Model railroad layouts plans

Ned’s been touch with a paint model train backdrop post – he’s really gone to town on it and it looks great.

“We moved to North Idaho back in 2018 to retire and enjoy the quiet life. As part of my house design, I included a 24 x14 ft room in the basement exclusively for an O gage layout. The layout is inspired by the Milwaukee Road exchange and Hiawatha Trail railroad through Montana and North Idaho. I say inspired by to avoid the cranial obsession with attempting replicate Avery, Idaho – especially for my first layout. I picked O scale because I acquired our childhood Lionel trains a couple of decades ago. It grew from there.

The layout will be two levels. The upper level will be a trek through the mountains similar to the Hiawatha trail. By the way, the Hiawatha trail was converted to a bicycle “Trails to Rails” path a few decades ago. You can take a 15 Mile bicycle ride down through the mountains. The tunnels, starting with a 2 mile tunnel in Montana and ending in Idaho, are well maintained and includes traversing through or over 9 tunnels and 7 trestle bridges, very high trestle bridges.

The second (lower) level will be an interpretation of Avery, Idaho exchange where the Milwaukee Road railroad shifted from electric to conventional locomotives. While I will use most of the aspects of the exchange in the layout, I do not have the space or the experience to replicate what existed in Avery. Unfortunately, all of the aspects of the exchange were removed from Avery decades ago. Avery is about 50 miles from my house, a beautiful drive up the St Joe river.

I could not decide what years to represent or what season I wanted to present. So, I decided to include all seasons. The right wall of the room is winter and transitions from right to left to the left wall which is the Fall Wall. It will be an interesting journey. The tracks that appear in one or two of the photos is my test/learning track. It will eventually be incorporated in some manifestation into the full layout.

Enjoy!

-Ned”

Paint model train backdrop:

Here’s the Pano – the actual size. Winter wall on the right – transitions right to left to the fall wall on the left.

Thanks to Ned.

I’m always reminded of Jeff’s post when it comes to painting backdrops:

Model train backdrops.

And Rob’s:

Model railroad backdrop.

Also, if you want to fast forward to Ned’s next post, it’s here: Model railroad backdrops and backgrounds.

Now on to Hall of Fame Dave:

“Hi Al,

well when I though that I had cured my track problems it started again further round the track, so bit the bullet and bought some new Peco track, taken up the Hornby Flexi which I show on here how poor it is for stability.

Pecp track now fitted, I am in the process of adding Mod rock to the banking and improving the scenics around that area.

Still got to do the ballasting and add the grass etc which I will show in my next video.

Regards

Dave”

Dave’s previous post is here if want to get up to speed:

Track for model trains.

A big thanks to Dave and to Ned for his Paint model train backdrop pics and narrative. Very much looking forward to an update already.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

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

Best

Al

Need buildings for your layout? Have a look at the Silly Discount bundle.

There’s quite a few HO gauge track layouts on the blog now – many of them are Dan’s.

He’s been kind enough to put together a post to answer the questions on his last post, which is here:

HO model railroad scenes.

“Al, I am going to answer some of the questions from last blog post.

This one had several wanting to see more of the layout views and some of the wiring.

Dan*”

Panoramas of the layout.

The over all view of the layout.

A cleaner look. The room is 35 by 15.

Grain elevator and coal yard

Burnt Lake and the tunnel to the lower level

Rainbow Canyon trestle

Almost part 1

Almost part 2

Sharon Springs.

Thunderstorm at Bovine

Chromite mine in the distance

The overall track diagram.

Actual track plan with locations marked. To the left and right the tracks go to the lower level and reconnect to really make a giant oval. The dashed line on the right is a run around track to turn trains behind the engine terminal. You shoud be able to follow the train through the colored track plan.

HO gauge track layouts:

Now for the “messy” part. Various panels and the wiring.

Douglas Junction panel. There are 5 power packs running the layout. Photos in a bit. The selection of power is from rotary switches assigning power to the various blocks.

Back of the panel. It is all color coded and really is straight forward. I was able to do each switch in about 45 minuets. One down side to wiring, you work for hours and then you can’t see progress, it is al hidden.

The terminal strips and distribution to the track.

The “Power Plant” for the layout. The Hogger power packs were around for a short time. They were expensive. I never cut corners for things that were very important. Where quality was needed I spent the money. These have lasted 35-40 years!

The panel for the lower level. I can store 6 complete trains for staging and the two main lines run here, too. LEDs show occupancy. I have bulbs at each end of the track so it is easy to know where the train is. I use magnetic reed switches and powerful magnets on all locos and cabooses to spot the trains.

Back of the panel.

I have a mirror on the floor for visitors to see what the wiring looks like under the layout.

A magnetic reed switch. The metal piece is the “keeper” that is under the magnet. These never fail and the magnetic reeds are sealed in a vacuum.

Enjoy,

Dan*”

A huge big thank you to Dan for adding to the HO gauge track layouts – again!

Dan’s pics reminded me of Peter’s: HO gauge layout.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

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.

PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.

Ray’s been back in touch with his 3 loop HO layout:

“Hey Al,

Here’s some updated pics on my 3 Loop HO Layout. I’ve made a lot of progress over the last 2 months. The control board is complete along with the wiring. I can now run 2 engines independently.

I’ve done a lot of work on my pond and river and have started putting in some ground cover.

I have the started laying out a corral but need to get lots of cows to fill it up. I did this because I have a lot of reefer cars and this is supposed to be Nebraska.

3 loop HO layout:

My engine house is in place along with some diesel storage tanks.

Things I will be working on:

Finish gluing down the track, work on the corral and ranch, install more ground cover and landscaping. Ballast.

Brainstorm the rest of the layout. Basically I have 3 areas, the one with the pond (I think I will make this a residential area). The area with the corral (this will be all farm/corral). The area with the engine house (I am thinking commercial/industrial)

Things I am having issues with:

I have two Atlas turnouts along the back wall on each side of the trestle bridge were my engines derail about half the time. I have inspected them up close and cleaned them of debris, but still….. I don’t have any issues with the other 12 Atlas turnouts.

Some of my rolling stock does not stay coupled on my 3 loop HO Layout. I use the knuckle style (Kadee). This I know I can fix, I just need time to work on them. I didn’t realize that these could come in two different sizes (to scale and slightly smaller, then there’s the offset up or down and length to consider). They all need to be attached at the same height, some of them are too low and get caught on the ties! I think there is a learning on changing these out! I’ll get there!

I appreciate all the comments, they were very encouraging. One comment asked about the grade on the right side of my layout and yes, it may be a bit steep and I should have paid closer attention to that! I am open to any suggestions as they are always appreciated!

Thanks for reading!

Take Care & God Bless,

Ray”

A huge big thanks to Ray for sharing his 3 loop HO layout update. You can see his first post here:

3 loop HO train layout

Or if you want to fast forward to his next one: How to run multiple trains on one track.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you stop dreaming and start doing, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.