John could have done with a model railway track planner. I think we all could when we start out.
Can anyone help? Please leave a comment below
“Hi Alastair,
I am an avid reader of your emails and all the layouts you’ve shown have given me the itch to go back into model railways.
I have joined a club and at the moment building a layout in stages for the clubs show, but have run into a problem.
I am using boards of 4ft x 3ft wide boards and think I have gone and got over enthusiastic by having a ten lane track. This wasn’t a problem until I got to the end board and had to take all the tracks round a left hand radius onto the next board which left the inner tracks in a to tight curve.
I had to start again and took the inner 4 tracks up over the other six tracks, thus coming out of the curve directly over the other six tracks. This is my problem, because I made a tunnel at both the beginning and the end of the tunnel and find:-
1. It difficult to join up the fish plates at the tunnel entrance.
2. Had to bring the 4 tracks back to the inside again which I did by a bridge which has to come off to fit the fish plates at the tunnel under the bridge which is over the six lines of track. I have to do this every I want to move the layout which looks a bit of a messy.
Please have you or any of your readers any tips on how to get over this.
I have enclosed a couple photos
John”
“Al,
It has been a while since I submitted anything to you. I thought I would submit this as a window into progres on my Farland Howe layout.
There are lots of O scale trains posts on the blog – but Tom’s really does stand out:
“Alastair about 99% of the layout was scratch built mainly because I just got tired of going thru magazines and visiting layouts and see this and that built by the big manufactures just wanted to have something my own.
Many of the structures were built from old photos from the 20’s some were just built to fill in spaces, all are wood most of the front buildings and some of the rears have complete interiors and lighted of course.
I found that O and On3 are just to big to have nothing but blacked out windows or windows that had no interiors, some of the back walls in the buildings are photo shrunk to 1/4″ scale then details from there to the front, I really like doing forced perspective it really tricks the eye.
All the track and turnouts were had laid with spikes. This helps with O scale trains. The ties are roughed up and stained with various browns and lots of gray.
Trees on the layout are something I just stumbled across, my only neighbor about 1/2 mile away (we both line in log cabins on a dirt road in the woods) owns a tree service, I was helping him one day and saw the roots of this tree an ash tree. Then WOW here folks go around cutting branch’s off trees then gluing on bits a pieces….. so here right in front of me is a perfect tree for my O scale trains.
Tree Roots Gods gift to the model RR’er. Next step spray some adhesive hole it upside down sprinkle on your favorite color green (I like to use more then one shade of green) keep in mind the if you look a tree in the daylight the sun give the green different colors.
Small roots make great bushes. Then just square off the bottom (should have been done before you start) drill a small hole in the bottom to accept a stiff wire or nail and place in on the layout.
As far as ground over goes I use floor sweepings! Sounds a little crazy but as most modelers are a little sloppy and when you on occasion clean off you bench onto the floor just sweep it up and save it. the mixture of colors makes great ground cover just remember to remove and pink or blue foam that you might have used.
For the base nothing looks better the real dirt really fine dirt….so where would you get some super fine dirt….find a construction site where the heavy equipment has been driving over for a few days grab a 5 gallon bucket and shovel it in. IT MIGHT BE GOOD TO ASK FIRST most of those construction guys age pretty big. LOL
Lay down some white glue on you base take a strainer shake it over the glue fairly thick (don’t make it flat) the ground just is not that way unless you building a golf course.
Then mix some white glue and water and a little dish washing soap set it aside. Before you pour this on the dirt you will want to spray some denatured alcohol on the dirt soak it right in the pour on the glue mixture. The denatured alcohol and it must be denatured will help the glue soak in.
Your can then put on your floor sweeping while the mixture is still wet.
Painting structures is one of my favorite things to do. Keep in mind again that nothing is one solid color, after all you have done a lot of work to make it look real so dull down the color you don’t want your work to look like a store purchased plastic toy. If you are using plastic a spray coat of dull coat will help it also will give the plastic a rough surface that can be painted over.
Well that’s about it for now I’ll write more when the mood hits. Right now I’m in the middle of changing scale from On3 to indoor G scale…Wow talk about having to get a lot of detail in….lots of fun for me on the way, with or without my O scale trains.
Tom,
CEO and mostly Janitor …. Narragansett RR On3”
(Images are clickable so you can zoom in on the detail)
Now on to Brian.
He has sent in this superb video of his engine house. Amazing detail:
“Hi Al
Another short video of a chap welding inside Woodland Scenics Tucker Brothers machine shop which is also on my layout.
Ken’s been in touch again – this time he shows us how to make a model train turntable.
And Chris has also sent in a video of his rather fun layout too.
“Hi Al,
Here is the turntable at the mine. Because of the small size I decided to make it myself.
So here you see the rough cut out and temporary turntable with track, to get proper dimensions and proof of design. The turntable is not powered at this time.
I have also started on the road, made out of drywall compound, and painted with basic grey house paint.
The tunnel portals are hand made, cut from ¾ inch plywood, coated with drywall compound, painted with the same grey house paint. Here you also see the beginning of the ballasting, following all the tried and true methods of gluing, except mine is real sand, sifted for size, cost 20 cents for a bucket. Again, I live in Mexico and here you need to be very creative.
This next picture shows the 2 crossings where the road and track cross. I had 2 bags of ties that were for the original layout years ago that never got used, so I dipped them in black paint, common house, dried and now used to fill in blank spots made at rail joints and here for wooden crossings.
Ok, progress, the turntable pit done. Took many ideas, each discarded as impractical, till I finally hit on the method I finally used. Again because of its size I figured I needed several separate components, the circular track, for show only, the bottom of the pit, the walls of the pit, the turntable, and a way to electrify it. Turning for now is manual, may or may not change, we’ll see.
The base needed to be as round as possible, so center hole and compass with blade, sanded to finish. The walls were cut from cardboard, glued and pinned in place, and layered for rigidity, not easy but far easier than the rail. The rail was cut from a piece of flex track, curved, fitted, glued and pinned to dry. Everything is coated with my favorite item, drywall compound. Here it is finally mounted in place. Also there is a notch in the wall height to allow for the rails to pass and rest on as the locomotive enters and leaves.
The turntable was far easier. Material is 3/16 inch thick, cut to shape and glued together. Power comes through the center.
Here is the underside of the turntable, the rod is the center pivot point and one side of the electrical connection, the washer is the bearing surface and the other side of the electrical connection. I found that I needed weight to insure a good connection as well as electrical conductive lube. The base of the table has a brass tube and corresponding washer.
The weights are old auto wheel weights, needed to insure good electrical contact. Also here you see the mine area is now ballasted, the road is in and scenery done. Colors are combinations of common house paint.
This picture shows how small this turntable is, it is now fully functional.
Here are the 2 loco’s that work the mine and deliver the loaded and empty cars.
You also see the “ finished” scenery, tunnel portal, road, and pad for the 2 stall engine house, and the car repair track. Both loco’s were purchased in the early 70’s, still running smooth as silk. The electrical switches are for the 2 engine tracks, and the turntable, also the approach track is likewise controlled, as is the car repair track.
Hope you enjoyed this and someone out there finds it helpful.
Ken, from Mexico”
A big thanks to Ken for sharing how to make a model train turntable.
That’s all folks! As always, please do keep ’em coming – and a big thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do.
