Model railroad layouts plans

There aren’t many Swiss model train layouts on the blog – but Peter’s really caught my eye.

“Hi Alistair

My layout is in a room I made from the back half of a garage. There are 2 main lines and 1 branch line. The 2 main lines wind around the complete room. Being DCC I can run multiple trains but am still learning the way of doing it to prevent accidents!

After early experiments on mountain building with paper mache and wire frames I decided polystyrene foam cut and shaped with hot knife/hot wire tools covered with plaster cloth to be the best solution. As others have mentioned we don’t get the pink foam batts in Australia. Using rock moulds and liberal use of Plaster of Paris on top and voila a mountain.

Scree slopes are made from the little extra bits that form on the plaster moulds glued together. The plaster cloth is cheaper if you buy it from medical suppliers rather than using hobby shop supplies.

A great method for making waterfalls and stream beds is using silicon sealant, I can provide instructions for this if anyone is interested.

I use a cheaper version of a grasmaster for static grass. Models are either falller/volmer kits, or for more effort and fun, paper and cardboard models printed at home from templates provided by a UK company.

The backdrops are from high res photographs (one from a friend taken on his swiss holiday). There is a Mac App that allows printing of these on an ordinary A4 printer which I back onto large cardboard sheets and attach to the wall.

I have one canal with real water.

That’s all I can think of for now.

Cheers

Peter”

Swiss model train layouts:

A big thanks to Peter for adding to the Swiss model train layouts.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

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.

“Good Day

I was a baker for 45 years. I found that using what is called a pastry bag or decorators bag to apply plaster or spackling compound, gives you a little more control in it’s placement. You can use the tips, they are the mental or plastic cone shaped fittings that are placed in the end of the bag. These items can be purchased at several stores, Michaels, Hobby Lobby and Joann Fabrics. Wilton is the trade name most are listed under, oh I forgot about EBAY. The bag can also be folded over and used to store unused material. You can color the spackling compound with any acrylic color. Using brown you can create a base for bushes and hedges, sprinkle some ground foam on.

You can also use the bag to fill in gaps and add material in your scenery.

Richard”

“Long ago I was taught to use denatured alcohol to lower the surface tension of the ballast before applying the glue. Works great and evaporates a lot quicker than soapy water.

I have found an easy way to create highway grade crossings. I use wooden shims, available at most hardware and lumber stores. Cheap and they work great. Just cut them to fit your layout.

Vic”

Lastly, I just got this in from Dave. Really shows you how he does his stuff!

And don’t miss the latest ebay cheat sheet. It’s here. Lots of good stuff at the mo.

Keep ’em coming.

Best

Al

“Al

As long as I can remember, I have always had a model train layout. When I was 4 years old my father built a 8 x 8 foot layout, and at 16 years old it had grown to 10 foot wide by 22 foot long. Then girls, college, marriage got in the way and the trains took a back seat, but not for long. Shortly after moving into my first house I proceeded to build a new layout, but was interrupted when I received a job transfer. These turn of events repeated itself twice over until my retirement in Maryland.

Most train layouts (especially from the north) were mainly situated in the basement, and for 20 years living in Maryland that’s where my Marklin layout was located. In 2005 while visiting my son in Georgia we looked at houses for sale and stumbled on this two story home that had a very large guest room on the second level.

I thought to myself, for 50 years I had to settle for my train layouts in the basement, now this is my chance to bring them above ground, and before I knew it, I was a Georgia resident. The layout in Maryland did not fit the configuration of the new train room so a new layout was required. Being retired, putting time in daily it took seven years to complete.

Now for the Layout.

The layout is a three (3) rail Marklin HO Digital Format System that has the capacity to simultaneously run 80 motorized units at one time. (That’s only possible is the layout is big enough).

There’re 44 turnouts controlled via digital decoders taking their command from a digital signal sent through the track. Uncoupling tracks, signals and most accessories operate on the same premise.

There are over 85 structures built from kits manufactured by Faller and Vollmer. Scenery (trees, shrubs, hedges, etc.) by Busch, Heki, and figurines by Preiser.

I hope you enjoy my layout and of course feedback would be appreciated.

Thank you

Richard”

My my! That’s one tidy room and layout. I’m deeply envious. Thanks for Richard for sharing, and thanks for the mails on the ebay cheat sheet too.

One last thing – not all heroes wear capes – a few of have been answering the questions on the modeltrain forum.

You know who you are, and a big, huge thank you for doing that. I really hope it grows into something really helpful.

That’s all for today peeps.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

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.