Model railroad layouts plans

Dan’s been in touch with his HO scale maintenance of way car:

“Decided to finish the tool car before sending it to you.

Was stalled with paint issues, but yesterday I got the right primer that looks to be setting up just fine. The black tender body wasn’t liking the product I was using before.

Here is one view, Al. The shed portion is glued down, but the rest is just resting on the chassis.

Added some tool boxes/bin for some interest. Most of what you see here will be blue, except for the shed roof, which will be a silver grey.

Once painted and secured, next will be the added the ladders and some railings. I think it will come pretty close to the prototype.

Here is a side view. Sides will be grey silver bottom, with the blue upper portion, with the requisite yellow striping either side of the blue field. Should have put my windows in first, but got some stuff yesterday that will create window panes. Picked up a cheepie Life Like search lite car, but won’t wait for that to be done before I send you my piece. The copy is 90% done.

I really enjoyed Dangerous Dave and Debi’s train exploit. I had to research where that was in England. The cathedral ruins were part of the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, I understand.

Will “git it to yer” as soon as I can.

Dan”

You don’t see many HO scale maintenance of way cars on layouts – or any scale come to that. But they add so much interest to a layout.

Not long ago, Hank got in touch.

He showed us how lack of space should never stop you having fun (you can see his post here).

Well, he’s been kind enough to send in a few more pics:

“Hi Al,

really like your site have gotten many great ideas from it. I do have some of your printable buildings but have not made many as yet. I shake too as a result of RA but I refuse to let that stop me.

You asked if I had any more pics so here you go. Many of my vehicles are built from kitsch. I hope you will enjoy them.

I think that I have finally solved my leaky basement problem so now it’s time for bench work to begin.

Thanks Hank.

BTW all of it is HO scale.”

As always a big thanks to Dan for sharing his HO scale maintenance of way car, and to Hank who isn’t going to let a few aches and pains stop him. Good man.

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.

Rob’s been in touch with his model railroad train station canopy:

“Hi Al,

My latest video may be of interest to you. It is about the construction of scratch built canopies for my island platform.

As I was thinking about my Howe Street Station and what I wanted it overall to look like when it was done I could see I needed to do some scratch work.

I really wanted was some canopies that fit my island platform and stayed in the style and feel of the canopies that came with my March station buildings set as best as I could. Studying the Google satellite and Street Views of the real Church station made me realize the new canopies needed to have skylights.

I also wanted skylights so it would not be so dark under the canopies. Lastly I wanted a design that I could remove for cleaning and for building new scenes on my platforms.

Here is a picture of the partially finished area I am concerning myself with. I am building two more canopies beside the two in the photo so that other than a small space between them, they will run most of the length of the platform.

The scene in the first of the video is of a partially finished Howe Street Station. There will be more lighting added on the station side when I can get to it. The canopies have kept me busy of a couple of weeks.

The plastic card I used did not come in the exact size needed so it had to be precisely cut up so it could be welded back together with the cut out for the glazing. I used Wills Kits SSMP219 Builders sheets – corrugated asbestos plastic card and clear styrene for the glass. The muttons or frames for the windows were made from various Plastruct shapes as well as the framing under the roof.

Rob McCrain – Farland Howe”

Model railroad train station canopy:

Now on to Terry:

“Hello Al.

Thought I would add an observation and a tip to fellow modelers.; I’ve been building model railroads in HO scale for 50+ years and I usually start with a 4×8 sheet of plywood, and then add on as needed–always making rectangle tables for the track such as Crazy Dave’s great layout.

A few months ago I started planning a new layout by drawing the tracks as I wanted them to look first– not based on the predetermined shape of the table top.

I came to the realization that the earth doesn’t have 90 degree angles and neither should a layout.

This worked much better and gave me peninsulas jutting out on both sides and leading to an interesting look in addition to providing me walk-in space for hard to reach areas.

Of course the overall table needs to conform in some way to the available space in the room so you have to take that into consideration.

Thanks for all your help and the input of other modelers–I’m glad I found your blog.

Incidentally the Damnit 2 railroad is coming along after 6 months of trying to find a new configuration for a freight/passenger yard. (thanks to members who contributed ideas). As the snow begins to fall in the U.S. Rocky Mountains I hope to have most of the basic work done soon.

Take care and keep modeling

Terry”

(Terry’s last post is here.)

A huge thanks today for Terry and Hall of Fame member, Rob, for his model railroad train station canopy help.

I don’t think I will ever tire of seeing what’s in my inbox each morning.

And lastly, thanks to everyone who has mailed me comments on my second backdrop. Please let me know what you’d like for the number 3!

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 in touch with the latest pics from his HO mining layout:

“Hi Alistair,

John from Baltimore, Maryland USA here.

I now have the left side of my layout started. As you may recall, this is going to be a coal hauling railroad set in the mountains of West Virginia, only my mountains are going to be more like the Rockies, that is more bare rock and steeper sides.

The left side also has a number of storage tracks that will be under the mountains and the coal mine, those are in and I can now run trains completely around the U shaped layout.

As I did with the bridges, I’m building the mine and associated other buildings, a electric utility switch yard and some smaller industries as modules in my wood shop to be carried in and placed on the layout, the rest of the scenery is to be constructed around them.

So the first of these modules for the left side of the “U”, the coal mine structures are completed, and will soon get a ton more details as they are placed on the layout.

One may notice that these are pretty banged up and not clean and shiny buildings. Coal mines are dirty. The roads around them are dirty, the vehicles around them are dirty. Yep, one might say mining and transporting coal is dirty.

The kits for the mine started with the Walthers Cornerstone coal mine, and their gravel mine, and several small kits. I chose those 2 main ones because they were both modeled with corrugated steel sides. I love kit-bashing and working buildings into a scene.

I added windows to the gravel kit, and moved the suggested layout of the buildings all over the place, and added a dump for coal brought to the mine by trucks. The trucks give me the chance to model some roads cut into the mountains.

The track diagram of left-and center sections of the “U” has green for the tracks that are under the mountains and hidden, and purple for above ground tracks which are visible, yellow are the bridges I sent in pictures of some time ago.

I’ll be sending in some pictures as the mines are installed and the left side starts to take shape.

John from Baltimore”

A huge thanks to John for sharing his HO mining layout. As You all know, I do love seeing a layout come to life from the bare bones of the bench.

Not long ago I put together my first ever backdrop. You can see that here.

Well, here’s the second (I pretty much put it together on the comments and mails from the first one).

I’m really pleased with it, but please do let me know what you all think, I’d really appreciate that.

Click to enlarge it:

It’s 18″ by 144″.

Just like the other one, to print, just put the file download on to a CD or memory stick, take it to any office stationers (Kinko / Office Max) and print it out on a smooth, self adhesive, vinyl with UV inks and a matte finish. Job done.

If you’d like to grab this back drop before it goes in the store at full price, you can grab it here for just $7.

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.