Model railroad layouts plans

Seeing as so many of you commented on Roger’s flat bed wagon ‘how to’, here’s another of Roger’s.

“Hello Al

I was horrified to see that people actually SELL wagon loads on eBay.  Even worse, the proprietary manufacturers sell them!  And if you buy a truck with a load included you can guarantee it will be expensive.  Great fun to make them and of course … for no cost whatsoever.  I call it FREELOADING.  So here’s the first of my free-loads for flat wagons – illustrated for a Macaw double bogie – but it can of course be adapted for all sorts of trucks.

And the pipes could appear at road sides – or piled up outside factories and industrial sites – or loaded on lorries.  If you glue them together in a chunk and attach it to your truck with tiny blobs of Bluetack – then you can take off the pile whenever you like and use it elsewhere on your layout.

I guess we all use plastic drinking straws for all sorts of modelling projects but these are a bit special.  They come stuck in cellophane on the front of those packs of little cartons of juice – usually bought for kids’ lunches.  Most drinking straws are a little thick for OO modelling but these are nice and slim.  Included a picture of them as they are sold so you know what I mean.  Take a look at the bend in the centre of them.  This gave me an idea – which follows.

Best wishes.

Roger”

There seems no end to Roger’s talents. A huge thank you to him, from all of us.

Don’t forget to have a look at the latest updates on the ‘ebay cheat’ sheet.

Best

Al

PS If you missed Roger’s first, ‘how to’, it’s here.

Roger sent this in.

It’s the second of three – but I’ve started with this one as I thought it excellent.

Hope you like it!

“Hello Al

Here’s the second of my FREELOADS for flat wagons – and I think my favourite. I’ve been storing the tops from washing-up liquid bottles for a while – convinced that one day they would appear on my layout. Stuck a couple together and lo and behold.

After you have cut off the tagged, press-in tops (which you keep!) it’s important that you match the halves up perfectly – then you’ll notice that you have a natural, free-standing base. Glue with superglue – works fine with these polythene bits and pieces.

Once painted, you could stick them straight onto the wagons – but I don’t like using glue on trucks – so I made bases for them, attached them to the bases with glue and thread – then used tiny blobs of Bluetack to secure the whole thing to the rolling stock.

Checked it out – and once loaded they fall just short of the height of an OO scale coach – so they’ll pass through tunnels – and probably okay for HO too. And they’re exactly the right width.

Please don’t ask what they represent! Got the idea from old photos of similar looking loads which I’m sure nobody but the manufacturer could identify. Point is – they look great.

Best wishes to you and all out there.

Roger.”

Pretty good eh? A big thank you to Roger.

Lots more here in my fave resource. A real treasure trove.

One last thing. Thanks for all your emails on the ‘ebay cheat sheet‘. Hope it’s saving you a fortune.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Ken sent this in which I thought was very good.

And it’s all made from stuff that doesn’t cost too much.

Anything that saves money and looks this good is worth sharing.

Best of all, you can make miles of the stuff.

Don’t forget to have a peek at the latest ‘ebay cheat sheet‘ to save a fortune.

Or the Beginner’s Guide is here, if you just want to get off the starting blocks.

Please keep the tips rolling in.

Best

Al

PS Anyone made a house for their railroad like the one below yet? Click it to see more.