Do have a read of his last post – his steam engine is over 50 years old and like so many of you, he couldn’t bear to get rid of it and it’s been languishing in a cupboard… until he had an idea for a retirement project:
“Alastair,
Here is a bit of an update to my original submission.
Here are a few pictures and a short running session video after another Winters worth of work on my layout.
I still have a lot of detail work to do, including a scene on the hill with the farmhouse and some fine tuning on my track to try and reduce derailments.
A huge thanks to Paul for adding to the OO scale model train layouts on the blog – a wonderful layout, with lots to keep him busy.
But that’s the thing with layouts – they’re never finished…
I’ve lost count of the layouts that are retirement projects, and the same goes for folks who couldn’t bear to throw out old loved trains that carry so many fond memories – so Paul’s ticked both boxes which really bought a smile to my face.
I also like the way he just made that all important start – here’s a few lines from his first post:
“I bought a 4×8’ sheet of plywood set on some portable legs and put down a simple oval with a small siding and yard. That lasted a couple of weeks, then I decided I wanted to do something larger and more permanent.”
It just goes to show (again!) it’s all about making that start.
Craig’s been back in touch and added to the collection of HO scale track layout ideas:
“Al:
Thanks for the response from the readers. They asked for more pictures and a track plan, so I took some more photos. The guy who made the bench work took the plans from the Blackwater Jct in Model Railroader magazine, I don’t know the date or issue, but I think it’s from Maryland. And he gave me the book he made when I bought the track from him.
The first picture shows the overall track plan in that book and I have added the outside loop drawn in black. The area labeled Blackwater is the town I now call Hunter. I am still working on the engine servicing area, as you can see from the photos. The second and third pictures show the west end of the layout and the photo labeled East end shows the other end of the layout including the engine service area, the little town of Caelville and Cienna Lake.
HO scale track layout ideas:
It also shows a good view of the river. The river was interesting to model. I used Magic Water and believe me, it finds every pinhole and drips. Make sure the riverbed is sealed completely before mixing the two-part resin and pouring it. I poured it in two stages. After pouring the first level, I dry-brushed areas around the rocks to show ripples and sprinkled stuff on top like grit, bits of leaves ground really fine, not much just a little. Then when I poured the 2nd layer over this, it looked like stuff floating just under the surface of the water.
On the 2nd layer, when the Magic Water started to set, I teased the surface into bumps, then when it set completely, I used water effects on top of the Magic Water and formed waves and ripples. I dry-brushed these ripples with white paint as you can see in the picture of Cienna Lake.
The pics labeled Hunter 1 and Downtown show two views of the town of Hunter. There was a question of where I got the dimestore Indian. It came with the kit for that structure. A view of the mine and the busy crossing shows the industry that keeps Hunter alive and going. The view of the River shows the seam under one of the three mountains. I have yet to make this seam “disappear”. All three mountains are removable so that I can access the track under them.
HO scale track layout ideas
The photo titled Bar B Que shows the company homes owned by the mine, and the families getting together for a weekend bar-b-que. I made the street lights out of some grain of rice bulbs and some spare plastic that I drilled and filed down to achieve the tapered shape mounted on skewers painted gray and weathered with sandpaper to achieve an “old pole” look. The wire still needs to be painted, but whose layout isn’t always under construction?
I’ll send some pics of the intitial stages of my construction and some more details of the river, rocks and the mountains later. Thanks much for the response from the other readers. I really enjoy this link, keep it up.
Craig”
HO scale track layout ideas:
A huge big thanks to Craig for adding to the HO scale track layout ideas on the blog.
