Model railroad layouts plans

Scott’s been in touch with his Atlas train track HO scale:

“Dear Alastair,

My wife and I have been working for about 8 months on a new HO model railroad layout. We love your emails.

The layout is approximately 100 square feet with two layouts connecting from inner to outer. The inner layout is from an old Atlas book with 18 radius turns and the outer was freelanced.

We have about 50 buildings some of which are 50 or 60 years old including an old German butcher shop with a lift off roof showing the meat on the counters and an old Putin’s Chow factory.

A number of the buildings including the castle cane from antique shops or flea markets.

The trees are made from twigs but most of them have not been installed yet.

We also use real rocks for small mountains and loose rock.

For the side of the farm road we used fish tank stones and also used them on large mountain.

The large mountain was partially old school wire screen and light weight plaster and part plaster wrap. The snow on the mountain is plater sanded into dust.

Much still to do including improving the running. We used old atlas track and that may have been a mistake I need to fix. Your site is a great help and much appreciated.

Scott”

A huge thank you to Scott and his wife for sharing their Atlas train track HO scale – what a layout! Lots going on, and it looks great too.

And I have to say, if my little web site has helped Scott and his wife along the way, then I’m very pleased – it really does make it all worth while.

Speaking of which, it seems my last missive caused some confusion with some of you.

To share your pics, just hit reply to any of my mails, or send them directly to al@modelrailwaylayoutsplans.com

You can send in as many pics as you like – but please don’t attach more than three pics per mail.

Send as many mails as you need to, to get them all across.

Hope that has cleared it up if there was any confusion.

In fact, it’s getting a bit thin on the ground this end, so if you’ve got something to share, now’s a great time to do so.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming, and don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you want to grab the bull by the horns, just like Scott and his wife have.

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.

Eric’s been in touch with a clever but simple way to manage his signal lights for model train switch.

“Hi, Alastair,

Thank you for your daily blog, which is a real service to the model rail community.

I have attached details of a way to change a simple 2 aspect, red/green led signal using contacts on a points motor. As there are only two wires from the led signal this can be a real challenge. I hope this helps others that may have encountered this difficulty.

The Problem: How to use Gaugemaster SEEP points motor PM 1, to switch Gaugemaster SEEP 2 Aspect colour light signals from red to green etc, when ONLY 2 wires are present from the light signal unit and you would normally need 3-4.

You need to change both the positive and negative to each coloured LED and this is normally achieved manually by the supplied manual crossover switch with the light unit.

However to achieve this automatically by using the contacts on the points motor is a challenge.

The Solution: Shown below is a low tech proposal using 2, 9 v batteries. The red and green LED are in effect using one battery each to provide the required polarity change when the points change.

The thicker line shows the current path at each change over.

Signal lights for model train switch:

Image is clickable

Eric”

Now on to Fred:

“Al –

I didn’t tell you, but I’ve been working on my lighting.

Theater gels on fluorescent tubes in the diorama soffit, dimmers on the incandescent spots, and a small planetarium for my celestial effects!

Obviously the moon isn’t exactly to scale, but I can make it appear to rise from behind the mountains, and I’m working on the optics to make it smaller.

A little “over-the-top,” but sort of a cool effect, don’t you think?

Fred”

Joe’s been in touch with his progress (his last post is here).

“Hi Al; Thanks for putting up the pics.

Here are some more “construction” pics.

The layout is a ‘free lanced’ 1940 – 1950 steam era set roughly in the “town” of San Juan Creek in N.W. New Mexico.

The main industries are coal mining and lumber.

I can’t tell if I already sent these. IF they are duplicate, please discard.

Laying roadbed. Elevation for inner main line completed. 2.75% grade.

Joe”

That’s all for today folks – a big thanks to Fred and Eric for sharing his signal lights for model train switch wiring diagram.

Please do keep ’em coming. If there’s anything you want to share just hit reply to any of my mails.

(You can send as many pics as you like, but please don’t send more than 3 pics per mail – send as many mails as you like…)

And if you’re enjoying the posts, don’t forget there are hundreds and hundreds more with the Beginner’s Guide.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

If you are looking for English model trains, two posts on the site spring to mind:

Loft railway – Dave’s.

And:

British model railway.

But it’s a funny old world.

Pretty much, every week, I get emails asking, “Why do you show so many American layouts?”

And I get just as many saying, “Can you show more less British and more American layouts?”

Well, the truth is, I’m not fussy – I don’t give a jot where they come from, what their theme is, or their era.

If there’s something to learn from them, or marvel at, I publish.

But I know what folk mean – have a look at these two for example. Polar opposites when it comes each side of the Atlantic:

Barry’s

Barry’s update

And:

Julian’s

Polar opposites… but some real gems of wisdom.

But sometimes, no layout is necessary to tap in to some sage advice. Have a look at the comments in this one:

Pat’s dilemma

Perhaps Bill says it best when it comes to English model trains, or American ones:

“Celtic Thunder sang a song that fits this: “All of God’s Creatures Got A Place In The Choir.”

Sometimes we forget that and start trying to do things our way. We also have a tendency to forget that model railroading is a hobby and not an exact science. If one is a purist, that may be true but a great number of us are not.

Either way, most of the things you post are filled with all kinds of things which turn on the light that says, “Why didn’t I think of that?!”

I have found countless things that can be applied to my own little 4X8 island pike.

All of the trains simply run around in circles and it would be infinitely boring to a lot of the folks who frequent your fine website but to me (and no doubt, hundreds of other “kids” in the hobby) it is a lot of fun, very relaxing and the children of friends who come and visit are able to “play” with it – just like me.

I think the best example I have ever seen as to what our hobby is all about was posted on your site some weeks back.

It was Hank’s O gauge layout with several trains running around in various circles, some at breakneck speeds, spilling the occupants’ coffee (or tea, if is on the British side).

I saved that post and play it every once in a while just to keep my 81 year old head in perspective and remind me that I am not a John Allen or a George Sellios, etc.

So, regardless of which side of the ocean they come from, keep posting your videos, helpful hints and photos. I (we) love ’em.

I live, by the way, on the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington state, just 80 miles from the northwesternmost point of the continental U.S. Colonies so there is a whole continent PLUS an ocean between us.

God bless.

Bill”

So there you go – oh, and one last thing. I also get mails everyday asking why I don’t publish the scale / gauge / track plan of some layouts. It’s all very simple: I publish everything I get. If I don’t have it, I can’t publish it.

That’s all for today. Hope you enjoy the English model trains posts, and the American ones too. I enjoy them all.

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.