Model railroad layouts plans

Pete’s been in touch with a clever take on model train table dust covering:

“Hi Al, Pete from Fl here.

First i would like to thank you for all the videos and pictures. All i can say is WOW.

I’m new to the hobby. Started my first layout in January, n scale 2′ x 5′, good size for a beginner as myself. One of the questions i had was keeping dust to a minimum.

I goggled this question with little satisfying results. So my idea was to make a cover. I sure this idea isn’t new,but i have not seen it anywhere.

The cover is made of cardboard, 1/4″ styrofoam sheets from dollar tree. Added some ideas

to top and front. Soon realized this could be a project in itself. No scale used, just come measuring, cutting and hot glue.It works well,lightweight,stays in place, easy to remove and put back on.

Pictures below of cover and few pictures of layout and lights. Added building and towers with lights last month, parking lot lights this week.I like it. I think i’m on the right track.

Still a lot to do.Changing tunnels some, reason for no portals at this time and a lot of other things to do.That’s about all for now. Have fun.

THANKS TO ALL…………..

PETE

FL.”

A huge thanks to Pete for sharing his take on model train table dust covering. It’s funny how after years of doing this, I still think the simple ideas are the best ones.

Now on to John. He’s made another model from the print out scenery range.

If you want to have a go at building any, you can get them here – and also in the old store here (I’m slowly switching them over to the new store. Going as fast as I can!).

And here’s some pics of the foot bridge. I dropped it before I took the pic, so the roof got bashed a bit. Sorry:

If you want to have a go at building the bridge, you can get it here.

Please do send me the pics of your handy work – I love to see them.

That’ all this time.

Don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you want to get off the armchair and on to the starting blocks.

Best

Al

PS (Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.) Still going strong!

Rob’s added to the collection of N scale town mountain layouts on the blog:

“Hi Al,

As you may remember you have posted a number of my works on your site under the Farland Howe title.

In addition to Farland, I have also been working on an N scale project.

I only had a tiny area I could work in so I settled for a 2 foot by 16 foot layout.

I ended up extending the the 180 degree curves at both ends beyond the width of the table, however.

It turned out the 11 inch radius curves I bought at my local hobby store were not big enough to accommodate longer locomotives or rolling stock as they climbed up a 3/4 inch incline and made the 180 degree curve.

It was not a real problem and I solved it. Larger locomotives run around the layout with ease now. They do this only on the outside track with it’s big curves.

The inner track was originally supposed to be a trolley line or interurban line. I had two problems with that concept.

One, I could never find Interurban electric cars to my liking and the ones I did buy were not very reliable.

I had hopes of making new bodies that were more to my liking but with undercarriages being unreliable I decided to punt and made it my steam line and have a little Baldwin 4-6-0 making merry loops around the layout pulling some freight cars while I run the bigger trains on the outer loop.

Very early on I decided I wanted the track to return around behind the backdrop or back scene instead of having two visible loops in front of it.

That way you could always be surprised when a train showed up out of nowhere. I built scenery at both ends to hide the end of the table and to help with the mystery of “where did the train go.”

The intent was to show trains running along parallel to and in front of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains and out 15 miles or so from the actual mountains.

I wanted the fore ground to represent a somewhat barren and partly desert landscape with a little higher elevation and greener areas as well.

I pretty much wanted to show everything I know about Colorado on the layout at the same time.

Learning to work in N scale was quite difficult at first.

My instincts for the relative size of things was well developed for Farland, but this N scale stuff was a different beast entirely.

It is also difficult to see things like fish plates/rail connectors at this scale and found myself using magnifying glasses quite a bit, but eventually I learned the skills needed for N scale pretty well.

I guess my greatest victory was when I cut into the already ballasted mainline track to insert a turnout without destroying the track I wanted to keep.

It worked well and I was able to add a siding for a newly acquired grain elevator.

Finally I had great fun and enjoyment painting mountains on my backdrop/back scene, that’s the fun part of N scale town mountain layouts.

Here it is seen from the right end.

Here is the grain elevator.

My narrow cut.

N scale town mountain layouts:

The inner and outer loop share a bridge over the river.

My main station.

Here is a little video showing some painting and running of the trains.

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

A huge thanks to Rob for adding to the N scale town mountain layouts – you can see more of him in the Hall of Fame.

Rob’s post also made me think of one of Dan’s:

HO model railroad mountain town.

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 N scale layouts here if that’s your thing.

Andrew has been in touch with his G scale track outdoor railroad:

“Dear Al,

this is a video of my 10 year project which is now up and running after three years.

It’s called Blairgowrie Forrest Railway.

It was started after I was moved out of my small train room.

I am still working on a few of the teething problems as they appear.

The track layout is a simple dog bone designee with 1 point at the moment.

As I work through the layout eliminating the teething problems.

I may consider adding more points as the time allows.

Please also find some pictures of some of the loco’s running on the railway.

Kind regards,

Andrew”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

A big thanks to Andrew for sharing his G scale track outdoor railroad. Just goes to show, this hobby really can be fun for all the family.

Darrel email in his response to Andrew’s G scale:

“Great Job on the garden layout !!!!!

I have a triple track in HO scale. it started out as a family project, As the 4 children were involved from the start, they got more and more interested and my oldest sons friend became involved in model railroading and still is involved.

As the children got older they finally got married and had their own children. My wife was involved also. Now my Daughter in Law and the 2 grandsons have a layout in the basement of the 2nd house. My 2 daughters are involved still in the model railroading and so are my other grand children. My mother was involved and I built a layout all around the upstairs with holes in the walls for the trains to go from one room to another. Now my 5th child will get her layout when he gets older and on his own. Mom passed away last year. Also my youngest daughter got married in Oct 11, 2015 and guess what – Yes her husband is also a model railroader and it is also good to see different generations and the daughter in law and 2 son in laws getting involved into the hobby and passing it down to another generation as well. So with my mother, myself; my 5 children; and 7 grand children – that’s 4 generations of model railroaders in one family.

Probably when your daughters get older they will bring their boyfriends to the house and you can run trains with them also. They just might continue the saying that ” Model Railroading is Fun”.

Keep up the good work – and just remember that what you say was a 10 year project – Remember model railroading work is never done and you will always think of ways to add on here and add on there. Just keep your wife involved also as that is the company treasurer say if the expansions projects will get built or not – right.!!!!!!!!

Can’t wait to see it as the work progresses.

Darrel”

I have to say, there is something magical about how this hobby can inspire generations of a family. It’s a familiar theme on the blog.

That’s all this time folks, I’m short on time.

I was lucky to get this post out to be honest.

Always got time for a shameless plug for the Beginner’s Guide though – which frankly keeps the site going.

Thanks for all the comments on it too.

Please do keep ’em coming because it’s very quiet again this end.

Best

Al