I roughly came up with.
This was the starting point where I would like to have a small river stretching to about two thirds of the way towards the back wall.
In the back corner is a kit bashed Campbell scale Brett’s brewery.
Here is an expanded picture of the area that I am working on. I am going to have another river on the left also going in all the way to just before the back wall.
All the bridges are kit bashed from HO Atlas and Volmer kits.
I started marking out where the river has to go and the next part is to cut the baseboard out on the pencil outlines.
Below is where the left side river will be with the rail crossing over it.
Just behind the rail bridge will be a road bridge to enable traffic to go from the left side to the right eventually leading to businesses, the yard, engine terminal facilities and a turn table.
Here is where I need to figure out what and where the buildings need to placed on the right hand side of this intended river.
The cutting process has begun. I was able to get some splinter free jigsaw blades and managed to cut the board without any vibrations to the surrounding buildings already fixed in place.
Another view of the area. (The buss wires are visible under the layout) They will run under the river beds. The odd shape cut out in the middle is where the boat hire business will be.
Below, checking the fit and placement of the bridges and the small boat hire building in the middle of the photo.
Note the sketch above the work area attached to the upper level to keep me focused on what needs to be done next.
The stone arch road bridge near the back is in place and the track coming from the harbour area (left, out of the photo) running behind the road bridge to the intended yard and engine facilities.
The white card stock building may be a small dock and office on the river. (Yet to be scratch built.
The culverts need to be fixed in place. Water will eventually come out of the pipes into the river.
SO board is used to shape the river and plaster cloth will be used to form the banks and the bed of the river.
I used ISO board to pre-form the banks and will be covered with plaster cloth.
I had previously cast quite a few random stone walls in resin (in a silicone mold) which I am using to line the waters edge shown below. They were super glued (cyanoacrylate) together to form a longer section which I would then use my heat gun to form the curves and shape as required. Tamiya modelling putty will be used to hide any joints between the sections.
River bed in place and once the plaster cloth is in place, the river bed will be raised, the stone wall support (left) for the bridge will be at the correct level.
Checking the fit of the small boat hire building before bending the stone walls to fit snugly allowing for a staircase from the deck up to ground level.
This is as far as I am at this stage. Very time consuming stone work to make sure that all the curves are correct.
I will send more photos and a write up as I progress on this layout.
Brian – the HOn3 guy in Knysna, RSA”
A huge big thanks to Hall of Famer, Brian, for sharing his HO scale waterfront layout update.
Brian’s post reminded me of Sheldon’s (which is N scale):
Rob’s been back in touch with his stunning model London underground layout:
“Hi Al,
Since my last missive, I have among other things made considerable progress on my London Underground Tube Cables project.
I am not finished adding the fourth rail in the center between the running rails on my two express passenger lines. I have run out of material and have some on order so I will be able to add the 4 to 5 sections of rail there in the future.
In the last video, I built two sections of the cabling hangers and in this video, I built one more section of cable hangers and cables and went on to create terminations for both ends. After all, I couldn’t just leave the cables dead-ending in space.
On one end I have the cables going into a large cabinet/house mounted down on the trackbed and on the other end, I built a wall-mounted box and have the cables going into that with cable connectors.
To get a close-up view of the cables with their mounting and verify I was achieving the look I wanted, I decided to mount my small camera on a truck and push it along in front of a locomotive to get the view I wanted. As a result, a cab ride was born. Who doesn’t enjoy a cab ride around a model train layout?
I will be finishing this whole scene up when the additional material arrives but it is very close to being completed now.
The whole cable array is one piece and is quite solid and strong. Someday, if I move or take this layout down, I can salvage this element.
Thank you for this platform where modelers can share. It is a great service to the modeling community around the world.
cheers,
Rob”
A huge big thank you to Hall of Famer, Rob.
If you missed his first post, you won’t be disappointed if you have a look. It’s here:
None of the buildings sell for les than $9 in the store, so that’s $297 worth of printable buildings.
Then there’s the Beginner’s guide which sells at £27 – but it’s just $9 until Monday – so you are saving a whopping $315.
Of course, I’m biased, but it’s a crazy deal.
And just to show how much fun you can have with printable buildings (they are brilliant to dip your toe in the water with this hobby), here’s a small selection of them on layouts:
“Al, like you I have been retired for some time now.
I have gone back to my American Flyer, s Guage boyhood train.
I have had “n guage, HO, G scale”, and this American Flyer has been the most fun of all. I guess it takes me back to my parents basement where my 4 x 8 foot layout was back in the early 50’s.
I resized your wonderful old barn and had so much fun building it. Here are some pics. Hope everyone enjoys it as much as I have.
Jerry from Illinois, USA.”
“Al,
Great project and a lot of fun. The barn is on it’s way to the Railroad Club.
Charles”
“Al
I have enjoyed your site for a long time, since I have retired had to find something to fill the spare time, I purchased one of your bundles and printed out one of the Engine sheds among many others.
I have created my own version of the Engine shed as shown in the pictures.
Side walls have ventilation fan vents.
I have dreamed to set up a model railroad layout for a long time and when I started to make it a reality one thing came up after another, like kids, education, weddings and now I have time and room to finish the dream, but not much of a budget.
Best to all talented people like Hall of Fame Dave, talented hobbyists and their many beautiful layouts.
Ryszard”
And of course, there’s lots of the printable buildings on your layouts.
Here some pictures of them:
Mike has used a lot of the houses and grain elevators (not featured in the bundle – just using a print out example).
And frankly you couldn’t pick a better time to take the plunge with the Beginner’s Guide – it’s just $9, 33 free buildings, and you also get the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing you’ve supported the blog and helped kept the show on the road.
Best
Al
PS None of the buildings sell for les than $9 in the store, so with the Beginner’s Guide, you are saving $315 – but only until Monday!
