Model railroad layouts plans

“Hi Al,

This article is in response to some of your readers who have been asking about O gauge layouts.

I’ve been working on my O gauge model railroad for a year now and have managed to complete the first phase of a multi-phased layout.

I live in California where basements are just figments of one’s imagination. Since my home is blessed with a large lot, I decided (upon recommendation from my wife) to install the layout inside a 12 ft X 20 ft Tuff Shed.

The bench work is 44-inches off the floor, and elevations are 4 degrees maximum.

The theme is still somewhat undecided, but in addition to a passenger line that runs along the outside, the secondary line will handle mostly freight.

Everything is installed 2 ft away from the building walls. The second phase of track will be assembled in modular form and fastened to the fixed bench work along the walls for easy access, removal and maintenance.

After due consideration, I decided to use MTH Scale Trax because of its low profile and realistic look.

Also, I purchased Rich Battista’s videos on the “Black Diamond Railway” which helped me tremendously. Other than Rich’s layout, I have not seen or read anything with as much detail as his videos on Scale Trax installation.

All MTH trains will operate using the MTH Digital Command System (DCS). I have included a few photos of the two completed main lines. The next phase will include the installation of extensive freight yards and spurs, all of which will be installed on the modules. A lift-up bridge will be installed at some point after the completion of the second phase in front of the door entry way.

There are also plans to install an elevated set of tracks to run my old Lionel and Williams conventional powered trains. This will be a phase three project. Now that I am retired, I have more time to devote to construction. This weekend, my friend Mark and I will install electrical feeders to the currently installed track (about every 6 to 8 feet) and run some tests of the track.

More to follow. I have really enjoyed the many articles sent to you from model railroaders around the world and look forward to reading each one.

Cheers!

Dick”

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“Hi Al , just uploaded this video showing some changes I have made , it also shows laying track and ballasting also adding static grass , could be of some help to some of the modellers.

Regards

Dave”

Latest ‘ebay cheat sheet’ is here.

Big thanks to Dick and Dave.

Please keep ’em coming.

Best

Al

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”

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“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.

Rob”

Latest ‘ebay cheat sheet’ is here.

Big thanks to Rob and John for getting in touch.

That’s all for this missive.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get going on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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.

Cheers

Brian”

Wow! A huge thanks to Tom for his wonderful pics and narrative on his O scale trains. I’m green with envy. Have a look at the comments below.

Tom’s post reminded me of Rob’s O scale trains too.

Big thanks to Brian too.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you press the fun button and get started, 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 store.

They are great fun to make and great value too.