Model railroad layouts plans

“Alastair,

Here is an update on my layout. Phase two will begin construction in the coming weeks.

The buildings are scratch built, kit-bashed from manufactured units, and put together kits… No complete building kits are used.

There is a mix of incandescent and LED lights.

Paula is my wife, she has a huge Garden – thus the “Greenhouse… Daughter Geenamarie is working inside in one picture.

Bobby Shuttleworth is my son-in-law (Keeper for NE Revolution of MLS) the Pub is for him… Not the hooker, of course.

My son Nico’s spot is in phase two. My father and uncle worked for NY Telephone – so the crew is for them!

Here are more pictures.

James”

And now on to Dangerous Dave, who has also shared a vid.

He has one of those layouts I can look again and again and still spot something new.

“Hi Al , I have just done a bit more on the layout , and its now looking a lot better…

Regards

Dave”

Dave has quite a following on the blog, and has contributed a lot to Beginer’s Guide.

Keep ’em coming. A big thanks to James and Dave for sharing.

Best

Al

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

Download this building here.

I got this in from ‘J’. It’s short and very to the point – but looks great!

“This lake is made from left over marine varnish. The color is from dried boiler sludge.

J”

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“Hello Al.

To continue the tour of my South Wales layout, I’ll start at the station terminus. I deliberately did not put in a run round feature so that it would create another shunting movement for the station pilot. When a train arrives at the buffers, it uncouples and moves forward to an isolated section of track operated by a switch. As it is DC operated this is essential. When the coaches are taken away, the loco can go to shed.

The 3 way point was retro fitted so it was too difficult to fit point motors below so I had no option than surface mounted ones. The scratch built signal box hides them.

Most of the rest of the pics speak for themselves as I have annotated them fairly comprehensibly.

I have just taken delivery of some sea foam trees, but they havn’t been planted yet.

The final instalment will follow in a few days which will include pictures of the fiddleyards.

Happy modelling

Alan”

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Thanks to everyone. I’m deeply envious of Alan’s set up and chair!

That’s your lot today peeps.

Keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to make that big start.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Wayne from South Africe been in touch. He’s added to the Lima model trains on the blog:

“Hi Alistair

Thanks for a great site and the many tips.

Our layout started as a small track setup on the floor for my son to play with on those cold, wet winter days.

The train set is a Lima blue train I received as a gift in the mid 1970’s.

In the last year or so our collection of trains has grown and the track has moved onto a 6X3 table in the corner of the living room.

Building a train with the help of a 5 year old certainly came with its challenges but it has been great fun along the way.

We are currently lifting some of the track to resolve some of the rookie mistakes, the worst of which is the gradients which ended up being a bit steep.

We run mainly South African railway trains made by Lima and the layout is based on South African scenery. More pictures to follow as we progress.

Regards

Wayne
Cape Town
South Africa”

The mountains taking shape

The scratch built bridge

Main road with mostly card stock buildings

When the sun sets

Lima model trains:

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“HI Alistair

Thanks for the advice. I have posted a drivers seat view of the lower main line on my Alpine railway layout. I used a cheap mini camera attached to a flatbed car pushed around by a Steam Loco. Not as good quality as a go-pro camera but worth the effort. As others have said, it allows you to see where you need to do more landscaping.

Cheers

Peter in Adelaide”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here (it’s going mad at the moment).

A brilliant ‘driver cam’ from Peter – one of the best I’ve seen. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

And thanks to Wayne for adding to the Lima model trains on the blog.

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

And if today is the day you take the first steps for your own layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.