Model railroad layouts plans

“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.

“Hi Al,

I am a subscriber to your email post, and would like to send you some pics of my layout here in Sydney that I have been working on for the last couple of years.

I started building Model railways in the late 1970’s in the UK, and this would now be my third proper layout (much to my wife’s dismay).

The layout started out as a British Rail outline, but is now changing to a German/Swiss bavarian one! It’s about 4×4 metres and is very detailed (I think) with scratch built catenary etc..

I enjoy your site very much, and look forward to your response.

Best regards,

Marcus”

(Images are clickable)

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“On that meat tray suggestion; if you use an airbrush to paint larger areas or any size area where Styrofoam is connected’ use ordinary flat house paint, or artist “gesso” to prime, and strengthen the binder of the paint. Too often people airbrush Styrofoam without sealing or priming, and it peels off or tends to show the “pellet” effect that comes with Styrofoam. Plus you can stipple the paint or primer with use of a coarse bristle brush to create texture i.e. stucco or stone.

Ed”

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Lastly, if you missed this earlier, 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, for a short while:

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

Please do keep ’em coming.

That’s all this time.

And if today is the day you take those first steps on your very own 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.