Model railroad layouts plans

Alan’s been in touch with some simple but effective ways to weather your model railway:

“Hi Al,

I have a few tips that I have picked up which may be of some interest to your disiples.

First, when making bridges & tunnels for single tracks, I generally use grapefruit cans. Remove both ends & cut along the length to open it out. It may require 2 cuts depending how high it’s needed.

Scrap metal is a load that’s often carried by rail, but finding very small pieces of the real stuff is not always possible. So I came up with using paper or thin card. You can see from the picture how I formed the ‘scrap’.

After making a raised platform to fit the wagon and painting it black, I glued the paper to it, several layers may be needed, then let it dry. I found the load was a bit ‘spongy’ when touched so I put a liberal coat of varnish on it & when dry painted it in rust effect.

If the load needs to be removed at times, a quick way is to glue a small magnet under the load then using a magnetic pick-up tool the load simply pops up.

To save money, I make as much as I can, and I find artists mountboard very useful, the coal staithes are made by scoreing it to make it look like it’s made from sleepers. Many of my other constructions are made with it.

Finally, NEVER throw anything away!! You never know when it might come in handy.

I had the Metcalfe bus garage in the corner of my last layout, but no room on this one.

But after about a year I realised I could canabalise it to make a Creamary,- see picture.

The rear of it is now being used as a low relief bus garage.

Old ball point pens, the springs & barrels from some of them, Q tips ( cut the ends off) they make good wagon loads, or pillars, old scouring pads, the list is endless.

Thats all for now, Happy modelling

Alan”

Wonderful tips from Alan on weathering your model railway.

That’s all for today 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 Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

“Hello Alistair

So that your commenters know people do listen to their suggestions I am sending you new pictures of my river.

You published my river pictures, and “How To” about a month ago. I raised the river level and made it more green. Your subscribers made these suggestions.

They also wanted me to add kayakers, and picnickers. This is N scale these things are so small they do not work in this scene. Thank you to everyone who helped me with your suggestions.

Happy Railroading,

Thomas”

Big thanks to Thomas.

It also a good example of why I’ve introduced the ‘golden key’ search page.

Here’s Thomas’ first post. But as you know, I don’t link much.

The golden key search page means you could have found Thomas’ previous post – and all the other river ‘how to’s.

In fact you, you could search on anything at all.

But today is the last day it’s on offer. Please don’t dawdle if it takes your fancy.

And just so there’s no room for error, it’s the last day today for the Golden Key search page! Can’t be more clearer than that…

Anyhow, here’s a quick vid showing what it does:

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

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Best

Al

Here’s the latest in from Dave.

He’s also included a great little tip if you use a Dynamis controller. Have a look, I think you’ll like it.

“Hi Al, a few pics of my shed layout from a few years back, its only 6ftx6ft I don’t know if it will interest anyone, not all have the room for big layouts, but I think you can still have fun creating, and running the models, anyway Al I hope this helpful to anyone like me that just doesn’t have the space.

Cheers Ron”

Thanks to everyone who supported the site by getting the ‘golden key’. I really do appreciate it.

And to those wondering what the golden key is, it’s a search page that lets you rake through years and years of posts.

Handy if you’re scratching your head over something and want to see what others do. Here’s a quick vid I did on it:

If you’d like it, you have until Tuesday. It means you’ll never miss a post too – like Mark’s excellent lighting ‘how to’.

Big thanks to Dave and keep ’em coming.

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Best

Al