Model railroad layouts plans

Alan’s been in touch – have a look at what he’s done with his OO scale figures, stunning stuff:

“Hello Al,

like a lot of other modellers, I like building things rather than spend all the time running trains. I like tweaking things to make improvements, so I thought your followers might like my latest project.

I live in the UK and in the 1950’s, where my layout is set, milk was collected from the dairy farms in churns by lorry. Each farm had a small platform or stage at the farm entrance where the churns were placed ready for collection each day. They were then transported to the local creamery and after treatment sent by rail to the towns & cities. I’ve explained this as it might not have been the same in other countries.

Anyway, I bought a set of DAPOL workmen, and selected one to be a lorry driver collecting the churns. He originally had a shovel in his hands, so I cut this off with a scalpel blade and glued a milk churn in it’s place. I hope you like the result.

My new loco needed a crew, but instead of the fireman shovelling coal like all my others, I decided to take advantage ot the more open cab arrangement and have him watering down the coal to keep the dust down.

To do this I removed the pick from his hands and carefully drilled through his fists using a mini drill. I then got the smallest diameter wire I had and threaded it thro the holes, stripping a length off and tinning it to represent water. I am very pleased with the result. You do need Patience!

Thanks Al, a great site

Alan”

Next up is James again. A few of you said his youtube wouldn’t play, so here it is again:

(You can see James’s post here.)

A big thanks to Alan for sharing his OO scale figures scenes. Have a look at the comments below.

I do love seeing how all of your projects and plans progress. All these years on and I still love seeing what’s in my inbox each morning.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you press the fun button and get started, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.

“Hi my name is Lenzo Widmar, I live in Mexico.

When I was 13 years old I saw the model railroad museum at Balboa Park in San Diego and was fascinated with trains ever since.

I built this end table from scratch using an N scale train everything but the cars, people, and train I hand made.
It’s part of my signature series.

Lenzo”

A big thanks to Lenzo – amazing to think they are all built from scratch. Whilst I haven’t got the patience Lenzo has, I do love putting the print out scenery together.

I greatly enjoyed doing the latest three, which are below. I think they look great (but have a look and make your own mind up).

And here’s a sweet little offer for you too. All the other buildings on the site sell for $9 – but these are just $2. That’s right: $2 a building – less than a coffee.

(In fact, it’s cheaper than the Big Kahuna deal).

So if you want to have a muck about with some scratch building, now’s a great time to have a go. You get all three buildings, for $6, but only until Monday:

You can print them out to any scale you want too.

You can see some more pictures of them here. Have a look. He’s done a great job on the detail.

And if you fancy bagging this deal – all 3 for $6 – you can also do that here.

Happy scratch building!

That’s your lot for today – unless you want to make a start on your layout, in which case you can grab the Beginner’s Guide here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

“Best tip ever as far as I am concerned. Use a few drops of hair clipper oil on the wheels of your loco, run it around the layout, the tracks are clean, and the trains should run smoothly for months.

Remember only a few drops, too much and you will get wheel slippage on any grades.

Brian”

“Dear Al,

One day I was cleaning my engines and thought there had to be a way you could use both hands to work on them. I found a piece of foam about 1.5″ thick and cut a 1.25″ thick trough in it. Now I can turn my engines and cars upside down so I can us a keyboard vacuum and clean them and lubricate them using both hands. It holds everything securely and makes it easier to work on them and I don’t have to worry about them getting scratched up.

Charles”

Remember the problem Dave had with his track? If not, it’s here.

And here’s his update:

“Hi Al , I did get a problem with those points the following day , so decided to try the Peco points as shown in this video it seems to have cured the problem , as shown the guide rail is shorter , so maybe this is the answer , also a good tip for girder work on Bridge scenics…

We all get problems so it helps with different solutions…

Regards

Dave”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Best

Al