Model railroad layouts plans

Dennis has been in touch with a wonderful post on Cheap N scale train sets.

It just goes to show you don’t need to spend a fortune or have lots of space:

“Dear Al,

I have a good friend, JT, who is a snowbird, spending summers in Colorado and winters in Arizona.

His home in Colorado has a basement, but the Arizona home is smaller, a double wide trailer.

I decided to make a small N-scale diorama for his trailer and set out to illustrate that even a small space can have a railroad and that you don’t have to rob a bank to do it!

I found a scrap piece of plywood approximately 20 x 40 inches. Since I was creating a static diorama, I eliminated every potential electrical problem. I decided to use clear Gorilla glue and not a single nail or fastener. The theme would be a dusty Western US small town.

My real fun was scavenging railroad swap meets for cast off “junk” parts that I could transform. I bought discarded buildings, locomotives, cars, and track, never spending more than $5 for any one item, and most were only a dollar or two.

Like all of us I bought some structures that wouldn’t fit in, but at these prices I had no regrets. I moved things around a bit, covered my errors and sins with lots of glue and sand, dulled down some of the colored plastic, and added painted strips around the perimeter to contain any loose sand.

I deliberately left a gap in the fence in case JT wanted to strip out the end piece of track and connect to a larger layout in the future.

Voila! Total expense less than $75 US!

Hope it inspires you to go to swap meets, too. I met some new friends there and bumped into lots of old ones.

Dennis M.D., Scottsdale Arizona”

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And John has decided you don’t need much space to build a layout too:

“If you have never built any kind of layout, if you think you do not have any room, do not let those things be excuses…

Build a diorama to develop some modeling skills. A “micro layout” can be fun. Just get started.

One thing I hear too much of is the complaint that someone does not have enough room for a layout. Well, since building my little shed on my camping trip in September I have been lost in the doldrums. Or what we here call a modeling funk.

Then in early December I saw a video of a little 1 foot by 3 foot inglenook. I started looking through some of my old “idea files”… “Grasse Pointe” is the result!
This is my first attempt at using a sector plate and I am learning some new things too…

Grasse Pointe is roughly 10 inches deep and 28 inches long. It fits in a standard bookshelf. It really is becoming a scenic diorama that I can run trains on.

Here are three pictures. You might recognize the paper house. More photos will appear soon.

John

aka “John from Cali”

And lastly, another installment from Dangerous Dave.

I haven’t been too quick off the mark in posting this one, so apols if you’ve already seen it:

“Hi Alistair

Happy New Year to you and all the members

New vid shows adding there side mounted points motors…

Dave”

A huge thanks to Dave.

Thanks also to John and to Dennis for showing us how cheap N scale train sets can be just as fun as the expensive ones.

Just goes to show you don’t have to have a lot of room if you want to scratch that layout itch.

That’s all for today folks.

Don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you’re tired of sitting on the side lines.

Best

Al

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

Cal’s been in touch with something he’s found for cleaning model train track:

“Al:

Here is a new tip I found out about the other day. I tried it and it works WONDERS!!!

First. I used the “QD contact cleaner” on my engines and locomotives. I spray a light rag or paper towel with this stuff. Then I put the towel on the track and run my engine or loco over the wet part at full speed holding onto it so it doesn’t run off on me.

I run it back and forth till the wheels are clean. You would not believe the gunk and buildup that comes off the wheels. Then I turned the loco around and did the same thing for the rear wheels.

I then did this same thing to each and every car. The buildup that came off the wheels was amazing.

Then I took a rag and rubbed all the track down with this contact cleaner.

Second, I then fashioned a block with 2 scraps of wood and a piece of roadbed cork and hot glued them to make an applicator.

I took the “2-26 multi purpose precision lubricant” and sprayed it onto the cork part of my block I made. I then rubbed it along the entire track system. The rails shined up like a new penny.

Now my trains crawl at low speeds and run MUCH MUCH better and the best part is the guy who told me about this system hasn’t cleaned his track in over a year and it still runs like a top.

This system is supposed to last MONTHS before you have to clean again! I cannot believe how much better my trains run.

I used to use goof off or goo gone, but this is much better.

To clean my engines I used to use rubbing alcohol on the wheels but it just took off surface dirt. I’ve noticed by using the QD contact cleaner it took off all the gunk and build up from over the years.

I am very very happy with the results.

Here are pictures of the product I bought in a hardware store, the block I made and an example of the rag with dirty track stains on it so you can see how it cleans.

Best of luck to all fellow Model railroaders with your track cleaning!!!

I found my system I will be using from now on!!!

Cal from Oregon USA”

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Cleaning model train track is something that comes up a lot on the blog – it really can cause problems.

A big thanks to Cal. It reminded me of Bob’s post: Track cleaner.

And Kim’s: Homemade model train track cleaner.

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Now on to Ben.

“Hi Al!

My name is Ben and I’ve enjoyed your emails for a few months.

Thought I would share some pics of the switching layout I’m building. It’s 8×4 and HO scale. I haven’t had a layout in 20 years. I’ve always wanted a switching layout because that’s my favorite thing about trains, switching yards and industries.

Keep the great emails going!

Ben”

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“Hi Alastair

Here is a little tip for all of the model railway fans out there.

Before throwing out that old mobile phone, modem, Christmas tree lights etc or whatever. Keep the power supply back (unless its faulty of course) as many of these are rated at 12 volts DC and most are also rated at about 500ma (half an amp) to 1 amp sometimes you might find them rated at 1500ma.

these are great for powering station or building lighting when using LED lights. The centre pin on a female jack is generally the positive and may be marked on the wire with a tracer marking, making it easier to cut of the female jack and identify the positive wire.

I have several of these around my small Lionel O gauge layout. works a treat. My Modified Hobo Hotel with all the electronics I added is powered from an old Power adaptor rated at 1 amp. (shown)

keep up the good work with the site

Regards

Ernie

Essex UK”

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“Alastair–always look forward to your daily e-mails with questions and answers from other modelers…so when I ran into a problem I figured that someone in your group might have the answer to a problem I’m currently having.

Here’s the situation: I’m adding a 72×76″ extension to the existing Damnit RR using Atlas snap track and flex track. There is only 2 ways to connect it to the existing tracks and they are colored BLACK in the pictures and can’t be moved. The new section must have a 22-24” radius in order to take existing cars and there needs to be sidings to park the cars when not in use, yet not block the whole line. In addition to providing storage space, the extension must create a way to reverse a complete train in both directions–i.e. eastbound has option to become westbound and vice versa.

The first picture shows the complete layout with the extension with a proposed solution, the second is just the extension itself.

(all pics are clickable)

As you can see, the proposed ladder portion in light green doesn’t meet the requirements and involves a lot of back and forth shuffling of a single car at a time. That doesn’t work because one of the cars is the SP triple unit (coffee shop, diner, kitchen–28″ long) and can’t be unhooked. The same applies to the rest of the SP units which are double units of 19″ long each. They too can’t be uncoupled.

Any ideas your members can provide would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been working on this for weeks and am at a complete loss.

Thanks so much

Terry”

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A big thanks to everyone for today’s post, especially to Cal for sharing his way way cleaning model train track.

And who can help Terry? Sometimes we all get problems that vex that the most seasoned modeler.

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.

Merry Christmas, everybody.

And I have something nearly as good as present – Fred’s only gone and sent me a video of his stunning layout.

Hope you enjoy it as much as me.

And don’t forget, the clock’s ticking for my $9 silly sale on the Beginner’s Guide.

Course, I’m biased, but why not treat yourself?

Don’t forget, it comes with this free tunnel.

Have a wonderful Christmas and thank you all for the support over the years.

Best

Al