Model railroad layouts plans

Joe has been in touch with his model railroad computer control video – have a look, it’s clever stuff.

(If I’m not mistaken, his last post on his 27×10 HO scale layout is here).

“Hello,

I have been looking at all the layouts you’ve been sending, and they all feature something that is interesting.

I am sending a video of my layout which I have been building for about 3 1/2 years. It is about 90% complete. It is a 27×10 HO scale.

It features a single track main line that doubles back on itself several times to simulate a double track main line.

The passenger line features a commuter service that shares a single track in both directions.

All the landscaping was done from scratch. Much of the track is under the bench work and is accessed through three tunnel portals, giving the illusion that the trains enter the tunnels and go off to some distant point.

The below-bench track work also hides two passing sidings each for both the freight and passenger lines. These are used to alternate trains at random so that the sequence of trains differs.

There is also a passing siding that is exposed to allow faster passenger trains or priority freight trains to overtake slower or non-priority freights.

There are several sections of the DCC layout that are operated manually, such as engine services, industrial sidings, and freight and passenger car yards.

But the main feature of the layout is that the freight and passenger main lines are computer controlled.

I use a model railroad computer control software application from CTI known as Train Control Language (TCL). For you programmers, it is based upon the C language.

All engine movements, sounds, signals, lighting, auto traffic lights, etc. are controlled by TCL.

At any given time, up to 7 trains can run in automatic mode, and with the addition of engines being operated manually in the other sections I mentioned, the layout offers a lot of action when four operators and the yardmaster are present.

The layout was designed and built so that it could be disassembled into 13 sections.

All wiring at section boundaries has Hitachi type connectors. Photos demonstrate a portion of the circuitry associated with the CTI system, which is essentially a local area network.

It shows how I dealt with the varying voltage requirements of my accessories, which draw 3 volts, 4.5 volts, and 12-14 volts. Instead of installing a huge number of resistors, I simply stepped the voltage down from 12 volts for each application. This saved huge amounts of time when wiring accessories.

You will notice an open rectangle in the center of the layout. This is where the town, with automated streetcar service, is planned to be. I have not yet decided if I am going to complete this section.

Joe”

Now on to Bruce:

“Alastair … I actually have two pretty decent things to pass along:

I have found that using bark or weathered or drift wood for making rocky hills looks really good.

And, when using sculptamold (or similar) for terrain, tint it with brown, grey or green paint before installing. That will prevent the white specks you get when trying to paint afterwards.

Bruce”

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“Hello Al,

how are you, my name is Christopher, and it’s nice to meet you.

I want to thank you for your emails, and I enjoy looking at your model railroad layout plans.

I just completed my first N scale train set, and I would like to expand on it someday.

Back in the 1980,s it was HO, now it’s N scale. I made a layout that you might not see everyday that I believe is creative, and somewhat artistic.

Please let me know if this N scale train set with an Egyptian layout looks good to you.

The size of it is 4 feet by 6 & ½ feet. Most of it is Bachmann, but someday I would like to have a Kato Set because Kato has my favorite train in N scale the Southern Pacific Daylight Freedom Train # 4449.

Please feel free to send me more of you emails, you have yourself an excellent day, take it easy, and peace out from Christopher”

“Hi Al,

Here is a photo of my steam lorry after I weathered it, using washes of thin black , gey and brown paint . and weathering powder.

Paul”

And seeing as weathering is such a hot topic with you lot at the moment (thanks to Jim for that), I thought I’d have a look through the archives, and came out with these two:

Bobby weathers his engine.

Alan’s weathering trick.

There’s a long list of weathering posts on the blog now.

A big thanks to Joe for sharing his model railroad computer control vid – and to Paul and Bruce too.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you decide to roll your sleeves up and get busy, 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.

Jim’s been in touch – he’s shared his latest vid on weathering model railroad cars:

“Greetings, Al.

I’m still weathering freight cars but it’s heating up here in the desert and so is my garage. So it’s time to scale back.

This video highlights a flat car converted to a wheel carrier using I beams and plastic bolsters from shade brackets and cafe tables with the legs cut off for anchoring bolts. And of course, old plastic wheel sets, painted and weathered with powders.

The cars were weathered with dull cote, layers of powders, light washes of white paint and more powders.

Weathering is a much like trial and error process. And how heavy or light you want the cars to look. Your time period for your layout is key. So some cars can actually look relatively new. Photos of the cars you want to weather helps too.

Hope you all enjoy and looking forward to more of your posts.

Jim AZ”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Now on to Eon:

“Hey Al i`ve attatched some pics of my 00 gaugemodel railway 4 track bridges that i made from scrap.

It has worked out a lot cheaper than buying the plastic single track bridges sold in shops.

My layout is outdoor so there is good weathering on them but no signs of fading colour.

All you need is lots of time and an idea (drawing) of what you want your bridge to look like and some materials…

Hammer, small pins, wood glue, outdoor gloss paint, wood preserver, small saw and the bits of wood.

Best Regards,

Eon”

A huge thanks to Jim for sharing his weathering model railroad cars vid – I do enjoy his videos.

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.

John’s been in touch with how to make your own railroad switch points:

“Al,

I have been working on designing a switch machine that can be mounted under the table, and has power, flexibility and can be used to light signal LED’s to both show on the layout control panel, and on the layout itself.

There are good switch machines out there for sure, like the Tortoise® but I wanted my own.

All of the components of the switch machines were ordered from eBay from various vendors, and the plastic sheet from a local home store. One “storm door” ¼” thick (6mm or so) plastic should make several dozen machine frames.

The diodes are – 1N4001 Rectifier Diode 50V 1A

Micro Switches are – Mini Micro Limit Switch Long Roller Lever Arm SPDT Snap Action

The Motors are – 9G SG90 Mini Micro Servo For RC Robot – Helicopter

The Double Throw panel switches are – 6 Pin 2 Position ON-ON DPDT Mini Latching Toggle Switch

The description in BOLD is what you would enter in the eBay search for the components. Now for the details.

The best price for the motors is, about $0.65 each if you order 20 or so. The rest of the components come up to about $1.20 so the machine costs < $2.50 when completed. I found the cheapest prices for all of the stuff above from China eBay vendors. The schematic for the railroad switch machines is:

Please note the current arrows for the diodes are drawn by U.S.A. theory, Europe uses “common” theory which has electron flow in the opposite direction – pay no mind, the schematic works either way so don’t reverse the diodes.

If, when you build the machine, it does not throw, reverse the motor leads.

Note that when the motor goes to the right as the little arrows are indicating, the arm on the shaft will open the micro-switch on the right and stop it there. A “piano” wire on the arm goes through the board and operates the track switch.

The motors as delivered need to be modified, as they come with a tiny circuit board that operates them by servo pulses. I wanted straight DC operation, so the PC board had to go.

The pictures below show how the motors come, and how they are modified.

Note: these will operate 180° but can be made to operate full rotation if the little potentiometer inside is removed too, but that requires taking the gearbox apart.

Use for the track switch machine is not required since the throw is only about 20° from center.

Also note these little motors are really powerful, with the gearing they can easily operate most anything on a HO layout, like bridges, turntables, or carnival rides. They are not full continuous duty, however so for accessories which would run more time reduce the voltage to about 3 volts.

(All images are clickable)

The pictures above show how the motors arrive, removal of the back cover and what’s inside – be careful here, the gearbox can come apart, but only if you mess with it.

Holding the motor body, remove the circuit board and re-solder the lead wires back to the motor – use minimum heat to connect the wires, and fine rosin core solder. Put the cover back and secure the 4 screws.

The next section is the preparation of the acrylic plastic sheet, I used ¼” Lucite® and have a little X-Y vise on a small drill press that I use. I lay out a strip with the motor openings for the sheet, then mill each out, cutting them off as they are milled.

When the plastic opening is milled, the corners need to be squared off, I clamp them in a vise and file out the remaining radius so the motors will fit.

.

I made a go gauge to assure the openings will fit the little motors. Because there is some play in the micro-switches, the tolerances can be pretty loose on the motor position, and where the actual switches are mounted.

The motors come with a number of actuators, like in the pictures of the accessory bags that come with the motor. I use the one with 7 holes because it’s the longest and hits the rollers of the micro-switches well.

Once the diodes are soldered in, I drill a few holes for the motor wiring, on the early ones I put on heat shrink tubing like above center, but later found that I could route the wires on the diodes so a short circuit was not possible, like on the switches above right viewed from the back-the micro-switches are on the other side of the plastic, and those below. I’m not worried about bare wires, only 5 volts.

After about 6 machines done and the several small mods I made, I now have the entire process from cutting the plastic blanks to testing the machines down to about 30 minutes per machine.

As a side note, some of the track railroad switch on my layout, especially in the yards, are Atlas Snap Switches®, and these will be used with the stock switch solenoids.

I will be using DPDT center-off spring loaded switches instead of the slide switches the Atlas products come with. This is for no other reason than the consistent appearance of my control panel. For the 5 volt supply, I am using a rewired little train set power-pack with the speed potentiometer removed and a few other added parts to get solid 5 volts.

I know for many this will seem like a lot of work, but at $11.00 each and I need 29 machines, the savings are substantial, also I have constant 5 volts available at the switches which I can add a dropping resistor and use for the LED signals.

The final wiring for the railroad switch, LED signals and control panel will be another article.

John”

A huge thanks to John – anybody else made something similar to his railroad switch machine? I’d love to hear from you if you have.

That’s all for today folks, but don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you want all the shortcuts to make your dream model railroad, without the heartache, blisters and toil.

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.