Model railroad layouts plans

Simon has been in touch with his N scale suitcase layout:

“Hi Al,

Winter German themed case layout

Have been taking lots of notes from your emails and bits from gaming blog sites and have spent a lot of time building and adding bits and people (birthday and Christmas presents) to my layout in a tool box, it is an n gauge oval made from 2 bits of flexi track, with a bit of bending to fit within the case.

The station and platform are scratch built from card and match sticks with some jewellery wire for the rails. The base snow was made from bicarbonate of soda mixed with pva which over time has turned yellow (may need to paint with a wash of white) the tunnel and hills are just polystyrene carved to shape. Winter trees were off eBay

Hope you like the layout.

Like to hear everybody’s thoughts.

Regards

Simon”

N scale suitcase layout:

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Dangerous Dave mailed me this – he has been busy with his camera again, this time filming the Flying Scotsman when it was in his neck of the woods.

(If you want to know whether the Scotsman was / wasn’t the fastest steam train recorded, have a look at the bottom of this post).)

“Hi Al , not sure if you are interested but managed to film the Flying Scotsman to day up on the NYMR…

She sure performed good.

Dave”

Latest ebay cheat sheet here.

And lastly, this came in from Jane. Can anyone help? Who knows, fingers crossed they’ll send in pics of their train themed office:

“Hi Alastair,

I hope you don’t mind me getting in touch. I am an interior designer currently designing an office space, and my clients would like to turn their office/room into a 1950/60s train carriage. They suggested that I get in touch with you for advice. Would you happen to know where we could source any train salvage parts like seats, luggage rail etc in the UK?

Thank you very much for your help.

Kind regards,

Jane”

Thanks to Simon for his N scale suitcase layout layout – I ‘ll add it to the collection. Embarrassingly, it’s been sitting in my inbox for an age. I stumbled over it this morning when I was doing some ‘house keeping’.

That’s all this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you want to get off the side lines.

Best

Al

Here’s a simple tip from Hall of Fame member, Brian:

“Hi Al

An easy way to make smoke for steam powered machinery.

I used a cotton bud. Hold the stem in one hand and with a pair of tweezers in the other, gently pulling at the cotton wool end to form a tail.

Next cut the stem to the length required and insert it in the smoke stack of your machine.

All that’s need now is to fire up my airbrush with some black paint and apply to look a bit dirty.

This can be done in any scale. In the photo is an HO scale Erie B-2 steam powered shovel (a Jordan Highway miniatures kit) busy removing earth from a collapsed tunnel.

Thought that I would send this video to you of an arc welding module that I use in quite a few industrial buildings on my layout including my two stall engine house that you posted.

This one is in a small repair shop (woodland scenics) where the guy is welding a part on the floor next to the workbench.

I model in HO scale – narrow gauge – HOn3 as I get quite a few requests as to what scale is it.

All the best

Brian”

And, here’s more from another Hall of fame, member – Dangerous Dave:

That’s all for today, folks. Please do keep ’em coming – I enjoy them as much as you!

Don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide if you’re still sitting on the fence about whether to get started or not.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here. Lots of engines around at the mo, have a look.

Mike’s been in touch with his N gauge code 80 track layout:

“Mikes place is anywhere you want it to be. I am using a 6ft by 10ft table top board. I am starting my last set. I am now 70 and this is it. I haven’t done any scenery yet just layed the track. I use code N gauge code 80 track and have double slip switches from Kato industries.

I have found that they will go well with the code 80 rails with a little riser on the code 80 side of the rail. I am also using Tomy Tec 22inch bridges. You can see the river and some of the rocks in the river area.

As you can see it is a “major” work in progress will all of the parts still laying around.

This is only two tracks running with two more starting with the inclines. (the long white things in backround).The bridges are a tommy tec units and are 22 inches long. Real long for N gage. I wanted a large area for the river and falls. I hope you can see the falls in the background.

The tomy tec bridges are made only in Japan. All of the info on the box is only in japanese, and since I only read and speak US English I have no Idea what kind of info might be available.

The picture shows the end of the bridges and to use them with atlas code 80 rail you have to cut them off.

I also had to trim off the base of both ends because they are so tall and cant put that many shims under the track.

The track on the bridge works well with N gauge code 80 track.

You can find this item on the walthers web site under bridges, N gauge.

It comes in two colors, red and blue. I have painted the bridges a lite steel color and let the red show through in parts to make it look like its is rusted.

Hope you enjoy this start of Mikes Place N gage rail road.

As I said I am not even close to start the scenery yet. I am not a Pro at this but I do the best I can. Hope you find this interesting.

thx

Mike”

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“Hi Alistair

Well I’ve started to do my scenery this is part of the work yard and coal yard more to follow as I complete it, I’ve used sand and Earth to make the track which will go around toward the station.

The pine trees are twisted wire and hemp from hemp rope and then shaped and painted cost per tree 0.10p, the layout is not of any specific place or site it my own design.

Thank you

Andrew”

Do you know what I love about these two layouts? It shows in spades two really important points, that the Hall of Fame members are always saying:

Firstly – just start. It’s that simple – but so many shy away from taking the very first step.

And secondly, don’t worry about what your layout looks like when it’s being built. A God awful mess is absolutely fine – that’s pretty much how they all take shape…

A big thanks to Andrew and Mike for sharing. If they’ve got you chomping at the bit to start, don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here.

That’s all this time folks. Please do 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.