Model railroad layouts plans

“Hi Alastair, with winter and snow in the mountains, the wedge plow has been prepared and will be used shortly, pushed by two powerful Heislers to clear the line for the log trains.

Btw, we have had some heavy snow fall here in Cape Town even on Table mountain.

Cheers

Brian”

“Hi Al.Here is the telegragh pole I made up. Weather it and I bet it be better than plastic. Was pretty easy to make.Just was slow mounting the pin’s for the insulator’s.And be very consistant with the building of these, I made a very simple sort of jig or pattern.

I figured out the first pin pattern and stuck with it. I took a piece of paper and made pencil dot’s showing where to mark on the beam to place the pegs.Now making holes in the beam to place pin’s.You have marked on the beam where your post’s go.Now take the large pin and s o slowly and gentaly push the pin in.go slow or risk cracking the beam.Dont go all the way threw.make all the holes.

Now take a left over led post and push it into the hole you made carefuly.Do one at a time.

Put just anough instant glue to the pin and hole. Use a tissue to suckup extra glue. Try not to get any glue on the rest of the post or it will be hard to slip the insulators on.

Okay now put 3 beads on and leave them at the end of the post. Just touch the wet end of the instant glue tip to the post and slide the beads down quickly.

The hole to attach to the post is made with the sewing pin where you see the line in the photo after all the insulators are installed and trimmed from all the extra led post.Carefuly push the large pin into the beam and threw the other side. Sit to one side.

Now take your 1/2 a quarter inch dowel.And figure from the top make a tiny notch to sit the beam to.

Take another pin and pliers and make a hole where you made the notch.

Push all the way threw the dowel.

Remove pin and take the beam with the pin in it and stick it to the post where you have the notch and hole you made.

Snip off the extra pin and glue the two pieces together with instant glue or white glue.Okay here is what you need.

1/2 a quarter inch dowel.
popsicle stick.cut to 2 inches long
left over led post’s
1 sewing pin with the head.pins you use to hem up pants and such before sewing now there is a large pin and a small pin.use the small pin for the post bolt.

Kim”

That’s all today, folks. Please keep ’em coming.

Latest ‘ebay cheat sheet’ is here

Best

Al

“Hi Al

Thought you might like these photos of my rebuild of Amberton its still very much a work in progress.

kevin”

(Images are clickable)

“Al,

Here is the last and final part of my series about the second Farland expansion. I am glad to be done with construction so I can get back to the business of running trains. Thanks much.

All the best,

Rob”

Short and sweet today folks – I’ve got a gazillion things to do… Lots more next time though.

(You may have missed this post last month).

That’s it for today.

Please do keep ’em coming. My inbox looks sparse and desolate at the mo.

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.

“Hi Alistair,

I really appreciate your emails.

I am an ex scale aeromodeller and just starting in model railroading and loving the learning curve. Please keep them coming as the tips are a great help.

I only have a small “L” shaped area for my layout. Approx. 3.5 mtrs X 2.4 mtrs and around 750mm deep.

It will be a coal mining theme with around two to three elevated tracks.

The scale is O (on30) so if you have any track plans for something like that I would really appreciate it if you could email them to me.

Attached is roughly of an area which gives you an idea of the theme.

Kind regards

Ian”

(Image is clickable)

“Gday from Aus! Have recently worked with a carpet & vinyl floor layer- lots of ideas!!

The thick large cardboard tubes in carpet & vinyl rolls would make excellent tunnels.

Off-cuts of sheet vinyl would make excellent underlay for track- nearly 3mm thick,sound proofing,cut easily with a stanley knife to any shape required, & come in grey & black “slate” patterns.

Vinyl tiles would make excellent pavers,/ platforms. The “blotchy” grey ones would only need white paint edges, & pavers drawn onto them with thin black pen/ink/texta. Again ,they score & snap easily.

But what caught my attention is the “feather finish” grout they smear over timber/concrete floors before tiling. It is a dark grey colour, so I thought of rock faces, or block walling.(scribe before dry) >tunnel mouths,retaining walls,concrete etc Bit of trial & error on scrap ,card, mdf,>steel finish, spounge, sanded,gouged etc . No prep, just add water!!

One more. Fibro sheeting is made up of layers. Snapped between fingers, it gives a pretty convincing sedimentary/shale rock effect,as the layers break in staggered random arrays. Chisel or knife would expose more or less to suit.

All of these items can be found in scrap/skip bins on site or in industrial areas.

Happy scavenging, deano (one man’s trash is another man’s treasure)

Deano”

“Hi Al,

I have been working on the layout and making good progress.

It is disappointing to me, but I do not have trains running yet.

In this video, I have built the raised platform for the tracks and station on Shell Hill.

I have also laid in the 2% inclines, cut the track to fit and I am ready to glue down and plaster the inclines.

I am hopeful that this expansion will improve greatly the performance of the trains.

It was difficult bringing my self to rip out the old scenery.

I paused for a few days until I was used to the idea and ready to do it. I had spent considerable time creating it once upon a time. I hope your readers enjoy this video.

All the best,

Rob”

And lastly, I’ve found out there were gremlins about the other week. You may have missed this post here.

Best

Al