Model railroad layouts plans

“Alastair

If your scenery cracks and shrinks try Cornice Adhesive. Comes as a powder, only needs mixing with water. You can add cement or grout colours without affecting it. Will readily stick to itself, so you can add another section of scenery a month later without a join appearing. Needs a support base. I use fly wire. Probably the most expensive of the plaster powders available. But will store well in a dry place. Been using it since the 1970′s and swear by it.”

— Alan

“For ballast, I have used Parakeet gravel by hartz. you can get it in petsmart or others. I used this because you get fine and course grains and its Really cheap.”

— Chris

“If you want to simulate a light colored dirt area,such as playground or shore area, I used contact paper that is made from cork it just peels off and you can stick it to the board and dress it up with scattered weeds or grass,etc….I also used it for workyards in rural areas..

Thanks”

— Nick

“To make realistic trees I use thin wire which I twist together and branch out for the limbs and branches. Spray paint them to the colour I want and apply foliage made from coloured paper hole punches! For Pine trees I use green brillo scouring pads that I cut into circles and stack onto wooden scuers. The styrefome insulation is great!”

— Keith

“Don’t be overly ambitious with space. A good operating layout with some of the desired activities/complexities removed will be a lot more enjoyable to operate than a layout that is crammed with everything at the expense of tight curves and sharp grade transitions which invariably lead to frustrating derailments or constant uncouplings.”

— John

“Hi Al

Enjoy your notes very much. I live in the USA and have been modelling since 1948. I notice in one of the tips that a person has used felt paper for roads. I tried this many years ago and looks nice, but eventually if he is in a heated space the felt paper will give off fumes from the tar. It not a pleasant smell, plus you have to remove the felt paper and start all over on your roads.

I use A440 sandpaper (or the fine grit available) and paint it grey as roads look black but ashphalt is usually grey when it is dry.

Best regards

Emerson”

Best

Al

PS Keep ’em coming!

“Hello Al;

The black grit from asphalt roofing shingles makes excellent coal and younger lilac twigs make quite good logs for log cars”

— Graeme

“Hey Al….great stuff as always.

I have to laugh at myself…..as I learn about modeling tips, I find myself reluctant to toss out the styrofoam that comes in packing boxes….got some pieces the other day that literally look like buildings, and would only need painting. Maybe some of the experienced guys could tell us what paints are suitable for raw styrofoam.

It also reminded me of my old days as a drywall hanger….drywall finishing compound is about $6 for a gallon. It is already mixed, it is easy to apply to surfaces, and can make landscaping easily. It is pretty tough stuff once it dries.”

— Tim

“In west pa we have lots of golden rod around. so in fall, first frost browns it out. I wait for 2 weeks and cut off the tops. Then dry out in garage for 1 week. I primer them first, overspray in white and then spray in green, yellows, reds, oranges to tint them. they look great and super cheap other than spray paint!”

— Chris

” Hi,first let me say thanks for all the lay out plans I am getting ready to start a n scale 5by 9 foot lay out.As for my tip try a can of spray foam insulation instaed of news paper under plaster cloth when sprayed it exspands and when dry you can shape it as you like then cover with plaster cloth now you can plant your trees and things with out glueing them in place Thanks again”

— Robert

“Use children’s straws as down pipes and vent pipes from engineer work shops they take any paint and if you use the concertina ones it gives a natural curve to the pipe.”

— Terry

“Alaister

Here’s one for you.

To keep all those wires under your layout out of sight and neatly arranged (I have DC only) I found a really great product available at stationery stores. It’s called StikkiClips. These are small blue clips used to hang papers on your bulletin board or any where else. They have a super strong, removable glue patch and can be removed and reused. They are made in the US but are available in Canada. There are 10 to a pack. The clips come in other colours as well if you want to colour code wire runs, etc.”

— Perry”

And now on to Barry, who has featured before on the site.

He’s kindly sent these pictures in (unfortunately they are quite small).

I was envious for two reasons:

Look at all the space – and the scenery is superb.

Barry writes:

“This layout is in the familyroom in the basement of my daughter’s house.

I started this project the middle of January but I only work on it 2-3 days every 2-3 weeks and they live about 1-1/2 hours from my home.

I have about 110 hours into the total project so far and will probably require another 30 hours to finish the rest of the scenery and then I will send you a complete set of photos showing the development from beginning to end.

Thanks for the compliments.

Regards,

Barry”

There’s more on Barry’s layout here.

Hope you liked the tips. I did. Keep ’em coming.

Can’t wait for more? Take the plunge here. This one time payment of $9 won’t last forever…

I’ll leave you with a youtube of the print out scenery.

It’s hard to believe it’s all been made from downloads that are printed out and stuck together, but that’s exactly what it is.

Best

Al

7

John’s been in touch with a tip for N scale gondola loads:

“Alastair,

We recently had some bitumen roof sheet samples in our office which I have used as wagon loads in N gauge.

With some judicious use of weathering powders, these are very realistic with the added bonus of extra weight, much the same as Dapol incorporate into their closed wagons.

In the image you will see a couple of PECO wagon loads which look pretty flat in comparison.

The stones on the roof sheets vary but are approx. 2mm average. Could also be used on other scales.

Very easy to cut from the underside and it really needs only one roof tile or shingle to prepare many wagon loads !

I’ll send a couple more images in separate email.

Just thought I would share with you, as I have enjoyed and appreciated your emails on many subjects over the past few weeks.

Regards

John”

Thanks John, for sharing his N scale gondola loads.

John’s pics reminds me of Mark’s post: Making HO scale gondola loads.

Now here’s a frustrating one. Remember Barry’s excellent basement railroad layout?

(If you missed it, it’s here: Model train rocks.

Well, he’s added lights to the lay out – trouble is, taking pics of them in the dark is quite difficult.

Anyhow, here’s one that came out okay.

That’s all for today folks.

Let me know your thoughts and commments below – I do enjoy reading them.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if you want to start your model train layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.