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Dan’s trees

“hello Al – great site – as winter continues in Eastern Canada I took to making evergreen trees they turned out pretty good – basically twisted wire and hemp rope sprayed with a clear matte paint or hair spray and the dusted with green dyed sawdust .

The trunks are pieces of drilled out grape vine as they have a very soft centre and the twisted wire is just slide through with enough to stick them in the foam base of my layout . this is my second batch so I thought I would send you a couple of photos – drying after dusted, in the snow 🙂 and on the layout

best regards

Dan”

“Hi Al.

What you need to make a working windmill: Tip off a instant glue. Drilled out tiny bit wider. An extension straw for lubricant’s. And roundish piece of plastic from anything.And another piece of straw not drilled, instant glued, to the plastic round piece.

You see it glued to a T shape. Make sure that plastic post slips into the tip and moves cleanly around.A sewing pin small.A piece of aluminum from a food container cut 1 1/4 diameter .each time you cut a fin take a sliver piece off the next in line to make that gap you see.And 3 long thin round stick’s sanded thinner.cut 3 3/4 inches long.and a piece of balsawood for the stand .

The rest of the sticks cut into beams to go around the tower legs for support.once done.Take a pair of tweezers and carefully bend the blades to catch the max wind and operation.

Kim”

“Hi Al

These are photos of a small HO scale machine shop (1.5″ x 3.0″) fully detailed and lighted inside. It was a resin kit modified to fit the space available but still is a credible building. It took me three evenings (total of 16 hours) from start to finish.

I have a scrap (I call it a BITS) box full of resin and white metal castings (some painted when I feel like doing something small in one evening like painting castings) made over a period of time that I dig into for all my detail parts in case anyone is asking.

I build these small buildings from time to time when I have run out of steam (pardon the pun) and do not feel like taking on large month long projects. It is these small buildings that keep me going as well as inspiring me to do bigger and better. They also help to populate the layout fairly quickly.

Thanks Al and keep ’em coming.

Cheers

Brian”

(Brian’s last post is here)

Now on to Bill:

“Al….Your emails have been a great influence on me. I have been collecting European N guage houses and rolling stock for some 35 years, always saying “Some day I’m going to build ‘my train’ “. My wife and my children never thought it would happen. After studying Dave’s videos and the Woodland Scenics book for what seemed ages, I finally decided to begin. Here are photos of my progress so far.

The support is the old pennisula from a recent kitchen remodel. I took the counter top off and added two small furniture dollies underneath.

As this project is in the garage, that gives me the convenience of moving the whole platform into the center of the garage so I can work around it instead of bending over it. And I have drawers and cabinets to keep “stuff” in. The base layer of the layout is 2 inch insulating foam from the local hardware store. The rest, so far, is styrofoam from Woodland Scenics and bits and pieces that I have been saving for months. So far it is all held together with hot glue!

I will send more photos as my work progresses.

…Bill”

A big thanks to Bill, Brian, Kim and Dan.

That’s all this time my friends.

Please do keep ’em coming.

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

Best

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Brian’s latest building

“Hi Al

I have been busy with a new scratch built boat repair yard and will send a link to all the build so far. It is called Jacks Marine – boat builder and repairs.

The build is a a scratch built mirror image of Shelby’s Marine (Sierra West Model Kit) The reason for the mirror image build Is to fit the area on my layout with some modifications and extra detail.

The card roof will be covered in either tar paper or shingles. Still have to make that decision as I am still busy with the interior finishes. Don’t want to rush the roof and spoil a good model.

Btw, the siding on the walls is a sandwich of vertical siding on the inside and horizontal clapboard on the outside. The sandwich is stuck together with my favorite – double sided tape as this prevents warping when painting and staining and makes a very sturdy wall.

Keep ’em’ coming.

Cheers.

Brian”

I enjoyed seeing how Brian creates his buildings. It’s a stunning layout in the making (his last post is here). Can’t wait for his next installment.

That’s all this time, peeps.

Please do keep them coming – just hit reply to any of my mails to get in touch.

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

Best

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Alan adds a fiddleyard

Alan’s been very igenious with adding another fiddleyard:

“Hi Al,

I seem to have too much stock, so my turntable fiddleyard is overflowing. So what to do? Well on the secondary branch of my layout there is a short tunnel which is a dead end.

Immediately inside there is a point dividing into two short tracks which can accomodate a diesel railcar and an auto train. So what if I open up the other end of the tunnel and create a second lower level fiddleyard?

Well that is what I did, and although not completely finished I thought you might find the pictures of interest. I had to move all the stock to the other end of the layout, hence the empty turntable. There is quite a steep incline to the lower yard so only short trains could be used, but there are 3 longer storage roads.

Another thing I would like to mention is that sometimes steam railway magazines feature old railway buildings and some of the pictures would make excellent additions to backscenes, see photo. I have used one myself but I cut out any that may come in useful in the future.

Lastly, I do prefer manually operated points. Electric ones are sometimes necessary and indeed I have several, but if possible I try to operate them manually. If a problem arises, is it the motor, the switch or the wireing? If it’s mechanical, you can see the problem. The last picture shows two methods I use.

The first is if you can use the hole in the tie bar where the motor arm would fit. I sometimes use a straightened out paper clip then bend to an L shape after cutting to length. I solder that into the end of a small copper tube, which is then secured to the underside of the baseboard using P clips or even a chock block (electric junc connector)

The second method is if for some reason you cannot access the tie bar hole. Flatten the end of a copper tube & drill a hole to fit over the lug on the tie bar. If it’s possible to place the tube on the surface (you can disguise it by various means), then it’s easily secured by P clips. But if it has to go underneath it’s a little more involved. It may be necessary to join 2 tubes together. You will have to drill a hole next to the tie bar large enough to allow lateral movement of the operating arm . The tube has to be bent to an S shape and fitted through the hole and then secured to the underside of the baseboard. Again, you can disguise the hole with foliage or something.

I hope the above will be of some use to all your followers.

Happy modelling

Alan”