Model railroad layouts plans

“Hi Alastair,

My name is Jim Volmer Sr. and I live in Buffalo New York, on the western side of the “big pond”.

I have been involved in model railroading most of my life. I started very young, age 5 with my first train from Lionel. Boy do I miss that train. When I was in College, I gave my train away. What a mistake that was, looking back on it now. But as they say, ‘can’t cry over spill milk’.

So after I got married, I decided to get back into the model railroad again. With a young son, I started to build my layout, in HO that I have had for over 32 years. My son is grown of course so now it is time to start a new layout.

I have included some pictures of the original layout to see what I did.

The Mountain in the background is so of light in the photograph. I built the mountain out of strip carboard and screen, over which I applied some joint compound that I had. It was applied very thin, over which I hand laid small outcroppings that I made using Hydocal. There are over 1,000 little stones on that mountain. It took several days to complete

The next picture is looking down the double track toward the mountain. There are several switches with Control signals wired into each switch, that control the movement of the trains.

The next picture, shows one of four sidings that I have. This one is for the Cement factory.

The last picture shows the Diesel Engine Facility. There are three buildings, Car Shop, Engine House, and Service shop. The Car Shop was accessed using a turntable. The Engine House and Service shop are accessed by a Transfer Table that I bought from Walters a few years ago. This section was an add on to the old Layout.

Now that this layout has come to its end, it is time for a new era in my railroad.

I have included a drawing for the new layout. It will be on backwards 7 design. 8 ft X 11. Does not sound impressive, but I think the drawing will speak for its self.

As you can see there are a lot of new ideas going into this layout that were missing from the old layout. The Mountain will have four portals: two on the lower level, and two for the upper level. The Second set of portals will lead the train up an incline to 3.072 inches ( grade incline of 2%) through the Mountain, exiting to a 3 Foot Bridge, followed by two girdle bridges down to a zero landing to a reversing loop that will allow the train access to the Container Terminal. All trains can reverse the loop back again travelling through a series of switches

As you will notice, there are two service areas, one for Diesel, and one for Steam.
There is also a logging camp with several buildings. The Saw Mill is noted. Buildings 1 ( Wood Chipper ) 2 ( Log de-barker ) and 3 (Truck Loader )

Next to the Steam Engine Facility is a small holding Yard.

Well there you have it. I would appreciate any comments from your readers.

And as always HAPPY RAILROADING.

Jim”

“Alastair,

The photos of the town scene were all taken with a Sony digital camera DSC-F707 model (about 9 years old and still going strong) with the f-stop set on F8, manual focus and an approximate exposure time of 30 seconds. Camera did all the work in adjusting the exposure.

The only lighting used in all of the photos was the street lights on the sidewalk. (except the daytime photo).

This town scene is only four foot six inches long by one foot wide.

All the products used here are from the Woodland Scenic range.

All the best – Brian”

Thanks to Brian and Jim. Don’t forget the latest ‘ebay cheat sheet‘ too – still amazed at the comments I get on that.

And as always: keep ’em coming.

That’s all for today folks.

And if today is the day you spring into action, 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.

“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”

“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”

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”

“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”

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.