Model railroad layouts plans

Leo’s been in touch with his HO scale airport – stunning stuff:

“I am retired, and this particular layout is modeled after the Oregon layout with major modifications.

This layout is my fifth, housed on wheels in my garage. All lighting is LED voltage reduced via resisters.

I have no sound in any of my 50 plus locos, relying on MRC sound box (the one with about 24 different sound effects) with speakers around the layout. Sound is amazing, realistic and cost is less then “1” loco with sound equipped.

Numerous autos have lights including all my boats and some aircraft. Airport has run way lights along with beacon.

Scenery is made with hydrocal (purchased from local chemical company $50.00 for 75 pounds) mixed with play sand. Result is amazing rough, colored mountain/dirt effect without having to sculpture. I use Indian ink as additional base and add water based, various colors, as scene enhancement.

I live in Denver, CO as well and have started an around the wall lay out in a 30′ by 9′ foot room will send pictures shortly. I hope my comments are not to boring.

By the way I enjoyed all of readers pictures no matter the scale, I always learn. I am constantly amazed of the beautifull layouts fellow trains modelers have made (thanks to all I have learned so much, again thanks to you and your readers) . I am reluctant to purchase scenery stuff from professional companies but rather I rely on my own whatever I can find, make my mistakes and move on.

I do not belong to any modeler railroad group for on a whole are way to serious, to specific, time specific and rely on actual time setting vs type of train usage. Me on the other hand enjoy modeling based on little thought to anything other than what I like, what I have available to model with etc.

Leo, Langley, OK”

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HO scale airport:

A huge thanks to Leo – what a layout. Loved the HO scale airport, and the barges too.

You can see more of Leo’s layout here: HO scale airport terminal

I also liked Leo narrative, I think he has some wise words:

“I am constantly amazed of the beautiful layouts fellow trains modelers have made…”

It’s the same for me, I do love seeing what’s in my inbox each morning.

That’s all for today folks. Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you want to get going on your layout.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Cal’s been in touch with his 4×8 HO train layout.

“Alastair;

People have been asking about my track plan on a 4×8 plywood base HO scale. I found it finally on my computer hidden where it was hard to find.

I’m not sure if you recall my pictures, but as you can see, the building placement and road are completely different from when I designed the plan and what it actually turned out to be.

Originally I had the station designed for the back of the layout with buildings along the yard and sidings.

I think it turned out better than my original track plan.

Thanks

Cal”

(More 4×8 HO track plans here if that’s what you’re after.)

A huge thanks to Cal for sharing his 4×8 HO train layout – you can see his layout is really coming along now (his last post is here).

It also goes to show it’s okay to deviate from a plan…

If it’s 4×8 layouts you are after, here are some more: HO train layouts 4×8.

Or if it’s just any size of HO scale layouts, here’s a collection of them.

In fact, ther are hundreds and hundreds of them on the site.

Don’t just take my word for it, though, here’s another whole page of them.

If you like what you see, there’s only way to see them all.

If you’re not already on the newsletter, you need to jump on! You can do so here.

That’s all today folks. Please do keep ’em coming and don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you want to get going on your own layout.

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.

Gerry’s been in touch – he’s kindly done a video update of his HO layout, which talks about the smallest HO scale curve radius.

As you’ll read below, your engines may run smoothly on the layout you have, but what about when invest in large loco that you’ve always wanted?

As Gerry found out, it could be troublesome!

Now, I know what you’re all going to say:

“record the vids with your phone held ‘landscape’… ”

Well, we can’t have everything.

I’m just happy to have this to post, it’s getting a bit thin on the ground this end, so if there’s anything you’d like to share, just mail me with your pics.

“Hello.

Thanks to your blog I have used many ideas building my HO layout over past 5 years.

Now it is time to upgrade and expand some more! Thought I would share it…!

Thanks for greasing this blog Al!

Gerry in Florida”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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Thanks to Gerry for sharing the thorny issue of what is the smallest HO scale curve radius.

He’s man of few words – but the video made up for it, so I thought I’d post.

I found it really interesting listening to folk talking through their layouts.

Gerry is changing his because his large trains won’t run through his tight curves – amd that’s something that comes up quite a lot on the blog.

The locomotives you have now may run fine, but there’s nothing worse than spending on a small fortune on an engine you’ve always wanted, for it to derail on every turn.

There’s quite a few posts on this that are helpful:

Track curve radius.

Minimum HO scale track radius.

How to stop derailments.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you’re feeling left out – why let everyone else have the fun?

That’s all for this time. Keep ’em coming, folks.

Best

Al

PS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.