“Here’s a trick I use if I need a gap for electrical purposes. I use Super Glue to put a small piece of .020 plastic between the rails where the join.
Then I use modeler’s files to conform the plastic to the rail profile. Once I scenic the rails the joint becomes almost invisible.
On His Ride,
Steve”
“Alastair, I like to use uncooked pasta for drain spouts. This is especially useful when building from scratch. I’m thinking mainly spaghetti here, but pasta does come in a variety of shapes.
Artists chalk and makeup brushes are great for certain aging/weather operations. The user must be absolutely certain to use a fine mist of fixative spray – light coat, please.
Jack
Kansas City, Missouri”
“Hi, if you are a tea drinker then save and slowly dry your teabags to make realistick earth.
When dry, you have to rub the contents of the teabags between your fingers to crush the lumpy bits.
If you have a model of a plough man with horses, then lay the rippled sheet from yourwifes box of chocolates, glue it ripple side up to your field and when dry spray with dilute PVA and sprickle you ‘earth on it and there you have a lovely ploughed field ready for planting the potatoes.
Don”
“1.) My best innovation was drilling small holes then using a string of Christmas lights under a 4×8 sheet to light all of my son’s N-scale structures without a million tiny wire connections.
2.) Another thing I have done was to drill a larger hole, and use a fan from an old computer and I placed it under the board. I cut some red and yellow plastic in V-shapes and had the fan blowing it upward to make a pretty cool little building on fire.
3.) if you take metal screen mesh (looks like: ############) and cut it, you can use it as fence for long runs. It’s very flexible. Fine screen–window screen–can make chain link fence when cut into diagonals and put between pins or small nails as posts.
Brian”
“I discovered this by carelessness. I was using crazy glue to build a coaling tower kit and when I applied to much glue to the plastic along with gluing my fingers to the tower I discovered this.
When the liquid crazy glue ran along the grooves on the “siding” it turned the plastic an off white giving it the appearance of faded paint and or a weathered siding look.
You might want to practice this on some scrap plastic before attempting on something good. There is no going back..but it really looks great..I lucked out I think…
Mark”
“Tip 1. When ballasting track-beds, lay the track and pin down in its final position. That gives it a solid base.
If you need/want to use sound proofing, just cut a strip of polystyrene wall liner, about 5mm wider than the sleeper base and fasten down with double sided tape before laying the track.
When you are happy with the track layout, dry lay the ballast and brush into place to achieve the desired effect. Remember that not all track ballast was laid in neat straight lines and an even depth, it always got shifted around a bit!
Mist-spray the ballasted track with water to which a few drops of washing up liquid has been added. Damp but not running is the rule!. Then add diluted PVA wood-working adhesive, diluted 50/50 with water with a syringe, just at the edge of the ballast layer.
The wet ballast will draw the glue into the ballast, the detergent having reduced the surface tension, and leave to dry overnight. When dry the glue will dry clear and the track will look the biz. Do make sure that you clear any ballast from point slides and frog rails before you add the glue.
Tip 2. You can easily make your own plaster bandage, or Mod-Roc, by using old triangular bandages and soaking them in very dilute Polyfilla or quick drying plaster from the DIY store. Many First Aid centres have old bandages that they have to throw away because the packaging is compromised or they are out of date.
The gauze pads from old shell dressings are just as good and you might get a load from a local military surplus store. When opened out they are about 4ft across!
Lay the soaked fabric over crushed paper or polystyrene pieces, smooth down and leave to set. Paint as required.
Hope you can use these.
David”
That’s it for another day.
Please do keep ’em coming.
And if today is the day you get started on your layout, pat yourself on the back. Also, the Beginner’s Guide is here.
“Here is another waterfall created with blue paint and epoxy. By using a toothpick to stir the epoxy as it dries, you can create the rapids and water landing in the lake. This mountain river also has kayakers and a beach to the right side. Yes, that is real sand on the beach. You may remember my submission of the Erie Railroad. This is a small detail on the overall HO layout.
I hope everyone enjoys it.
Bill”
And here’s the very latest installment from the talented Dave:
That’s all this time… exept for this – but please stop reading now if you’re only interested in all things trains…
I was very surprised by the number of emails I got after I posted a pic of my new puppy.
It seems there’s a lot of you out there that love dogs just as much as trains.
Here’s a pic of the little fella
He hasn’t worked out the kennel will keep him dry yet, as you can see. He’ll go in there for treats – and that’s it. If anyone can tell me how to get him to settle in there, I’d be eternally grateful.
Don’t worry. I caved after I took the pic and he came in.
After some time making mess with construction and plaster etc, I get to the point I just want to run trains.
Anyway, have added a mine with a pretty cool n scale rope shovel.
Still a long way to go, and I need the eBay gods to deliver some more scenery material, but here’s some shot from today. Ran some new kato with an old sentimental favorite, the concor black widow pa.
Well, he speaks with good authority, have a look at his last layout (the poor soul had to break it up when he moved).
A big thanks to Dave.
Don’t forget the curtain is shortly coming down on the big silly sale, so if you want to grab this deal, you haven’t got long left.
You get all this:
If you want to watch the full length version, with Bonkers John at full throttle, It’s here.
Next up, seeing as it’s nearly the last day day for the silly sale, I thought it would be fun to show you just some more scenes made from the printable scenery in the silly sale.
I’ve never given away so much for so little – just $9.
Are you really going to miss out on this crazy offer?
Here are some of the buildings on your layouts:
“Al, like you I have been retired for some time now.
I have gone back to my American Flyer, s Guage boyhood train.
I have had “n guage, HO, G scale”, and this American Flyer has been the most fun of all. I guess it takes me back to my parents basement where my 4 x 8 foot layout was back in the early 50’s.
I resized your wonderful old barn and had so much fun building it. Here are some pics. Hope everyone enjoys it as much as I have.
Jerry from Illinois, USA.”
“Al,
Great project and a lot of fun. The barn is on it’s way to the Railroad Club.
Charles”
“Al
I have enjoyed your site for a long time, since I have retired had to find something to fill the spare time, I purchased one of your bundles and printed out one of the Engine sheds among many others.
I have created my own version of the Engine shed as shown in the pictures.
Side walls have ventilation fan vents.
I have dreamed to set up a model railroad layout for a long time and when I started to make it a reality one thing came up after another, like kids, education, weddings and now I have time and room to finish the dream, but not much of a budget.
Best to all talented people like Hall of Fame Dave, talented hobbyists and their many beautiful layouts.
Ryszard”
And of course, there’s lots of the printable buildings on your layouts.
Here some pictures of them:
Mike has used a lot of the houses and grain elevators (not featured in the bundle – just using a print out example).
But don’t forget – it’s not just the printable buildings you get – it’s the Beginner’s Guide too:
Of course, I’m biased so here’s what others say about it:
“Al,
I really like the Beginner’s Guide. As a true beginner it helped me quite a bit. The Guide answered questions I didn’t know enough to ask.
I haven’t gotten to the building prints yet, still working on my terrain.
Bruce”
“Hi Alistair,
Your print out building kits have saved me hundreds of dollars on buildings and they provide the unique option of being able to customize the builds most any way I desire.
Until I came across your kits, I was very limited on what I could add to my planned N-scale layout. Commercial building kits are way too expensive for a retired person’s budget.
I now have the ability to not only build nice scenes, they don’t require weathering. Something I’m not terribly adept at accomplishing. Also, as a 70 year old kid, working in N-scale can be challenging for clumsy arthritic fingers. Your kits eliminate most of those issues. All I need is a sharp blade, scissors, glue and my imagination.
Also, your beginner’s guide is invaluable. I’m a retired network systems architect, so tech is not scary to me yet surfing the web for information can be tedious. I was a pre-teen the last time I played with model trains, and a lot has changed in the hobby since the early 60’s. You’ve solved all of that by providing one source for virtually all my basic needs, plus your daily email blog covers it all. What an incredible resource you are to this hobby.
Thanks for doing all of what you do.
Best Regards,
Ken”
“Hi Al
I really enjoyed the beginner’s guide book. I’m new to the train world. I have just retired and trying to make an attempt to start a hobbie with HO scale trains. You and your followers have encouraged me for the last two year’s. I Thankyou and your followers for sharing their train world
Sam”
Of course, I’m very biased, but I think the Beginner’s Guide and all these printable buildings bundled free are a real steal – just $9 for the next day or so.
I think Ken’s quote above puts it best:
“Your print out building kits have saved me hundreds of dollars on buildings and they provide the unique option of being able to customize the builds most any way I desire.”
You get 25 printable buildings with the Beginner’s Guide (although with a bit of imagination you can make, many, many more).
You’ll see these buildings sell in the store for $9 each or more.
And the Beginner’s Guide sells for $27.
So you are saving a massive $342 on this deal.
You’re also getting the track plans PDF too.
What’s more, have a look at throught the store and you can see it’s a real, genuine, saving.
But please bear in mind, this silly sale is only for a few days, and then it’s all goes back to normal.
I do like to think that when I have a sale it’s genuine, and there is real value.
So if you fancy this bargain before it disappears like a shadow in the night, grab it right now.
Or, I know some of you good people just buy it to support the site. God bless each and every one of you.
Whatever your reasons, the Beginner’s Guide for $9 and the free printable buildings make it easy for you to make that all important start.
And that, my friends, is what it’s all about. Making that start.
