Model railroad layouts plans

“Hi Al

Have been busy with a lot of things on the layout other than the wharf such as assembling white metal kits (woodland scenics) for the town next to the wharf.

Picture below is of the almost completed wharf.

All the best

Brian”

“My Rail Road tip is the use of Coffee Grounds Sprayed White to appear like Snow. I use white liquid shoe polish.

George”

“Hi Al,

Shell Hill is nearing completion.

I thought some of your readers that followed my Expansion 2 series would be interested in how it is all turning out.

I meant to include some tips and trick for modeling in this video, but it got too long, so am am preparing a separate video for the the tips and tricks.

I should have it completed by this evening.

Thanks again for your very useful and interesting letters and posts.

Rob”

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Big thanks to Brian, George and Rob. In fact, a big thanks to anyone who’s ever contributed.

Please keep ’em coming folks.

Best

Al

“Hi there again!, i just want to share how to modelling rocks in a really cheap way, and in my opinion, i got a really nice results.

Hope you like it.

I only use styrofoam to model and give steadiness to the railway area (white line), and modelling the cliffs too. I covered all the area with higienic paper and white glue more water mixture. (it took some days to dry)…

After that, with the woodland scenics “how to” videos that tells you how to paint, only use acrylic paint and when it get dry, i used all the stuff from the “environment learning kit” from woodland.

Hope you like the pictures, that’s my layout, i started building it 9 months ago, but i got a lot to things to add to it”

Sebastian”

When it comes to making rocks, I always think of Barry’a post: Model train rocks.

“Hi Al.

This is made from old phone wire. Strip the plastic off the wire and twist it till you cant anymore. Cut into sections same size. After take a piece of very thing wire for to hold the radials and use as a pole. Take clear instant glue and add a very tiny tiny drop and add a radial. Do all the radials and let dry over night. Or for a few hours.Take a very sharp pair of cutters and cut the radials at an angle as in photo.

Paint silver. Cost nothing to make. If you are having problems.Could switch from phone wire. Take black thick thread. Stretch out a foot and hang it. Take a tube of clear instant glue and wet the thread.Dont add a lot just anough to wet it.Let dry. Cut into sections and follow the same way as you did or would do with the phone wire. I cant believe how expensive it is to buy small things like this.

Kim”

And lastly, here’s this weeks update from the talented Dave:

Thanks to everyone. Don’t forget the latest ‘ebay cheat sheet is here.

That’s it for today.

Please do keep ’em coming though. I enjoy them as much as you do.

And if today is the day you make that life changing start, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

There’s no two ways about it -get the height wrong for your layout and it’ll gnaw away at you forever. Or give you a bad back. Or both.

But where there is a will, there’s a way. Here’s how Lou raised the height of his entire layout.

“Just an idea for those who are interested. I have a room that is 16 feet x 21 feet with about 500 feet of hand laid track. The layout is already wired for 96 blocks of block detection. As i started working on scenery, I was thinking “man, I wish the layout was higher. It would give a much better perspective on the scenery”.

The layout was bolted to 2 walls, and the rest of the layout is on L-girder legs.

I decided to raise the whole layout in one lift, going up 10 inches.

I took a circular saw and cut the backdrop to the new height.

I bought 40 garage door hinges. The posts in the hinges will handle a 7/16″ threaded rod. I bought threaded rod and cut them to 18″ lengths. Mounted the garage door hinges at the bottoms of each leg with enough room underneath to fit a nut and washer.

I setup some temporary legs along the walls and prepared them before I unbolted the layout from the walls. Then you just started cranking away at each leg around the layout. Once done, I used carriage bolts to extend the L-Girder legs.
I was going to use jacks, but I would’ve needed at least 12 jacks with a 10″ throw. This was also much safer.

Lou”

Lou was also kind enough to share a video of his layout. Looking forward to seeing this one finished!

Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

That’s all this time folks. Please do keep them coming – and let us know your thought – please post your comments below.

And if today is the day you take those first steps on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.