Model railroad layouts plans

“Hi Alistair,

Thanks for all your tips and pics, this is my first attempt at model railroading, started 5 months ago. It’s 8′ 6” x 5’6” and I had the room specially converted.

These are a few pics of a town I’m making up called MUDDLETON.

More to come later.

Cheers

Stuart P”

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An amazing first layout! So I just had to ask Stuart about it. Here’s what he came back with:

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“Hi Alistair,

The room was a two bed house converted to three beds, the new bedroom used for the model, started last April, I painted the sky, then build the table. I got most of my tips from your emails over the months, I have found the real moss is brilliant for shrubs and bushes but they have to be trimmed to shape. Cliffs were done with plaster cloth and dry painted to get the real effect of cliff rock. Different colour scatter grass and other greens to make fields, I made the fences and trees from a hydranger bush in the garden, accept the fir trees, they were bought as basic and I put scatter green foliage on the thicken them out.

The buildings were made from metcalf cards but I made them more realistic by painting and ageing them. So far I have only done the back stretch of the board I have still to put more buildings, build a town, a coal depot, a garage and pub, build roads. There’s a lot more to do yet. but I will send future pics as I go on. By the way way dry painting the moss with bright colours is a great effect for bushes with flowers on, just dabbing it on works a treat, but not too hard or it will just be a mess.

I hope to get sharper pics by using a digitial camera in the future, these were taken with my mobile phone

Cheers

Stuart P”

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Stuart – you’re an inspiration!

That’s all for this time 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 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.

Cameron’s been back in touch with his model railway layout.

And what I love about it most is his ‘common mistake’ as he calls it – but he doesn’t care because he’s having fun and that’s what it’s all about:

Make a start, and have fun.

“Dear Alistair,

This is where I am up to with the layout as of today. It has taken me one whole year to get this far but is still holding my interest.

Fortunately “She who must be obeyed” has now come around and seems to quite like the layout.

This is a good thing as I don’t plan on moving it in any foreseeable future.

It is probably a bit over crowded which I know is a common mistake but I for me the enjoyment largely comes from constructing it and running of trains.

Trees
The trees on the layout are the cheep wire and foam ones you buy on Ebay. They tend to be a bit brightly coloured so I have dipped them all in a solution of ‘burnt umber’ acrylic paint and water. I used a few photos of the English country side to help inform how they were placed on the layout.

Backdrops
The backgrounds are painted shelving boards. I found that you don’t need to put too much detail into the backgrounds as long as the colours are accurate. The simple silhouettes of mountains disappearing into the background were quick to paint and tell enough of the story.

Most of the scenery is complete now and I am embarking on the wiring of the points and some building lighting. The next post will be a few weeks off I suspect.

Bye for now,

Cameron”

A huge thank you to Cameron for sharing his model railway layout and tips.

I love seeing the progress of a layout, especially when it’s from a bare bench to a stunning finished piece.

Few of us have the time and talent Cameron does, thankfully there’s this.

Oh – and if you want to see more of Cameron’s layout, you can see much more of it here.

Just have a look at the comments below too. Stunning stuff.

Best

Al

Here’s the next installment from the talented Cameron:

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“Dear Alistair,

Thanks for posting my last diary entries and to your readers for their words of support, encouragement and further tips. I have just got back from a camping trip so thought I should get in a couple of posts for your mailing list before I get back to work.

Phase 8 – Kit Bashing

Making buildings for a layout was a time consuming but rewarding process. I put together a small work tray that I could sit on a coffee table and make buildings at night while watching TV. There hasn’t been much on TV worth watching for the last year so I was able to get through quite a lot of buildings. Plastic kits can be quite expensive so I bought job lots of rough second hand ones on Ebay and at the local model train show and rebuilt them. For new kits I found the Dapol kits quite inexpensive. I only scratch built two buildings as this takes a lot more time. A couple of the kit bashing buildings that your readers might be interested in are as follows.

Municipal Building
This Municipal Building is made out of a second hand Life Like Fire House and some Wills brick & roof tile sheets. All up is cost me $12. I used all the kit walls for the front and kept the walls at the back quite plain. This gave me twice as much building for the cost a single second hand kit.

Factory
I looked everywhere for a cheap Brewery kit with no success.
Ironically had most of the parts I needed in the regects bin. The
final factory was kit bashed out of a new Dapol Engine Shed kit, a
second hand Airfix booking hall building an old piece of Hornby
Platform and some Wills brick sheets. Aside from the Dapol engine
shed the components were all surplus materials from other purchases.

A couple of tips I have for the buildings generally are as follows:
1. I noticed that a lot of the second hand buildings I bought (that
didn’t have bases) had deformed at the bottom of the walls. To stop
this from happening to mine I glued a base to the bottom of all the
walls. Hopefully this will stop them for deforming in the long term.
2. Drill the layout base and the bases of the buildings for lighting
before you glue them down. When you are drilling from underneath the
layout it is hard to judge where the hole ends up.
3. If you have a town it is easier to make it up in large sections of
multiple buildings all glued together on a single base. This way you
can take it off the layout to work on it and not be bent over the
layout for long periods of time.

Next post I will be putting on the trees.

Cheers

Cameron”

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Another superb ‘how to’ from Cameron.

Course, I’m biased, but I think the print out scenery below is rather good too!

And don’t forget to click here for the latest ‘ebay cheat sheet‘. You’ll be glad you looked…

Best

Al