Model railroad layouts plans

Rob’s been in touch again. He’s been inspired by your comments and put together a new video.

It’s a bit dark – but that’s twilight for you!

“Dear Alastair,

I got such a rousing response to the postings in your modeling letter, that I have been working with renewed enthusiasm to make progress on my layout.

It seemed like a few people were interested in the way I created my color palette.

I have a camera on order and after I get a chance to try it out for a while, I thought I would tape a “how to” or explanation of what I am doing.

The response was overwhelming and all the kind and thoughtful comments were very encouraging.

The other day after a long session of working on the layout, I noticed the light was perfect for a little session of twilight video.

The next day after I took the video, I checked to see what I had in my crummy old camera. I was inspired! I decided that the footage could make a really fun (for modelers and me) video.

I plan to do two sort of how to vids in the future.

One will we about color mixing and my color palette and the other will about building a low hill I have planned. I want to get to those as soon as I can.

In the meantime, I hope you have fun watching this video as much as I had fun making it.

Thank you for publishing my pictures and other videos.

Rob”

I do so love this hobby! Please keep ’em coming.

Best

Al

Arnie’s been in touch again. Not much to say except the obvious: amazing!

“Hi Al,

I’ve been watching the new postings, and I see readers have been more and more getting into videos.

Since my last video I shared with you and the readers, I’ve done a few depicting AMTRAK trains, the primary interstate passenger carrier in the U.S. I just completed one on the Amtrak Amfleet line depicting the F40PH locomotive that was used by Amtrak from 1975 to 1992. I created the video on my N scale layout simulating a run of this train from near sunset into the night in the eastern U.S. I hope you enjoy it and will consider posting it.

Other AMTRAK trains video clips I’ve done are: the E8A locomotive with Phase I paint scheme of the early 1970s; the P42 Genesis Amtrak with Superliner cars of 1992 to 2001 and still currently used in the central and western U.S.; the Amtrak Acela Express the only true high-speed rail in North America begun in 2000 which ran from Boston to Washington D.C. along the Northeast coast.

I am also now considering doing a video on the Amtrak HHP-8 (an 8000 horsepower electric loco) of 1999 to 2001 that was in operation along the Northeast Corridor for a decade. Unfortunately, HHP-8 and Amtrak Acela service were discontinued due to unreliability issues and excessive maintainance costs.

Thanks Al and regards to all the readers,

Arnie”

Thanks to Arnie – a fantastic display of skill. I’m deeply envious!

Best

Al

“Hello Al,

As I mentioned in my last posting, I have been killing time waiting for my locomotives to be modified to run on battery.

They finally arrived and I have been having a great time running them around my layout.

For those of you who have not built your layouts yet, I recommend that you look into this method of running.

There is no wiring to be done, you never have to clean your tracks and you can ignore all polarity problems with reverse loops and turntables and such since the track is not powered.

I run On30 with DCC and sound and have an NCE system installed.

The installation involved isolating the motor from the wheels, adding a Radio Control Receiver and battery control circuit into each locomotive and supplying a battery pack.

The system has a transmitter that I plugged into my NCE track output connectors so that I can use my existing system to run my trains.

The system will function just fine with or without DCC.

If you want to go the DCC route, all you really need is the decoders installed into your locomotives and a Radio Controlled hand set to complement the battery controlled system.

For DC the same applies except you don’t need the decoders obviously.

I installed the the transmitter inside the roof of my depot and have included pictures of the components to give you an idea of what they look like.

The yellow looking thing is the battery pack. It’s about 1/2 the size of my thumb and powers my locomotives without any problems.

I have run with the bell and whistle on and found no hesitation in operation with these little battery packs.

I don’t know how long they will run without requiring a charge as they are still going strong.

The system runs on OO/HO and up but maybe could go down to N scale as well.

I elected to have one system placed into a separate car so that I could attach it to other locomotives without major modifications. All I would need to do is add a plug from the tender into the trailing car.

I forgot to mention that the system comes with an Off/On switch as well. I hope this gives some of the more adventurous of you some ideas for the future.

Bob”

A big thanks to Bob, his post really reminded me of Richard’s:

Battery powered model trains.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And maybe, just maybe, today is the day where you recapture the fun of your last layout: the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.