Model railroad layouts plans

Michael’s been in touch with his ho scale l shaped layout:

“Al,

This is a HO scale layout consisting of 3 separate zones. Farm, Village and Mtns. There are 2 bridges, 2 tunnels and lots of interesting things to see along the tracks. I use EZ track. It’s just easier for me to work with.

The platform is L shaped 4X8X6. DC powered.

I used plastic, laser cut; self build (balsa) and paper houses and buildings. A little bit of paint makes them look more realistic. I purchased a bundle of paper houses I saw in your emails. They were easy to assemble and add a nice touch of realism.

The roads are made from a Woodland Scenic kit. The little details like the billboards were made from actual billboard pictures I found on the Internet. I reduced them to the proper scale, printing on photo paper, and attaching them to a painted balsa wood frame.

Mountains are made from 1” thick rigid insulation, stacked, glued, cut, shaped and painted. I also added some natural stone; plaster tunnel portals, and paper retaining walls. All topped off with some mosses and grasses I bought at the craft store.

The farm scene is my favorite. The farm house is paper, the store is laser cut and the barn and silo is built. I added a lot of little touches like the wheat and corn field as well as the plowed earth.

I topped it all off with people, animals, fences, gravel roads, vehicles and a few other items to make it fun.

I added a few more pictures.

Thanks

Mike”

Another cracking layout. A big thanks to Michael for sharing his HO scale L shaped layout.

(The farm scenes reminded me of Peter’s: HO scale farm.

But it’s not just these gems I want to post – if you’ve put the time in and made a layout, please do send in pics.

Lastly, I’ve had a few emails asking where the store has gone.

I’m putting together a new one, so everything is in the same place. In the meantime, I’m putting some silly offers together for the printable buildings, like this:

Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle for just $29.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get going 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.

“Hi Alistair,

Lyttlehurst took me just over 6 month’s to build, it is N gauge, and its 4 foot long by just over a 1 foot wide, I’m afraid that I can’t take all the credit for the design. I borrowed the plan with full permission from Mr David Cox, it was his 00 gauge layout (Woodstow) that was my inspiration.

It is an end of line terminus set in the 60’s in the fictitious country town of Lyttlehurst. The hills are a cardboard frame covered in peppier mache, I use uni-bond as the fixer as its far stronger than ordinary paste.

All the building’s are commercially available kit’s some with modifications, the weathering is all watered down artists acrylic paint of various colours, (browns, green’s, blacks,), the rust on the track’s is un-diluted ochre, again acrylic.

There are a few little things to spot, the woman in red, outside the pub is Marilyn Monroe, (she makes an appearance in all my layout’s), on the platform, the couple with the white boxer dog is my wife and myself, there is a fox by the nearside barn, also the pile of rusty scrap, and there is a couple walking in the top field with the sheep, if you need any more information then please don’t hesitate to let me know,

Thank you very much for your interest.

highest regards,

Malc”

(images are clickable)

That’s all for today peeps. Until tomorrow.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get you get the urge to scratch that railroad itch, 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.

Michael has been in touch, he’s added to the German model railway layouts on the blog:

“Hello mr Alastair

my name is michael jensen from Denmark i send this today becors, i well to tell you about my modeltrain i have i gat it from my grandfather when i was 5 y/o and from that time of and to when i was 25 y/o it was in boxes then i startet to put it up that was allways my dream to get my modeltrain up and runing.

so now it has taking me about 20 years on and of i have 3 rooms for now in my moms old home but when i get the house i have plans to take the last room to my modeltrain to, i know it may not bee a prisvinder but i like my laout i have alot of fun and good time whet my modeltrain

i have about 48 locmotives to run on it i know that is alot but you know when you get some trains from you gardfather and you put it up you go and get more trains i do i have about 150 meters of track on my laout my laout it is made to look like Germany from 1920 to 1950 and i like that time when it comes to trains it looks so good when you put a model on the look like it is taking out of time from 1930

i well say i like so much what you put on your mails the come i like them and when i was in the us just been the for the last 3 years and now home i love to see what you put on it made me fill good so i din`t miss my modeltrain so much ok i well go now can you have a nice day and thanks for very good mails i gat from you by.

michael bo jensen.”

Now on to Marcus.

I had a blizzard of comments on his layout.

(If you missed it, it’s here.)

Here is Marcus’ reply:

“Hi Al, and all who have commented on my layout.

I have been really stunned by your kind observations and encouragement. In fact, I feel very humbled. I really did not expect it. So thank you all so much.

As I have been a bit time (and cash) poor recently I haven’t had much time to add further to the layout. It’s also summer here and a bit hot to be working on the layout. However, I will try to answer a few of your questions. Regarding the lights in the buildings, as someone mentioned, I think this is just my camera (iPhone).

Denny, I created the backdrops in photoshop using images off the web. These were then just printed out with my printer and mounted on board. These will be updated at sometime.

Neil, I’m pleased this brought back memories! the station building is a bachmann one Based exactly on The Harrow-on-the hill station buildings.The back wall is made from ‘scalescenes’ brick sheets (highly recommended). luckily, this station building and the signal box also don’t look too out of place when running my German trains.

I’ll try to post some more pics when I have time and also possibly setup a youtube channel as well to show some running of the layout.

Also, for those interested, the overhead catenary is made from scratch (using parts from dapol masts etc. The wire is fishing line, which is actually under tension. It was very, very fiddly! and time consuming to construct, I have to say. I looked into using Viessmann catenary, but it was too expensive!

Many thanks again for all your feedback.

Regards,

Marcus”

A big thanks to Marcus and to Michael for adding to the German model railway layouts.

That’s all for today folks. Until tomorrow.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you decide you’re missing out on a lot of fun, 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.

And there’s the Silly Discount bundle too.