Model railroad layouts plans

Linda has been in touch with her HO scale hockey rink:

“Hi Al,

I just finished building a grandstand for my hockey rink.

For once I remembered to take pictures as it progressed. I took half a styrofoam box that a building came in, cut it to fit, painted gray for cement.

Glued the people onto plastic strips then glued the strips onto smaller strips of styrofoam, painted then glued in place.

Glued a picture of our Pittsburgh Penquins on the back. Here are some pictures.

Linda”

Linda’s last post is here – and it’s a cracker.

“Hey Al,

Loving your website. It has been very inspiring! A lot of great folks with great ideas. Thanks to everyone.

I have attached a photo someone might find amusing. First I must apologize for some flaws in the photograph (ie: no balast yet, etc.).

When I was changing my bass guitar strings I was thinking what a waste to throw these away. So for now I chopped them up as a junk load. One could do many, many different things with this so called garbage. And in my case they are about 3 feet long. And guitar players have much thinner strings so there is even more options there. That’s all for now.

Cheers and thanks again,

Rob!”

“For N-Scale lighting I use the chip LEDs. With a handriveting tool and a rivet, I can punch exterior light shades out of a brass strip. Predrill the center of the light shade before punching it out, then solder the shade to a piece of 1/16 X .014 round copper tube. The wire from the anode of the LED goes down the center of the tube.

The cathode gets soldered to the underside of the lamp shade. So the ground wire from the power supply gets soldered to the tube, and the hot side goes to the wire. The chip leds are great for interior or exterior lighting. I’ve used an Arduino computer to adjust the intensity of the LEDs for indoor and outdoor lighting to make them more realistic.

Ben”

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“Al,

I know you don’t use photos like this but think you might be interested in any case.

The photo below is an abandoned Parisian railway.

Photo at the bottom speaks for itself.

Happy Rails!

John”

I did enjoy putting today’s post together. A big thanks to everyone, especially Linda for that wonderful HO scale hockey rink how-to. I think the grandstand looks great when you consider what it’s made from. It just goes to show, with a little imagination…

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you feel like joining in the fun, 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.

Laurence has been in touch with his DIY model train roads:

“Hi Al, I wondered if this would be of interest to your readers.

You put on line the layout Santa’s little helper at the end of December and as I have taken photo’s of the build in progress I thought your readers might like to see how I constructed the bridge and roadway.

I got quite a few wonderful comments and some readers couldn’t understand how I got so much on a 5’x3′ board, some even thinking it was “N” gauge. It’s “OO” gauge and I think the secret is not to clutter it up with too many buildings.

I hope the pictures are ok for you to use and hope it will give encouragement to some of your readers to have go at something different.

Best Wishes

Laurence”

DIY model train roads:

A huge thank you for Laurence for sharing his DIY model train roads – it’s wonderful to see all the different ways folk come up with to acheive an effect.

If you missed Laurence’s last post, it’s here.

That’s all for this time 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 More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the store.

They are great fun to make and great value too.

Cameron has been in touch with his model train display case – which is also a shunting puzzle:

“Dear Al,

This is my final instalment on Lanarth.

Scale 1:76 00 scale
Track Peco Code 100 HO
Region – English, Southern, South West

The final parts of the layout were the scenics and backdrop.

There was a grassy foreground to the prototype that I wanted to capture on the layout. As a rough base for this I used old carpet underlay. The underlay is normally brown so I bleached it with some household bleach.

To lay I smeared a liberal amount of pva on the layout and positioned clumps of the underlay.

Following this I coloured it with some watered down acrylic paint. It looked good at this point but not 100%. To improve it I applied some static grass with spray adhesive.

The backdrop was more of a challenge. In keeping with the theme of this layout I decided to paint my own. One of he biggest challenges of a good backdrop is getting a realistic perspective.

I wanted a station building in the foreground of the backdrop so the perspective needed to be spot on. I use CAD software at work so I put this to use for the backdrop.

I modelled the background in 3D, generated perspectives at different angles then printed them out on paper. I could then test the prints against the rest of the model to pick the angle that looked best. The final backdrop is painted with acrylic paints.

The rest came together in the box and is working well. Being quite small I can keep it in our dining room on top of the side board. Visitors like to try their luck at the shunting puzzle. Hope you all enjoyed the progress and posts.

Bye for now.

Cameron”

I’ve really enjoyed Cameron’s updates – and I think the finished model train display case looks great. I just love the back drop he’s done. Stunning stuff indeed.

If you want to remind yourself, his last post is here.

Now on to Phil:

“This is my try at model railroading. Since I retired this is a fun way to pass time.

I bought a hanging plant liner. I cut it into 3/8″ sections. to make hedges. I sprayed them green & what didn’t cover is fine it looks like dead brackets like a real hedge. I anchored it in place with tooth picks & cut off the excess. pictures are attached.

Keep-up the great job.

Phil”

Next up, Eric:

“Hi Alastair

I know all your readers like tips, how about a simple conversion job.

All that is needed is some thin balsa wood, slate roofing card, paint and glue.

I suppose most British railway modellers have at some time purchased the low relief cinema kit from Metcalfe and either used it as a backdrop or stowed it away for future use. (Pic 1).

Mine has been on the shelf for a few years now and seeing it I decided to incorporate it in my new Wensdale layout, except it looked as if it should have a better place as it is rather well finished, so in a couple of hours I transformed it into a stand alone unit.

First I took of the card backing off the cinema and made a simple balsa box with a shelf to hold the lighting for the shops and cinema entrance. (Pic 2).

Next was to slip in a balsa shelf where the top windows are and fit a strip of three blue lights and a baffle behind them to shield the blue light from the shops. (Can’t really be seen except for wires (Pics 3+4).

Next a couple of small arms stuck either side of the cinema door and a red balsa baffle behind with door marked on and give a back to the shops. (Pic 3).

Then I matched the cinema height with the box and stuck balsa roof rests on top of the box. (Pics 5+6).

Next stick the cinema front and the box together and hold while set.

The walls coated with concrete paint and the top edge in black

Final job was to cut some roofing slate cards to more or less match the cinema roof (Pic 7).

And hey presto a small stand alone cinema. (Pic 8).

Really pleased how it turned out and may give some others an idea of what they can do in a couple of hours on a miserable day.

Happy modelling

Eric”

A huge thanks Cameron for sharing his model train display case.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get busy just like Cameron, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

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