Model railroad layouts plans

Bob’s been back in touch. He’s added a HO scale siding to his layout, and another loop too.

His last post is here.

“Al,

My original layout after adding sidings still only allowed me to run two trains in the two inner ovals. Running outside of the inner ovals required stopping one train to allow another to access the whole outer loop.

I decided to move my layout to a bigger room and expand it, adding a HO scale siding and loop.

Attached are two track plans: the 4x6x4x5 is the original and the other is the new expanded layout.

The third picture of the layout before I partially dismantled and moved it.

The first picture shows the first part of the move where I added legs to the first section.

In the second picture I expanded the ladder area to provide longer sidings. Next I added 6 inches on both sided and 10 inches on the end of the layout. The one 6 inch addition and the 10 inch addition allowed me to add a wye to split the single main into a double main that covers ¾ of the outer area and has two crossovers that allow access to a new siding and converts the double main back to a single main.

The 10 inch expansion exposed the back side of the rock formation so I had to do some work with plaster cloth. Once I finished the initial expansion I moved on to the major part of the expansion where I had to deviate slightly from the track plan because of a pull-down ladder. But it was a blessing in disguise because it allowed me more room for the lift-out section.

Ho scale siding:

The picture shows the finished tablework and the lift-out section is the part with the two sections of foam on the right of the picture. I cut pieces from a sheet of .16 copper I got at the hobby center to use as contacts for the lift-out section shown in the second picture. The lift-out required some tweaking but works fine.

The move and expansion while not complete yet allowed me to clean up and straighten up most of the wiring. I also added a NCE SB Power Booster and a RJ12 Control loop with a second UTP control.

Nowhere near finished but most of the hard work is done for the added HO scale siding.

Bob, Virginia”

“Hi Al, just loaded part 9 of the re building of my layout, a good few keep asking about the connectors I use and the disco lights, in this one I show both and add a lead to bay were they can be bought, with a tip on using LED lights… still a way to go yet… but now got one of the outer circuit tracks up and running.

Regards

Dave”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here

A big thanks to Bob for sharing his ho scale siding addition, and to Dave. And if you want to join in with the fun, the Beginner’s guide is here.

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

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.

Peter’s been in touch again. This time he shows us his o gauge roundhouse – how it was, and now, how it is.

(his last post is here if you want to catch up).

I have to say, I do like it when I see Peter’s name pop up in my inbox, I know it’s going to be good:

“Hi Al,

When you get a chance please post.

Standard O gauge roudnhouse and the start of On3 narrow gauge.

See the O gauge roundhouse on its own, and then in a scene, really does get across how good Peter’s work is.

And best of all, Peter seems to be having a great time and that’s what it’s all about.

Now on to Brian, who is using a ‘cheap’ camera to create his cab ride videos.

“Hi Alistair.

Thanks for the posting of the video.

The comments are great and I did answer the questions asked about the video camera and the ceiling height.

Maybe you could post the pictures to show the guys what the camera looks like. I am sure that it would answer some of the questions and be appreciated by all.

I know dangerous Dave uses a small camera and may like to see this one. I have googled the one he uses and it was too big for my narrow gauge.

Many thanks and all the best in keeping up the excellent work.

Brian”

(Brian’s video is here.)

A huge thanks to Brian and to Peter for sharing his O gauge roundhouse.

You all know how I love an update and we’re being spoilt at the moment. Hope it continues.

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

And if you want to start you layout today, don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

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.