Model railroad layouts plans

John’s been in touch – he’s decided to make a small layout, a model train in a suitcase!

“Dear Mr. Lee

I mentioned my desire to build a layout I could fit in a suitcase.

I began this in late May or early June.

It is On30 (1/4 inch scale narrow gauge).

I mentioned to you a while back when your covered bridge was new that I saw an engine shed.

The shed you see here is my “proof of concept”, there are adjustments to be made, a lot of adjustments.

The water tower is made from a loo roll and is loosely based on the water tower that served the Edaville RR.

The yellow shed you may recognize also.

I do not have the model train in a suitcase named yet but I am thinking “Valise Yard” as the layout is exactly three feet long when unfolded.

In this picture you see some of the equipment I have built for this little layout.

The little A frame ore cars are made of card and sit on Bachmann’s On30 Passenger Car trucks -one carriage bogie per car.

The real purpose of this picture has been to show the capacities of each spur, a 2-1-3 Inglenook

For those with very limited space, the Inglenook shunting plan is a great way to have a model railway.

The Inglenook takes up little space and is very fun to operate.

It is also a plan that is thrifty on the budget!

I hope you have enjoyed my model train in a suitcase today,

Sincerely,

John from Cali”

“Al,

Really enjoy your site. Used to build model trains and many great memories. These days, I do dioramas.

Working on a method to creat realistic-looking explosions.

1. Creat a cage around what you want to blow up with the chicken wire

2. Take the cage off the model and cover with stretched cotton balls attached by applying glue to the chicken wire. Be sure to pull the cotton and not just stuff in cotton balls

3. When the chicken wire is all covered with cotton, stuff orange and yellow tissue paper (or cellophane) inside the wire cage.

4. Spray paint the cotton using florescent orange and yellow paint touches of flat black. Stand back and only give a misting over the cotton. Mix the orange and yellow.

5. Attach an LED light source to model at to fit inside the cage you have built. (Here, using a light from a headstrap)

6. Turn the light on and place the cotton cage over the model … you’ve got your explosion!

Here is the final diorama scene for the explosing RV.

John Fraim
New Albany, Ohio”

A big thanks to John for sharing his model train in a suitcase, and to the other John for his ‘explosion’.

It still amazes me what lands in my inbox every morning – hope you enjoyed today’s as much as I did.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you want to start on your layout (It’s all about making a start).

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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

William has been in touch with his DCC N scale auto reverse loop:

“My layout is 4′ X 10′.

The railroad has a trestle and 3 other bridges crossing a stream.

It has 2 reverse loops and light sensitive switching to prevent the train from approaching a switch thrown the wrong way.

If the switch is in the incorrect position it will automatically correct itself and accordingly change the color of the LED on the control panel fascia. Because of the automatic switching the route is long as it travels behind the big mountain and the next time it travels in front of the big mountain.

It’s a Great Northern/Santa Fe layout. I have I have 4 Great Northern DCC Sound Engines and 1 Santa Fe DCC sound engine.

At one point the double track oval merges into a single track for a little while and then reopens to a double track…Because of the change to a single track, running two or more trains at once requires an attentive engineer to avoid a collision.(Just like in real railroading).

The big mountain was cast from a large piece of petrified wood. The DCC is Digitrax. The reverse loops are flawlessly controlled by 2 “Tony’s” PSX reversers.

The real railroading fun is the ability to program horns, engine start, engine stop, lights, bells, etc.

William”

(All pictures are clickable)

And now the latest from Dangerous Dave.

It’s wonderful to see videos of layouts with the trains running, but sometimes the videos can be slightly ‘wobbly’.

Dave’s bought himself a new toy – a gimble to stop camera wobble. And you watch the vid, you’ll see his camera following a train flawlessly:

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

A big thanks to Dave and tp William for sharing his DCC N scale auto reverse loop.

(There are lots more N scale layouts here.)

William’s layout reminded me of some print out scenery: the hotel/saloon.

Somehow, it never got put on the site, so I’m going to put that right this week.

It’s worth seeing again just for the bonkers video John did.

It’s all HO scale, so if you want N scale, just reduce the print by 54%.

Here’s the saloon – or hotel – depending on what sign you stick on it (you get both with the print).

And if you’ve watched the video below, you’ll also see that John used the same print to make this little shed:

And here are the fences – here the pics only show a short length of them – but of course, you can print out as many as you like and make the fences as long as you like.

The patios are included in this set of prints too – but I didn’t take any pics – you’ll see them on the vid though. John also made a wall out of one of the patio prints too:

Here’s the vid:

Right now, you can get all three for just $9 – that’s a $18 saving.

Just click here, or the button below, to buy them right now at the discount price, and save yourself $18. Course, I’m biased, but that’s not a bad saving at all.

You can more of the printable buildings range here.

That’s all this time folks.

Hope you enjoyed John’s video as much as me – I think he’s been on the coffee again.

Best

Al

PS Looking for the Beginner’s Guide? It’s here.

Peter’s been in touch again with some more pics of his railroad scenes – his O scale models really do bring it all to life.

If you missed his last post, it’s here (he also wrote a wonderful narrative too).

“Hi Al, various scenes from my O scale 2 rail, from humble beginnings to detail… thx and be well!

Peter”

(All images are clickable)

O scale models:

Stunning stuff and some wonderful scenes. It’s a wonderful layout to revisit with new pics.

A huge thanks to Peter for sharing pics of his O scale models.

He’s been kind enough to send lots of pics and helpful stuff in over the years – it’s a real joy when I see his name pop up in my inbox, because I know it’s going to be something good.

Clearly he loves his scenery and painting his engines, if you look at his pics the locos look spot on.

You can see how he strips the engines down and paints them in the bottom of this post:

Yanni HO scale layout.

Another contributor to the blog in O scale is Bill (Well, he does HO and N as well). His scenery really stand out for me – don’t just take my word for it though, have a look for yourself.

O scale scenery. Bill also uses a lot of O scale models to bring his layout to life.

There’s also the every popular Lionel O scale trains:

Lionel O scale trains.

That’s all for today folks – hope you enjoyed it as much as me.

Please do keep ’em coming – just mail me your pics, hints and tips – because it’s getting ghostly quiet this end.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you want to make that start on your layout.

Remember, it’s the start that stops most people…

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here

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