Model railroad layouts plans

Mike’s been in touch, he’s added to the G scale garden railway layouts on the blog:

“First I must say I enjoy your web site, it makes me want to get back to my “N” scale roots.

You may not post this on your site but I figure you might enjoy the pictures as “G” scale seemed to get it’s start in England.

My layout is about 200 feet of track and occupies about half of my backyard.

It’s a simple loop, with a spur and a freight yard that connects to the loop via a metal cantilever bridge (that hornets like to nest in).

It suffers from the change of seasons, i.e., the difficulty of achieving a “prototypical” look of a railroad but having to compromise fidelity to make it work outdoors.

Every spring the road bed needs to be re ballasted, buildings need a spot of paint and my 20 year old wood trestle needs to be rebuilt, I don’t know what is holding up the track!

My rolling stock needs to have steel springs on the trucks replaced, journals lubricated, and couplers adjusted.

But the best thing about a garden railroad is that nature provides all the weathering one needs, paint fades, metal rusts and wood gets spongy.

Plus a day of running a locomotive puts a fine coating of dust and dirt on the hood and cab. Indoor guys just can’t duplicate that on their rolling stock!

It might sound like a lot of work but like the real railways, constant maintenance is what makes the outdoor stuff interesting, and a train running during a winter snow fall is a great experience.

Continued success on your fine website.

Warm regards,

Mike”

G scale garden railway layouts:

A huge thank you to Mike for adding to the G scale garden railway layouts on the blog. I’m so envious of his layout – it looks great fun.

Now on to something that really made me smile. I’ve been frantically busy over the last few weeks, and I still haven’t got the latest print out scenery on the site yet – but have a look at what Rafael has done, with the embankment wall showcased by John:

“I glued the print out on a poster board, then I made a frame using 1/2 inch by 1-1/2 poplar wood. I then place the print out on the frame. I made the frame to accept four print out. I have three section with four print out and one with three print out. This is long enough to cover a 16 ft long wall.

One of the big problem for me was to glue the print out onto the poster, the white glue tends to wrinkle the print. I used the wrinkle free glue in the spray bottle. I hope this glue holds for me, I think it will.

Rafael”

I think Rafael has done a fantastic job!

If it’s got you chomping at the bit to get started, don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide.

That’s all this time folks – please do keep ’em coming.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here. HO stuff still going bonkers.

We’re going to start with a quick heads up today – and it’s also the reason why today is just a short post.

I’m drowning in the stuff life throws at you at the mo.

So if you’ve emailed me, and I haven’t replied, that’s why.

Please bear with me – I’m doing the best I can, and going as fast as I can…

I get a blizzard of emails everyday (very few of them are stuff I can use for posts).

Now back to business:

“Al,

I was inspired by John’s recent “how to” on building with printed scenery.

I fired up the inkjet printer and got started on the tunnel walls using his techniques.

So far so good I think.

I made the first panel on the face removable with some velcro so I can access the wiring behind.

Wanted to share some pictures of the progress to date. I will send you some more updates when I get the top done.

Thanks,

Bob”

A huge thank you to Bob – of course, I’m biased, but I think his tunnel looks great. So quick and easy too.

That’s all this time folks. Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget if you’re still sitting on the side lines, there’s only way to get involved, and that’ by making a start. That’s why the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet here. There’s a silly amount of HO stuff on it at the mo.

Wayne’s been busy making loads for HO gondolas and building his sub-station too:

“Hi Al,

I continue to be inspired and educated by your generous postings of model railroaders.

Thought I’d send some new pictures of buildings I have completed and some misc shots.

A tip I remembered from one of your followers showed his way of making loads for HO gondolas. Just break up charcoal briquettes and use the debris as coal loads. One picture has a gondola with the charcoal load. I used old poster board to make a false bottom in the car, painted it black, then sprinkled the charcoal over the board, adding droplets of 50/50 water and white glue to hold everything in place.

The electric sub-station pictured is hand made from balsa wood. The insulators are made from tiny springs I found in a local craft store, pulled apart a little with pliers, then inserted with a small dowel rod and painted white. The cyclone fence is made with Needle point cloth and posts are eye-pins also found in local craft store. The needle point cloth can be bent and folded which is how I created the gate entrance.

None of this is perfect but achieves the look I was going for. Again, I have incorporated a number of techniques I found from reading your posts. A little hint here and there and you simply let your imagination and experimentation take over.

The Gulf Gas Station was my first attempt at an etched brass kit. After gaining some courage over the past year and a half, I dove in to the construction. A real challenge after building plastic kits and kit-bashing. These brass kits require the use of special glue. (super glue products); styrene glue won’t work. I made some mistakes during the process, not to mention getting super glue on my fingers but I am okay with the finished product and my fingers have healed nicely. I also purchased a light-up kit that goes with this station and it is quite striking when lit up. My only advice with brass kits is to very carefully follow the directions. These kits are not as forgiving as plastic. If anyone is interested, the brass kit and lighting are from Miller Engineering.

My layout is HO scale and I used actual photos of electric sub-stations and spec info I found on line to try to get to actual scale as I could.

Thanks for all you do. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Wayne”

A huge thank you to Wayne – it’s very satisfying to read about the blog helping folk with their layout. I thought his sub station is amazing – it just goes to show what you can create with a little imagination. Can’t wait to see the updates!

And now on to Dangerous Dave.

I get a steady trickle of emails asking why he’s called ‘Dangerous Dave’ – it’s because he’s rather accident prone.

(If you’re new to the blog and you’re wondering who he is, have a look in the Hall of Fame.)

Here he is, living up to his name, while building his stunning loft layout:

“Hi Al , just come across these pictures (clearing a few things out )… it’s when i decided to have a quick route from the loft ..LOL ..broke 3 ribs on the way down… now you know how the nickname got started

…4 months later as my ribs had healed and went back up there to continue, I accidentally drilled through a water pipe… unfortunately being a Sunday could not get a plumber, but repaired it myself, dried it all out new connections fitted, seemed to be OK, turned water back on, went outside to clean up , after half hour walked indoors to find a waterfall coming down from the loft in to the lounge, and this was 4 weeks before Xmas …

and of course a week later the plaster board started to drop had to shore the lot up with jacks and planks ,and then have a complete new ceiling fitted.. new plasterboard the lot… the nick name stuck… and 2 months later hit an electrical cable running under my new flooring… sort of blew all my lights… so now my wife insists on any work carried out is done by professionals LOL …

Regards

Dave (not as Dangerous now)

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Well, I’m glad Dave persevered, but he’s made some fantastic videos and also been really helpful with the Beginner’s Guide too.

So here’s one of his videos with Dave at his best:

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

A big thanks to Wayne on the making loads for HO gondolas, and to Dave too.

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.