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:
“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.
I did say that I would show how my uncouplers work, and my manual point levers.
The drawings & pictures should be self explanatory so I hope it helps others if they wish to try it for themselves.
The rough plan for the wheelbarrow has no dimentions as they can be of any size.
They are extremely fiddley though so not for the faint hearted. for every one I make, I throw 3 away.
The orange uncoupler tool is not my idea, I got it from a magazine so can’t take credit for that. It’s painted orange because I keep mislaying it. It has a special hook but I sometimes forget to use it
Lou has been in touch with his N scale laser cut building kits:
“Here’s some photos of an update on my layout.
Most larger buildings you see are laser cut using acrylic sheets.
Wood loads and wire spools on rolling stock are also done on a laser cutter and I sell them for both HO and NScale.
All track work and turnouts are hand laid using fastracks.
The layout is divided into 96 blocks with over 400 led’s for true signaling.
All touchscreen controlled using a proprietary processor that does not require a Windows or Mac based pc.
The room is 16’ x 20’ HO scale.
Lou”
N scale laser cut building kits:
Stunning pics from Lou – I would love to see some more! His N scale laser cut building kits look spot on.
“My dear Al,
Thank you SO much for all your work, doing this and your other publications.
I’ve been a reader, since 2005, I think and started building structures and vehicles, in preparation for a layout that didn’t materialize until years later.
That one got interrupted by a move, out of state, that lasted until last year, when we were, finally, able to move back to our family land. Now, the basement is mine, and the layout begins, in earnest.
It’s going to be 20’x10′, with two, hinged, 3×3 holes, centered near each end.
I feel that I need to give a little background, as to what I’m trying to portray. In northern California, the American tectonic plate collided with a mass of granite, a large portion being moved and another, twisting round but remaining fairly stationary. The end resulted in the formation of the High Sierras, Trinity Alps, Marble Mountains, and the Cascades Volcanic system, all twisted round and colliding with each other, as well as raising the sea bed to an elevation of over 5,000 feet, in places. It is an incredible place to spend time in. Sacremanto, Ca., lies at one area of foothils, Truckee, is at an elevation of 5,817′, and further east lies Virginia City, Nv, one of the richest silver mining areas in the world.
Perhaps, many of your readers have never seen the High Sierras, so I’m enclosing 2 small pics of them so you get an idea of what I’m attempting.
And now, here’s the first corner of the layout, nowhere near finished, but I think you’ll get the idea. The waterfall, behind the bridge, and river, will actually have running water in it, pumped by a 12 volt DC single faucet RV pump, resisted down for flow properties.
There’ll be 4 lines. Here are the beginnings of the first three.
The tunnel has openings behind it.
The double bridge and waterfall/river.
The beginnings of the town of “Glory”, in the upper right corner. In mining country, there are two kinds of mines.
All 4 lines are analog. I’ll be running the little Baldwin “American” locos, for the V&T Railway, the “Big Boy” for hauling freight over the Sierras, a doodlebug for the local rural-to town line, and I don’t know, yet, about the fourth line.
You folks may notice there’s no constructed portal, at either end of the tunnel. That’s, actually, the way some of them were – just blasted and pick and shoveled out of the granite. Some 1,200 Chinese immigrants died during the 40 mile Sierras leg of the Union Pacific.
Thank you, again, Alastair, and thanks to all the readers who have contributed to this publication. I’ve gleaned a lot from them.
Be well,
Wolf”
“Hi Alistair,
My tip would be ” stop reading and have a go – you can’t but learn from your successes and your failures”.
Kind regards
Dean”
I loved Wolf’s narrative because it’s something I read time and time again: claim a space for your own! Then make a start…
And I thought Dean’s tip rang true too. Making a start is everything.
That’s all for today folks. A big thanks to Wolf and to Lou for sharing his N scale laser cut building kits.
