Model railroad layouts plans

Glyn has been in touch again with his Faller bridge HO scale – and it left me speechless. It’s not hard to see why.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. All images are clickable by the way.

“Hi Al – I’ve been traveling a lot lately but was awaiting the arrival of my Faller bridge HO of the Bietschtal bridge to complete the double main line addition to the back of my layout.

The tracks crossed my river-waterfall feature at a higher level and I needed  the 43″ span of this bridge to make the project work.

It finally arrived and I spent most of last weekend building this highly detailed kit 43″ long and 15” high.

I also needed to re-route my logging road through a side tunnel alongside the ravine so, inspired by John’s amazing use of your stone wall printout, embarked on a scratch built tunnel portal replete with curved stone abutment at the entrance to add some character.

That printout is amazing and probably the best piece of modeling landscape material I’ve ever purchased – truly incredible what you can do with it and a little imagination!

So here goes with the project step by step.

The support spans were built first – incredibly tedious as the catwalks have to be constructed within the bridge spans after everything has been assembled, the handrails being the worst part.

The Faller bridge HO stone arch supports added – these were a strange beige colour and not very realistic so I sprayed them and the bridge with gray acrylic primer then weathered the stone. The centre of the bridge sagged a little without appropriate tensioning of the support stanchions so I built a wooden frame to stabilize everything. Being 43” long this bends easily when lifted!

The bridge’s stone portal were re-inforced with vertical pine struts painted gray.

The support spans with their concrete bases were reinforced with transverse pine blockes glued to the horizontal wooden base at a point where they would provide vertical tension on the main bridge deck to prevent sagging as in real life. That worked pretty well and leveled the deck nicely.

Then it was time for a trial fit into the river’s ravine. I added some styrofoam between the stone portal arches as a prelude to wrapping with Woodland Scenics shaper sheet for landscaping.

Then it was time to lower the bridge construct into the ravine for a trial fit.

Back out we came and I started the landscaping by wrapping the vertical supports and styrofoam with Woodland scenics shaper sheet. This stuff is amazing – so easy to use, no mess and it can be moulded and bent into shape and re-worked until you are happy.Then I stapled it firmly to the wooden frame inpreparation for plastering and painting using the leopard spotting technique described by Woodland scenics.

I’d marked where the river flowed underneath the Faller bridge HO and started laying down river boulders and sandbanks. Then I leopard spotted the plastered shaper sheet with yellow ochre, burnt umber and Payne’s grey acrylic wash, let it dry and added clumps of colored lichen for bushes and undergrowth using a glue gun.

Close-up of the weathered base evolving.

The entire Faller bridge HO on the workbench. Plaster moulded rocks were added and painted, slowly building up the scene and rapids were painted in with acrylic water texture paste and white acrylic paint.Next came another trial fit. This was the empty gap between the track ends:

I needed to make sure the added landscaping did not impede my ability to seat the bridge within the fixed endpoints of the ravine –thankfully it fitted in perfectly.

So now I had the basic bridge construct landscpaed, I needed to add the decking and handrails along the main pedestrian catwalks, out it came again for the handrails to be added.

Next, I lifted the old logging company road and changed its direction to run alingside the newly fashioned ravine edge, together with a quick re-do of the landscaping – playground sand, various woodland scenics turf colours, undergrowth and bushes.

That all worked out well but I needed a scratch-built tunnel portal where the logging road passes through the mountains to my next town, which has yet to materialize on the right hand side of the layout! So I measured and cut out a tunnel portal from a plywood off-cut, coated it with PVA glue.

Then I pasted on the stone wall printout from your website, cut to size and adapted as John described using bits and pieced glued together to make it look confluent,

I bent the excess over the edges of the insides of the tunnel entrance to give the 3-D appearance that John describes.

I needed a little extra support on one side so, for added interest , I added a curved support base as a bulwark and pasted a strip of wallpaper to give the appearance of a curved abutment.

Then I sprinkled on some sand and glued bushes and foliage before gluing it in place and clamping it on. I used another piece of waste plywood covered in paper printout to achieve the interior tunnel wall appearance. So here is a close up of the tunnel entrance.

And here is the final Faller bridge HO inset showing the overall effect with all the bridges spanning my waterfall /river feature.

Quite a deamnding piece opf medling but well worth the effort and it was tremendous fun getting it all done. Now I have to start building the mountains over the double mainline tracks and set up my backdrop (which should have been done first!).

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Well, what can I say? An absolutely stunning ‘how to’ from Glyn, on his stunning layout.

But it gets better, this is just part 1 of Glyn’s narrative – so there’s more to follow next time.

A HUGE thanks to Glyn for taking the time and effort to share his Faller bridge HO. I can’t thank him enough.

I absolutely love what he’s done with the printable buildings.

And if it’s inspired you, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

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

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

There’s quite a few N scale train door layout plans on the blog – and here’s another from Erik’s son:

“Al,

This is n-gauge built on a hollow core door. It represents a part of Cleveland, Ohio, where the railroads cross the river. The river isn’t cut out yet.

Today was the day that a train ran on my new layout under computer control.

I have 14 servos controlling turnouts (I have 16 channels available and can inexpensively get even more expansion capability).

I have 4 separate DC motor controllers to operate up to 4 locomotives simultaneously.

The servos and motors/locos are controlled using pulse width modulation.

Servos can be turned to any of 4096 positions. They are limited to +-90 deg meaning that I have ~0.04 degree precision. My motor controllers feed up to 12v and 2 amps each with 255 speed settings in both forward and reverse. My test loco doesn’t start moving until about 25% power (pulse duty cycle) but has acceptable speed control with the remaining range.

It’s a golden time to be an electronics tinkerer. I built all this for under 200 dollars. I can even remotely log into the controller computer over wifi.

For comparison, a cheapish two channel Digital Command Control power system costs $200 or more and won’t even operate the turnouts. I have a better system, and I can leave programs running to provide hands off exhibition of complex operation on the layout.

It is cork roadbed. It’s glued and then sanded.

The bridges were fun to build. I still need to paint and weather them.

I don’t mind you passing on my message, but I can’t imagine who would be interested.

I’m in the process of arranging industrial buildings and multiple spurs to add visual interest and operational complexity. I am also planning road underpasses and overpasses as well as a kit-bashed factory building that spans over the main line as informal “scene edges”.

There is a river that runs across the layout and is not shown (was not cut yet) in the photographs.

N scale train door layout plans:

“Al,

Once again I see a train which appears to be a runaway, possibly without an engineer. If modellers had an easy way to determine a train’s speed, that might help. Well, here is a tip which should help.

I came upon this table a while back. To use it, you need to measure out three feet (or one meter) of track. You also need a timepiece with a second hand. If you run N scale, HO/OO scale or O scale, this table will work for you. Place a marker alongside your track, then a second marker three feet away. Run your train past the first marker and time how long it takes to reach the second marker. Use the table below to determine your train’s speed.

TIME TO TRAVEL 3 FEET AT SCALE SPEED
Prototype Speed N HO O
5 mph 65 sec 36 sec 19 sec
15 mph 22 sec 12 sec 6 1/2 sec
25 mph 13 sec 7 sec 3 1/2 sec
60 mph 5 1/2 sec 3 sec 1 1/2 sec
90 mph 3 1/2 sec 2 sec 1 sec

If you double the distance, then double the time. This will give you a more accurate speed. 1 1/2 seconds goes by pretty fast.

I hope this helps modellers to adjust their scale speeds.

Carl in Kansas”

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And lastly Stephen has been in touch again (his last post is here). He’s finished!

Thanks to everyone for today’s post – it’s good to see some more N scale train door layout plans.

It’s wonderful to see your layouts, warts and all, transform in to the finished article. And who cares how long it takes? Pottering on your layout is half the fun.

Don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you want to get off the arm chair and get involved. Who knows, you may end in the Hall of Fame one day.

Please doo keep ’em coming.

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.

Bee’s added to the small shelf layouts on the blog. Some folk may know it as the the Gump Stump and Snowshoe layout.

“Al,

I started small for two reasons.

Firstly, my wife and I do live in a large house but after 51 years of marriage there isn’t a lot of uncovered space. I also had small amount of trackage and six engines from 40 years ago that was only enough to build a small setup. Three of the six engines worked so I was in pretty good shape. Unfortunately none of the old switches were recoverable.

Secondly, I had never done scenery of any kind. I was really intent on doing something neat but was not sure how well it would go. Your site was very helpful in this regard. Lots of pointers on what to do and a bit of how to do it. I was a late comer to the print out houses and such, but I did make two of the engine sheds just to see if I could do it. Although they came out great I did not find a place to use them. I am confident they or better versions will be in the next layout.

The entire layout was based on an old article I read in Model Railroader’s TRACK PLANNING IDEAS (1981). This layout was called the Gump Stump and Snowshoe. I call mine the BJandCK. This is based on the initials of myself, my wife, and my two sons.

I can’t really tell you how much actual time it took to build. It was done in spurts and sputters over approximately 6 months. My guess is I could do the entire thing today in a few days.

Not sure what scenery will come out of my head, but I will cross that trestle when I get there.

Thanks for taking the time to publish any of this. Keep up the good work on the site. I look forward to your emails
every morning.

Bee”

Small shelf layouts:

(images are clickable by the way)

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“Hi Al,

I was able to get one of the Mobius cameras and it is impressive. It is quite small and reasonable for the budget minded. It is also small. I was able to mount it on a small flat wagon with some double sided tape. Then I took it for a spin around my layout. This time I went what to me is clockwise. Perhaps in a week or so, I will make a video other way around. I certainly found it entertaining. Perhaps your reader will also find it interesting.

Rob”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

A huge thanks to Bee for adding to the small shelf layouts, and to Rob too. I loved Bee’s narrative – just goes to show the thorny issue of space is always something that gets in the way of having a go.

And I can’t wait to see his engine sheds!

Rob’s also no stranger to the site – have a look at some of his other posts. Stunning stuff.

That’s all this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide – it’s the easiest way to side step the pitfalls and traps we all fall in to.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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