Model railroad layouts plans

Mike’s been back in touch with more on making HO buildings from scratch.

Mike’s last post is here.

He sent me quite a few emails, and I managed to miss these (I think I get a gazillion emails a day).

“Good morning Alastair:

Here is the jig and roller I made to create raised rib roofing. The aluminum is a coke can, the jig is a piece of 18 gauge wire. The roller is a bolt with three washers. Time consuming but works well. The result is used on the “O” scale building.

This small model gives me a better idea of flow and structure. The actual lay out will be 90”x90”..

I just completed this after more than 10 months. It is an actual building in a town called Western, Nebraska. The building is an abandoned old feed mill.

I built it to capture the patina of this great old building. This is actually in “O Guage”.

I built the Skelton like a timber frame to skin the building. I completely sheathed the structure before putting the corrugated siding.

The siding is aluminum from soda cans. I cut the cans open, flattened and corrugated with a scrap booking device. The standing rib roofing required me to make a fixture to hand make each one.

Again, the soda can is the source of the Aluminium. I made all the windows and doors from scrap wood. The power pole is a chop stick with electronics parts from and old computer to represent the power transformers.

This one was labor intensive siding the underlayment, make each corrugated siding and roof panels.

The separating funnels Are dowels I turned down on my drill press.

Cheers,

Mike”

My word – amazing stuff. Just loved what Mike’s done with his abandoned mill – so much character.

Just goes to show when you get your thinking cap on, making HO buildings from scratch is easy.

And how clever to create a ‘study model’ for the layout too – it’s like a mock up of the track plan.

Can’t wait to see this layout progress. Fingers crossed Mike will keep us posted.

Please do leave a comment for Mike below!

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.

Mike’s been in touch – he’s been busy scratch building HO scale structures:

“Good day Alastair:

Here are some HO scale buildings I scratch built.

I build furniture for a hobby and save every scrap of wood to use for other projects. I cut most of my “lumber” on my table saw. I cut my shingles from 1/64 or 1/32 plywood. My goal is to purchase the bare minimum to complete a project.

I buy windows from Grayline but make most of my doors. I start with a photo and render something that captures the feeling of the building. Hope you enjoy seeing these.

Mike
Clermont, FL. USA”

Scratch building HO scale structures:

A huge thanks to Mike for sharing – scratch building HO scale structures is something that comes up on the blog a lot.

I thought Mike’s buildings were packed with character!

There are so many scratch building posts on the blog now, and each of them have display a new way of making a building or weathering.

Take Richard for example. Not only is his scratch building a joy to look at, it’s N scale – how he can make them without going blind is beyond me:

N scale scratch built model

And it never fails to make me smile when I see what people have used.

Barry made a power station from card stock, and gave it that solid look by using wooden blocks:

Scratch built power station.

Anyhow, I hope the posts get the creative side of your mind ticking, becauase if you are scratch building HO scale structures, you’ll need it. Or any scale come to that.

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.

There are quite a few large HO scale layouts on the blog now – Bill’s really does stick out though, it’s stunning.

(his last post is here).

“Hi Al,

Sorry its been so long since my last email. I have included a few more images of my never ending layout.

My first shot is of the entire length of my area at this time.

My initial layout started with a 19 X 13 foot area (photos from my last email), then i extended 4 feet to connect to a new section which is 9 X 30feet.

The additional photos in this email are close-up day and night of my harbor area. I will send another email with a few more of my 9 X30 industrial area section.

As you can see, i enjoy spending my time with trains!

Happy Modeling.

Bill”

Jim’s also been back in touch with another stunner (his last post is here)

“Greetings from southern AZ. Some updates and additions to the layout. Having converted some plus 30 year old Santa Fe Athearn GP7 and Atlas SD24 engines I had from years gone by to DCC by a friend, I decided to go back in time to the late seventies.

So along with some newer InterMountain Santa Fe SD40’s, new, older autos (some with led lights) and some recently weathered Athearn blue box freight cars, we’re in an older era featuring Santa Fe.

I also installed traffic lights, crossing signals and gates. The crossing signals are Woodland Scenics and the crossing signals and gates are NJ International. They both function with switches for now and the gates are not motorized. And the traffic lights are Walthers.

A great thanks to you Alastair for your site and a great thanks to the many talented and creative modelers who provide so many innovative ideas and how to’s. Your videos and photos are greatly appreciated.

Jim AZ”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here – have a look.

A huge thank you to Jim, and to Bill for adding to the large HO scale layouts on the blog. Stunning, stunning stuff.

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.