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Model train interior

Sam’s been in touch with a wonderful ‘how to’ on model train interiors.

I thought it rather good – simple but effective:

“Thanks to many useful posts on your site I have been encouraged to experiment with many aspects of model railway systems.

Due to the expense and often the lack of realism with white plastic carriage interiors in Hornby stock I have been experimenting with low cost options. Hope you find it useful.

The type of Hornby carriages In my collection have two long screws holding the roof on. Once these are undone the roof can unclipped and the sides fall away. The interior can now be lifted out.

I’m working on several Mk1 coaches with different livery (Great Western, and BR blood and custard)

First stage is painting all the ‘wooden’ panelling with brown paint. (I have used wood effect self adhesive stickers in the past but I can hardly notice this and it’s really fiddly to apply, cutting around all the windows!)

While the paint is drying I printed some self adhesive seating detail. I used online photos as a guide and then just experimented with a paint program – duplicating the seats over and over again to fill a sheet. The flooring was just a green carpet image from the web.

For added realism, and while the carriage was in bits, I removed the wheels and applied a rust effect with a pen that I bought to rust my tracks. Much easier than painting the wheels.

Stickers are now cut to size and carefully applied. I found it better to apply the seats and backs first before the carpets as the carpets cover up and hold the kick plates in place.

One interior now complete with carpets applied. Make sure you trim any excess off to ensure the sides and roof fit snuggly and cut away the holes for the two brass screws.

Next are the people. I bought a 100 painted seated people from a well known online auction site quite cheaply. These are glued in position to fill up the carriage. Notice the two wires – I have built my own carriage lighting system that picks up from the rails (instructions to follow!!)

When the glue has dried just carefully reassemble the carriage ensuring the sides and roof clip into place fully. NOTE – I have found that due to the added weight of the people, paint and stickers it’s better taking the weight out. I found that with several coaches (7 on my 125) it’s just too heavy.

The BR Mk1 coach had a different colour scheme – blue stripy seats and blue floor.

The Mk III coaches seats were just painted blue with a grey painted floor.

First class had orange painted seats with a brown floor. Fiddly to do but no stickers needed.

Sam”

A huge thank you to Sam for this wonderful ‘how to’. Hope you like it as much as me.

It reminded me of Ivan’s post: O scale passenger car interiors.

That’s all for this time – please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget there are a gazillion more like this in the Beginner’s Guide.

Best

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Model grain silo kitbash

Brian’s been back in touch with his model grain silo kitbash:

“Hi Alastair,

Been on holiday in Cape Town for 14 days and now back home and working on a building kit bash – The Grain Silos.

Below is how it would look as built according to the instructions.

Photo off the box lid. Unfortunately it did not suit the position if built this way as shown in the above photo.

Same again showing assembled as per instructions.

I hade to do a back to front and mirror image of it to fit the real estate. The tower was not a problem but the smaller building had to be cut narrower including the roof.

Here the roof was painted a gun metal colour to make the rust weathering easier. The feeder pipe was given the same treatment.

The tower and building was sprayed white and will be weathered later. The Silos were sprayed with a concrete colour and will also get the weathered look later.

Floors were added as well as roller doors – 2 open and 1 closed. Details and lights will also be added.

A view looking east down the tracks towards the Silos.

Another view closer to the milling company dock. Track work still needs to be fixed down and once happy with the layout of it then ground cover will be added.

Just trying a different brick industry to see if it improves the format. I may still add a point to take a spur to the Silos as seen on the right hand side.

A HUGE thank you to Alistair for keeping this site up with all modelers fantastic contributions.

Brian – the HOn3 guy in Knysna RSA”

A big thanks to Brian for sharing his model grain silo kitbash (it reminded me of Craig’s post: Craig’s silo.

I do love the way he changes all of his models to suit his layout – I think that’s why it has so much character.

Over the years, Brian has done so many posts, you reall get a feel of why it’s worthwhile to try your hand at kitbashing.

Have a look at some of his previous posts and you’ll see what I mean:

Kitbash how to.

Building kitbash

Model railway water scene

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you are bored of everybody else having all the fun, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Modular model train layout

Scott’s been in touch with his HO scale modular model train layout – he’s building it block by block.

At the moment, it’s currently 7’ x 10’ L shaped:

“Hi Al!

I have enjoyed your e-mails for months now and finally have decided to share my layout progress with everyone.

The layout is entirely freelanced prototype. Set in 1949 it includes the actual towns of Warwick and Cordele in South Georgia where I live. But this railroad never actually existed.

In my freelance scenario the W&W is in its final years as a class three railroad and is soon to be absorbed into the Southern Railway System which it currently interchanges with.

As I am only a few months from retirement I am building it module by module in order to transport it to a more permanent location next year. I have a 10’x24’ building where I am moving to.

The building will house the eventual railroad which will be composed of 20 modules on two levels. The current state of the build takes up two walls of a spare bedroom and consists of three modules. I intend to continue this “module by module” build even after I move into the next space.

I enjoy all of the aspects of the hobby – but I find that committing one long period of time to construction, another to laying track, another to wiring and so on gets a bit tedious and boring.

Building a large layout in twenty modules – each module to be completed before work on the next begins – is allowing me to experience every step of the build in twenty shorter time frames. It’s almost like building twenty layouts from start to finish!

These three modules are not completely finished. The last one of the three still lacks ballasting and a few more structures need to be built and installed. But I think it is close enough to being finished to share it with you and your subscribers.

I am able to run operations on the layout in its current state. I simply use the portion of mainline track where the steam engine is located as a small interchange yard.

The Carfloat serves as another interchange point. The entire three module setup is a switchback that descends a full 32 scale feet from the mainline to the wharf.

I deliberately started with this section of modules as I knew the switchback operations would provide a lot of fun in my limited space.

I look forward to modeling the water after I get to the final setup location. Unfortunately all three wharf modules are connected to a continuous body of water which, if I poured it now would render them permanently connected. For now I have just painted the water area a deep green color.

Thank you for the opportunity to share!

Scott”