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HO turntable conversion

Brian’s been back in touch with his HO turntable conversion:

“Hi Alastair,

I have now completed the HO/HOn3 turntable conversion and now awaits the ground cover and the track leading up to it.

I have managed to cut the hole using a mini jigsaw with a fine blade in it for the turntable without disturbing the surrounding details.

Turntable in place making sure that the hole was cut to the correct size.

A plastic card circle was cut to surround it to form a foot path for the railroad guys to have something solid to walk on and to be able to push (the Armstrong) turntable around.

The ground cover will be placed up to it once the track is cut to length and is in place.

Next project is laying track and points in the next section of the layout. The blue machines shown are the Blue Point controls to be mounted under the layout to operate the points manually. (Push/pull)

I Will line up the track and points once the final position is sorted. Have to make sure that there is enough clearance between the track and building platforms.

Shown here is the track that runs behind the industries to continue on to Pelican Bay on the next section.

This view shows the intended layout of track work and will also continue to Pelican Bay on the right hand side of this photo.

I had to remove all the buildings in front for me to be able to work on said track work without damaging any of the forefront buildings.

The white card base at the bottom of the photo below is where my boat builder/repair shop is situated.

So far so good, most of the buildings are back in place. Now to re-connect all the wires for the lights inside the buildings.

With all the new points (turnouts) that will be added to the layout, I had to find knobs to connect the point machines to the front facia. No luck – so I made a silicone mold of the ones that I had on hand and cast 24 in resin (6 at a time). Mold shown below in pink.

I drilled a 1.5mm hole 10mm deep in the centre to accommodate 2mm diameter threaded rod. They were cut to length, screwed into the resin knobs and then will be screwed into the plastic pipe to go to the point machine (push/pull)

Having cast the required amount and screwed the threaded rod into them, proceeded to spray them a red colour in order for them to stand out against the grey facia panel at the point (turnout) locations.

Took some time off after the above to count all the industries that will eventually be on both levels of the shelf layout which is in a 14ft X 10ft 6 inch room and so far I will have 40 industries that will require an assortment of rolling stock to be shipped to them in an operating session.

Note the car cards in the green box above on the facia panel. They are situated around the layout to be used during operating sessions.

I will get there in the near future.

Brian – the HOn3 guy in Knysna RSA”

A huge big thank you to Brian for sharing his HO turntable conversion – I’m really looking forward to seeing it in operation.

If you want to see his last post, it’s here: HOn3 turntable

You can see more Brian’s posts in the Hall of fame.

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

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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

16×16 HO scale layout

Bob’s been in touch with his 16×16 HO scale layout.

I loved his pics, but his back story is even better:

“Al…I hope you are doing well and are taking care of yourself because you are very important to all of us.

It has been a while since I sent you anything, but I know how much you enjoy a good backstory.

In my original submission to your blog, I described my current N scale layout.

In the narrative I mentioned that because of a move, I had to leave behind an HO scale layout that filled the better part of a 400 square foot room over our garage.

I had to leave the layout behind, but as it turned out, it actually sold the house. The family who bought our old house had a ten-year-old son who was crazy about trains.

During the negotiations, his parents sent us a note with a picture of their son in a train engineer’s costume asking if we would please sell them our house.

How could we possibly refuse a request like that? So…a deal was made.

There was actually a clause in the sales contract stipulating that I would show the father and son how to operate all the trains before the deal was finalized. Our real estate agent said she had never seen anything like this before.

So…we moved into our new house, and because of limited space, I built the N scale layout you have so kindly showcased on your blog.

A few months ago, my son and I were talking about model railroading (one of our favorite topics) and I casually mentioned that I regretted not taking in photographs of my old layout before we moved.

Father’s Day was right around the corner and my son’s gift to me was Dad’s Train Book.

Without my knowledge, my son had taken all these photographs before we moved and he had forgotten about them until our conversation.

Best Father’s Day gift ever!

So…I thought I would share them with you.

I constructed the old layout on a custom-built 16 x 16 L-shaped table.

I have included a schematic of the layout that I believe to be fairly accurate (I had to replicate it from memory since the original drawings were lost).

The track plan consisted of four closed loops with several turnouts, sidings, and a roundhouse (the turntable actually worked…some of the time).

The outside loop encircled the entire layout and was elevated two inches.

I used Atlas Code 83 flex track and Atlas 83 remote switches.

The layout included a tunnel, trestle bridges, a replica of the Bietschtal Valley Bridge, a haunted house, and a castle.

If you recall, these were all elements in my N scale layout. There was also a river with a waterfall. The structures were a mix of pre-built, kit, and scratch-built.

My favorite locomotives were a Sante Fe Blue Goose, a Union Pacific Challenger, and a Burligton Zephyr. I also ran a Rio Grande Southern Railcar on the smallest closed loop.

The last photographs are of a locomotive I constructed for a simple garden railroad that I ran in the backyard of our old house.

The idea for the locomotive was not mine. I was inspired by a photograph I saw in an old model railroad magazine. Unfortunately, I no longer have the magazine so I can’t give proper credit to the person who built the original model.

As I recall, the frogs were my wife’s idea (we had lots of frogs in our backyard). The model now sits in a place of honor in my home office/library.

The ten-year-old boy who so desperately wanted my HO layout is now nineteen and I often wonder if he still enjoys model railroading. Alas, I suspect he is more interested in young ladies. Oh well…just wait until he is eighty.

I am so grateful to my son for preserving these memories for me and I hope you enjoy them.

Until next time…

Bob fromTexas”

A huge big thankyou to Bob, not just for sharing these pics of his fine 16×16 HO scale layout, but for sharing the story behind it all. Wonderful! I really did find it heartwarming.

This hobby really does involve all the family at some stage and make memories.

Please do leave a comment below – I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one.

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

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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

HO scale coal mine layout

John’s been back in touch with his HO scale coal mine layout:

“Hi Al,

My modeling of a fading West Virginia coal town led me to do research, a few overnight field trips, and you-tube grazing of these forgotten places time has passed by.

Probably the most interesting I found is Thurmond West Virginia.

The first picture is the real Thurmond. It is now a ghost town with the latest census having 8 people, but it seems no one can find them, and no houses are occupied – do ghosts count in a census?

Anyway, since I have a cantilevered signal like the one in the picture, I decided to model the main “street” which is actually a gravel road right next to the tracks!

This whole area of southern West Virginia, Parts of Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky combine to make a wide swath of the Blue Ridge mountains known as Appalachia.

Hardworking people, some doing okay, many in incredible poverty. It is a fact of history in some places in the United States that a town can explode on the scene in a decade, with a single factory, mine, or railroad junction, and when the bromide “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” comes true and the factory or mine egg basket drops or dies, and so does the town.

Since the last article I sent in with the town of “Craig” under construction, it’s been fully installed and most scenery is now in place, maybe some more trees? Thinking about it.

I’m working from the back of the layout to the front this time, filling in scenery and buildings as I go.

I also made progress on my rock quarry. The pit is done and integrating it into the rock processing structure is moving along.

It’s a challenge as the concept of the module for my model of the rock crusher was done for a more western desert area which never quite happened, so colors – browns, tans and such VS greens and greys of the West Virginia mountains present something of a problem. Still working that out.

As many who have read what I’ve sent to Al on this outstanding (I really mean it!) website, I tend to be more of a model building/scenery model railroad person. I like to run trains, but still the building of a cool model is where it’s at for me.

With this in mind, I’ve resisted going to DCC for the layout, and am staying with DC block systems for operation.

Thus, at this point I decided on a few operational design things for two areas of the layout. I will operate these areas as “separate layouts” electrically isolated from the main loops.

First is the upper-level coal mines, shuttling cars into and out of the loader, bringing them across the bridge to build trains on the main level.

Second is the whole roundhouse-yard and quarry area, again building trains to be taken for loops on the mainline.

There are several stub tracks which service businesses in the area of the roundhouse, which will also allow for switching challenges and car ordering for businesses.

As the layout continues the finishing process, there will be a refinery added, and the existing silver mine will also have small power-packs for their operations.

I have found over the years that the vision and drive to make a miniature slice of the world (HO size for me) has taken me to some un-planned areas.

The aging and struggling plight of the coal country was a turn I didn’t see coming, but I have to say, there are lots of really interesting things to see, learn about and model there.

I hope you enjoy my trips to the time and place where towns and living happened while, for a few decades time stood still, when coal was king.

John”

A huge big thanks to John for sharing his HO scale coal mine layout.

I often say picking a theme for your layout is the way to go. From my point of view, I have noticed over the years the layouts with a clear theme always look the best.

The overhead view of the layout really shows John’s layot has come together.

You can see his last post here: Model railroad quarry.

Or if want to see a whole load of his post, he’s in the Hall of fame too.

Here’s some pics of his previous posts with links.

John’s U shaped layout