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Using mirrors to create depth in model railroads

Steve’s been in touch, with a fab post on using mirrors to create depth in model railroads:

“Hi Al

I have been working on my MPD for my “Whenton” heritage railway. At one end of the baseboard there was a problem in that I needed my loco shed to be quite near to the wall, but there was a double wall socket protruding at just the wrong height.

Having had quotes for relocating the socket, I decided that a different (for which read cheaper) approach was needed. I decided to mask the socket using a mirror (which would also make the loco shed look twice the size).

The solution had to allow access to the sockets if the plugs needed to be removed (which would be a rare occurrence) although I did want to be able to turn the sockets off at the end of an operating session.

I obtained a suitably sized mirror with plain edges and considered how to mount it so as to be removable yet securely fixed. I made up a small end support from a wood block screwed to the baseboard with a piece of plastic channel epoxied to it (photo 2). This would hold the far end of the mirror at 90 degrees which was vital if the reflection of the shed was to look correct.

A more substantial block was screwed to the baseboard at right-angles to the first one (photo 3). This forms a stop-block for the rear of the mirror, and the mirror has another piece of wood epoxied to the back which is screwed to the top of the stop-block and is the small one to the bottom right in photo 4.

A third wooden block was epoxied to the nearer end of the mirror’s back. This was then screwed to the baseboard to steady that end of the mirror, (With hindsight, it would have made mirror removal a bit easier had I done this one in a similar way to the far stop block!) This block is the large one seen in photo 4 bottom left.

Finally, a small block was epoxied nearer the top edge of the mirror back, with a right-angled metal bracket screwed to it. The other end of the bracket is screwed to a small batten in the wall. This bracket is seen at the top of photo 4.

During all this I was cracking on with building a 4-road shed to go alongside the 2-road shed shown in photo 1.

The effect given by the mirror is shown in photo 5. There is a lot of scenic work still to be done, but I am quite pleased with the result so far. I can reach the socket switches without disturbing the mirror and should I need to get at the plugs it’s a case of undoing a few screws.

Regards,

Steve”

A big thanks to Steve for his way og using mirrors to create depth in model railroads. I do love seeing your solutions to the problems your layouts throw at you.

It rememinded me of the bottom of this post, where a mirror has been used to ‘enlarge’ the layout: N scale coal mine.

Now on to Fuad – can anyone help?

“Hello Al, I hope this finds you well. I’m embarking on a new HO layout. Essentially an open square with a duck-under and a central peninsula with a dividing backdrop, 18×18.

I’m looking for lightweight construction ideas. The surface of the layout will be 2” pink foam board so I don’t need heavy duty framing to hold it up. In addition, two sides of the square will be attached to basement walls as shown in the image.

Is there something lighter and easier to use than lumber to hold up the foam board, and make the legs on the sides that are not attached to the walls (as well as the peninsula?) Would aluminum or steel beams work – assuming I could cut them to size handily – or some other material?

Here’s the track plan. I hope folks on this site can contribute ideas. Thanks.

Fuad”

If you can help Fuad please leave a comment below!

And lastly on to Jim, who has shared his stunning update:

“The loco is an analog to dcc converted Fleischmann br 03 streamlined loco in photo livery and is about 40 years old pulling Fleischmann express coaches.

Model railway attic layout is H0 1/87 scale based in Germany black forest area , size is 4.4m x 0.8 for the station run off and the main layout is 3.8m x 3.3m.

The system is digital controlled & most locos have sound.The layout is shaped like a big number nine with the terminus branching off the oval, it has three main lines & two stations with many storage areas including a 26 exit Fleischmann turntable.

Jim”

You can see Jim’s first post here.

That’s all for this time 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

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.

Santa Fe passenger car – Dan’s

Dan’s been in touch with his Santa Fe passenger cars and as usual, some more good tips:

“For this post I will concentrate mostly on details and how to use leftovers.

Another look at the finished layout of the Mainline Railroad.

Here is an old 1960’s Athearn Santa Fe passenger car. It is now the “Streamliner Diner” near the engine house at the main yard.

Towns have to have a place to eat. Here is another old passenger car that was picked up at a train show and it was in rough shape.

The covered hopper became a salt company’s distribution center. The car was in a junk pile with missing trucks and couplers.

I have mentioned using furnace filter material as hedges or weed patches. Here are two photos of a fairly firm filter material.

The photo shows the size to show how dense this one was. I wanted to have a well defined manicured top for this hedge. This provided a “natural” view block to hid the fact that there is no street between the trains and the city.

I sprayed the filter with a quick spray of brownish paint. If any ground foam misses a place it looks like stems. The I sprayed glue over the filter and sprinkled ground foam for foliage. There is a smaller hedge in front of the taller one and is using a larger size ground foam. This just adds depth.

Here I used a leftover industrial window as a grate to prevent large debris entering the drain and then into the river.

Here is a smaller window to do the same thing.

Here is the outlet from the larger grate in photo #8. That kitty litter as rip rap to prevent erosion.

This photo was used in the first post. The houses were in a box of old junk. They had been removed from various layouts, again at a train show. I cleaned them up and fixed them as best as possible. (They would be about 2 to 2 and half feet away.)

They were painted to match each other because they had bee the “company” houses for the coal mine. The one different one was a supervisor’s house I guess. They are now gentrified and have individual ownership.

The layout has an old time western town and museum. This is the yard office and water tower. Tower is a new kit and the office is an old time passenger car. This was recovered and repurposed.

The museum is made up of old equipment. Some in good condition ans some waiting for the museum workers to get them fixed up.

I hope you find some ideas in this post.

SantaFeDan”

A big thanks to Dan for sharing his Santa Fe passenger car pics.

If you missed part 1 of this layout, it’s here: HO scale mainline.

That’s all for this time 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

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.

How to run a model train bus wire

Dean’s been back in touch. This time he shows us how to run a model train bus wire:

“Al, cheers from Dean in New Mexico.

I’m moving ahead with my current N-scale layout, the Santa Fe Northern, with a new and improved wiring system.

When I first started running trains on the layout, I got away with just two wires between the DCC power pack and the rails. This worked fine, but I knew that with the length of the track in the layout (loop is about 60 ft long) and the number of rail joiners (close to 50 with the Atlas flex track), I would eventually have problems with operations coming from loose joiners.

In my YouTube video referenced below, I talk about different wiring systems for model railroad layouts using either DC or DCC power. The ideal way to improve the wiring is to use a wiring buss with multiple feeders running to the track. With this system, you use a pair of larger wires (12 to 16 gauge) following the main line.

Then you add several pairs of smaller gauge (18 to 22 gauge) feeder wires to the track every few feet. There are some modelers who prefer to wire a set of feeder wires to each track length, but I feel that is overkill.

If you count the feeders in the next diagram, you’ll see I put in 11 sets. In the future if I have problems with a piece of track, I’ll just add feeders to the problem length.

You can see my wiring diagram below. The Santa Fe Northern is a double loop, up and over, layout. It has a length of 102” and a width of 72”. I used 16-gauge wire for the two buss wires (shown in bold red) and 22-gauge feeder wires (thin blue lines).

The total length of the buss is around twenty-five feet, so, the total resistance of both buss wires is about 0.2 ohms which is small enough not to cause too much of a voltage drop.

Actually, the system is much more complex since you have the rails and multiple feeders—the resistance is very difficult to calculate, but 0.2 ohms is an upper value. Note that if I had a larger layout with bigger locos in HO or O scale, Iwould use a larger gauge wire for my buss.

You may remember from my previous videos on the Santa Fe Northern that I used two layers of construction foam to support the layout. The lower 2” baseboard layer is flat, and the upper 1” layer, which is cut, rises and falls to support the track. You can see that in the next photo.

I don’t like to run anything under the bottom baseboard since I’m too old to be working upside down on the floor on my back.

You can also see the buss wires which run along the top of the baseboard and the smaller feeders running to the track.

These will eventually be covered with scenery as I progress but will always be accessible if I need to add more feeder pairs.

I used red and black wires consistently for all wires to keep from making wiring errors—the red buss and feeder wires are attached to the outer rail of the track with the black wires to the inner.

In most cases the feeders were soldered to the rail joiners as I lay down the track. In that way, they will be invisible after I ballast.

The feeders were attached to the buss wires with TICONN connectors which are shrinkable connectors that solder the wires together as they are fused. You can buy these, and a heat gun, from Amazon.

The red feeder wire always runs to the outside rail. Each time I added a feeder, I checked the resistance between the wires with a volt-ohm meter. If there was a very large resistance (megohms) between the red and blue wires, I knew I was ok.

Next is a picture showing the wires at the start of the buss system (arrow in the first photo above). At this point both tracks will be inside a tunnel, so I didn’t hide these feeders. As mentioned, the feeders were soldered to rail joiners as I laid the track.

As you can see in the photo above I first fastened down the buss wires with hot glue. Later I used the black holders along with zip ties (blue) shown in the photo below. I printed out these holders on my 3-D printer and they were attached to the foam with hot glue. I whipped out the design for the 3-D parts in a few minutes using Tinkercad. Once I had the 3D file I could print these out in a few minutes on my 3-D printer. If there is interest, I will put the .stl file on the internet so that readers can print their own holders.

In this photo you can see how they neatly hold the buss wires.

More photos of the wires: Two groups of feeders tied to the buss (will be inside a tunnel accessible from the back of the layout).

Buss wires passing around a siding at Otowi. I plan to put a river to the left of the raised area and siding.

Wires from the two sidings going to the buss. The feeders were soldered to the ends of the rails in this case and the wires will be covered with scenery.

More wires soldered to rail joiners. These wires will be hidden in cuts to the roadbed and foam.

My DCC power supply cuts out if there is a short. However, for added safety I put two 2-amp auto fuses and holders, one in each of the buss leads. As shown in the original wiring diagram, these are in a space that will be accessible behind a facia board. But I don’t expect them to ever blow

I hope this shows you better my approach to wiring. In my YouTube video