Model railroad layouts plans

Brian’s been in touch with his model railroad river scene.

But before we jump into that, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone that has posted a question on the new forum, and especially to those who have posted answers too (Mike T, Sam H, Buzz, Greg and Bob).

Hopefully, it’ll grow into a really useful resource.

Now on to Brian:

“Hi Alastair,

Herewith the continuation of the corner build and a surprise return of an FSM kit built by me more than 43 years ago.

Continuing the corner build from last month.

Below is a custom built (by me) road bridge for the rear of the left hand side of the river. From here it needs to be dirtied up a lot more to show plenty wear and tear.

This photo shows the ISO board river bed in place and ready for final shaping.

Again, this is where it will be situated in the corner of the lower level.

The plaster cloth has been added and waiting for it to harden and dry.

Colouring added plus loose dirt/gravel glued in place. I will also place small stones under the discharge pies and alnong the banks of the river. The discharge pipe casting has been levelled and temporary in place. Greenery and foliage will follow once in place on the layout to blend in with the surrounding model train river scene.

Here the level of the bridges are being checked and cuts in the plaster will need to be done to lower the bridges to the correct track level.

It can now be seen that the river bed needs to be lower to match the water level of Pelican Bay.

Model railroad river scene:

Cuts for the bridges have been made and the river bed is now at the correct level.

Birds Eye view of the levels.

The bottom right hand side has been filled using styrofoam in to give the side banks effect.

Another view showing where the water will come out of the pipes and down the river bed to Pelican Bays water level.

All coming together nicely in the photo below. Lots of scenery work to be done here to blend it all in. The masking tape is holding the ‘concrete’ before gluing gluing it in place.

That will be all for now as I am taking a break on my model railroad river scene.

*********

Way back in the 70s (Fine Scale Miniatures (FSM) manufactured the Freight house kit #150 in 1976) I had purchased this kit for a future layout then. But until the very late 70s I still had not the space to build one.

On my many business trips to East London – South Africa, I got to know a fellow modeller who had a fantastic HOn3 layout at that stage. He had plenty of empty real estate on his layout and never had a FSM kit on it – never mind not having seen one at that stage. Because of our continuing friendship I decided to give him this built up kit for his layout. He was over the moon with it.

Later on in years, he switched scales and went into S scale – D&RGW Sn3.

This FSM kit was then put into his display cabinet for safe keeping.

He eventually became best man at my wedding in 1989.

We were chatting on the phone (as we do nearly every second week) about modelling as always and I asked him about the kit. After a little bit of persuasion and coercion he finally parted with it and gave it back to me. It will now take its place on my layout at Pelican Bay. ??Yay?? Shown in a few photos below.

This is the Fine Scale Miniature kit shown below. All FSM kits came in a yellow box.

Below is an advert out of a model magazine in black and white.

Photo below shows its position on my layout. Still in excellent condition – the kit that is after 43 years. I think that my construction methods and weathering at that stage was pretty good.

As per FSM kits, complete interior and exterior detail supplied with their kits.

It is now situated on my layout amongst other FSM kits at the forefront.

Until next time – keep modelling.

Brian – the HOn3 guy in Knysna.”

A big thanks to Brian for sharing his model railroad river scene – and his FSM kits, which I thought looked amazing.

His previous post on the model railroad river scene is here: HO scale waterfront layout.

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.

Glyn’s been back in touch with his Marklin layout:

“Hello Al

Seasons greetings to you and many thanks for all you do to enhance our hobby.

As you may recall, I retired to Santa Fe full time 2 years ago after 40 years of surgical practice and commenced re-doing my Marklin layout that I had previously built in Peoria IL.

The layout is built in a 23’x13′ former wine cellar with an asymmetric U-shaped design.

The left hand limb is 16′ long due to the presence of a stairwell from the patio and features the Swiss German component.

Across the transverse limb at the far end of the room are upper and lower double mainline tracks over 2 sets of bridges spanning a deep river gorge.

These move into 2 sets of tunnels entering a large mountain which I have just built this past week.

The upper tracks pass through a small rural station before heading 23′ downhill toward a large loop circling what will be a 1920’s era American New England town.

I know this will drive the rivet counters crazy but I have about 6 US steam and diesel locomotives with rolling stock and a significant investment in Fine Scale Miniatures building kits which I need to build and display. The only way to achieve this with the space available was to combine the 2 different country systems into a large folded wishbone as I have done.

I know that the prototypical modelers will probably have a meltdown at such heresy but who cares – it’s my railroad and it’s all about having fun, not so?

From there the tracks pass into a concealed 6 lane staging yard before exiting through the lower tunnel to cross back over the lower bridges before passing underneath the main Swiss German town.

Completing a hidden loop beneath the town, the track passes up a long parade incline, circling behind the roundhouse complex to return to the mainline station (see layout overview).

I’m including images of the coaling station, diesel fuel depot, the bridges over the gorge and the multi-level tunnels.

A DB V200 diesel is shown at the head of a cargo consist and a KayBSt S2/6 passenger express is awaiting clearance to leave the station with the town and castle visible in the background.

Once I’ve figured out how to compress all my video footage adequately for email I’ll send these along so you can see the Marklin layout trains running with a CS2 digital control.

Best regards and Happy New Year to you all.

Glyn”

Marklin layout:

A huge big thank you to Gyn for sharing his Marklin layout update – stunning stuff!

There are lots more of pics of his layout in his first post: Marklin HO layout.

Here’s a pic taken from the first Marklin layout post too:

And it reminded me of this post too:

Marklin HO 3 rail.

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.

Rich has been in touch with his N scale model trains layouts – well, there’s quite a few more too as you’ll read:

“It has been approximately 15 months since I have sent in anything of my layouts.

I was not able to do very much for about a year. Finally had major back and neck surgery which has a 6 to 18 month recovery, but I am way ahead of schedule and am able to walk and stand and do stuff again. I am limited in some ways so it was time to rethink what I am doing with the train layouts as they are now.

I will be 83 soon, it seemed to me it’s time to re-arrange and downsize a bit.

So, I tore out the 20 year old G scale basement layout, and also dismantled the huge N scale California Zephyr layout.

All G scale equipment was moved up to the garage, and all N scale, TT scale, HO scale, and Lionel 3-rail equipment went down to the basement.

I cannot carry more than 25 pounds at a time, so for two months I dismantled and moved equipment. I had enough lumber piled up to build a small house, wow!!! I hate to waste stuff and try to repurpose as much as possible.

So now, in the garage will be a G scale point to point layout 3′ wide and around 3 walls totaling a length of 60 feet. This opened up a lot of room in the garage, both cars fit in and I still can work on the layout with plenty room.

Downstairs in the room that is 22′ by 17′ I have the smaller gauge layouts.

The N scale layout is 3′ by 12′, the little 32″ by 50” TT layout slides under the N scale layout.

The TT layout sits on it’s own table so I can slide it out to work on it, then slide it back under the N scale layout.

Next I built a 4′ by 8′ table with storage underneath and on wheels to put the Lionel 3-rail Polar Express and Hogwort Express trains on and allow me to run some other nice 3-rail locos I have.

Lastly, a former G scale shelf will now be for an HO switching layout which will be about 2′ wide by 16′ long.

So far this past couple weeks, I laid out the 3-rail Lionel track. And I have developed a new N scale layout plan. The track is laid out.

My inspiration came from a fellow that has built a wonderful 3′ by 7′ layout and has several you tube videos on his CCMR. Chicago Crossing Model Railroad.

I borrowed a lot of his layout and like the fact it involves Chicago as this allows me to use the equipment I already have.

Trying hard to be organized, each layout has storage underneath to store it’s train equipment,

So a fresh start all around, and lots to do.

N scale

N scale

N and TT scale layouts

Lionel

Lionel

Lionel 3 rail

Space for HO layout

G scale space!

TT scale

TT scale storage shelf

TT under the N scalelayout.

Thanks for all you do for us Al.

Happy New Year.

Richard Chapple Sr (Dick)(little r) from Hardin Montana USA”

A big thanks to Hall of Fame Rich for sharing his N scale model trains layouts, and the others.

There are lots of posts on the site of folk downsizing for one reason or another. What I love about it, is they all adapt so they can carry on playing with trains – no matter what life throws at them.

Rich’s N scale also reminded me of Dean’s N scale, which is also at the planning stage: N scale model railroad.

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 N scale layouts here if that’s your thing.