Well, I thought I’d be snowed under (no pun intended) with Christmas themed railroads.
But no.
Just this one.
Anyhow, Merry Christmas everyone.
A real mix of tips this time
“Hi Al
Thanks for all the great tips.
Picked up a bag of sand-blasting material from my local building supply store for free because it was broken.
The fine black glass material makes excellent roadbase sprayed with mate medium and sprinkled over the first coat of paint layer on mountains and rocks gives it great texture.
Put a spoonfull on a folded cardboard piece and you can blow it controlled into cracks and under overhangs to get some depth to it.
Regards
Matt”
“My Background/trade is printing and I used image resizing quite a lot.(old Reproduction Bellows Camera) Now with computers this is sooo much quicker.
I find this formula useful when resizing drawings to suit the scale I wish to work from – eg scratch building.
The formula is simple and I use it on printing from the ‘puter or scaling on a photocopier.
On the ‘puter the “File” “Page setup…” has a value there that can be changed.
If the “File” “Print” has a “Scale to fit paper” set to None.
On a photocopier use the input panel – Scale – varies from make and model.
The formula is:-
New Size divided by Old Size times 100 equals the percentage to use
ignore the decimals
Depending on your equipment there may be a variance of a percent or two but as a rule – works most times.
Sandy”
“Experiment my ho telephone pole made from scrap radio parts and food containers but not finished yet.Easy easy to make oh i plan to use my poles for real power. 6 or 12 volt.
Kim”
“If you want to make the windows of stores, passenger cars, cabooses opaque, just take some clear page covers from an office supply store, cut oversize, and spray with a flat clear spray. (Do a whole page at a time. The little pieces will blow away if you cut first.) It has enough stiffness to stay flat when attached. CA glue will hold in place on the inside of the car or the building with just a drop on the corners or a thin line on all sides. It masks the lights inside of buildings and railroad cars so they give a glow rather than the bright spots of light. Also you can’t see the individual bright bulbs. It sure looks better than a hole where the glass should be too if none came with the original car or building. This way you can use the original fitted clear plastic parts or replace with squares or strips of the clear plastic page cover.
This also works if the cars or buildings have a clear plastic covering the windows when new. Just remove and spray with the flat clear spray. Do it on the inside so the outside will still be glossy as glass would normally be.
For buildings, use a Elmers Painters Opaque Paint Marker in white, black, or brown to mark off the panes of glass (plastic) The point is sharp and a fine line can be drawn.
Gaines”
“Hi Al,
I found that the corrugated paper sleeves that you get with a cup of coffee on stations etc.can be quite realistic “ploughed feilds” or corrugated metal sheeting
Regards
Ray”
A real mix of tips this time.
Thanks to everyone. Keep ’em coming.
All the best
Al.
Industrial HO scale layout
Michael’s been in touch with his industrial HO scale.
Best of all are the construction photos at the end – you can see how it did it from start to finish:
Just superb isn’t it? A huge big thank you to Michael for sharing his industrial HO scale.
Doug has also been in touch with a tip on inlclines, which looking at Michael’s pics is very relevant:
“My first try I did some reading and unfortunately found too many references to 4 (and higher) percentage grades. If you only want a really short consist (5 cars) you can do this, but a five-car train isn’t very impressive to watch running. Drag freight is 100 or so. I’m building #3 now and trying not to exceed 2%. Unless you’re modeling logging or mining areas, brief bursts of 3% exist but are rare.
You can still have multi-levels, just don’t do it all at once. Or, use a helix at 2% to go up and make the higher grades down-only.
The Big Boys were made to single-head Sherman Hill, the big climb in Wyoming for the UP, with 100-car drag freight consists. The grade: 1.55%.
Raton Pass, built near the original Santa Fe wagon trail, hit 3.3% on the early switchback route before they tunneled through the mountain.
Cajon Pass in southern California maxes for a few miles at 3%, the newer segments were lowered to 2.2.
The steepest mainline grade in the U.S. is probably Saluda, North Carolina, at a bit over 5%.
Unless your layout is tiny enough that tiny trains are all you can run anyway, you’ll be much happier with your options if you keep the grade to 2.
Doug”
A big thank you to Doug, there’s quite a few posts on the blog now about inclines and multi level layouts. Here’s a few of them:
Model train incline construction.
That’s all this time folks.
Please do keep ’em coming.
And if you feel like you’re missing out on the fun, 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 Silly Discount bundle.