“Al,
Just one tip, Dip your track ends into IPA (isopropyol alcohol) makes for a nice clean connection when building your layout.
Brian”
“Just one tip today. I eat cheese triangles, so when the round container is empty I use three glued together, cover the rounded area with lolly-pop sticks, then I used four round dowell rods (minature) stain with walnut stain, paint the top & bottom off white. They look great as silos. If you do the same thing with pringles (empty) containers they are just taller & thinner. Love reading comments on this page.
Gordon”
“I scooped up a 5 gallon bucket of “road base” from a local highway project. I made a series of 5 sifting screens ranging from 1/4″ hardware cloth down to very fine screen wire that just passes dust. I sorted the “road base” into 6 grades from dust to larger than 1/4″. The larger “rocks” are used as boulders in scenery. The remaining sizes are also used in scenery or as loads in gondolas and hoppers. The dust is sprinkled on scenery and locked in place with diluted white glue as ground cover. I live in Texas and the “road base” is very light in color and matches the west Texas area I model.
Bill”
“Al,
Just getting into the model railroading with a small budget I don’t have a lot of money for scenery. With that being said using simple flour, water and junk mail, yes junk mail, you can make amazing things. I really wanted a tunnel for my train to pass through so I made on out of paper mache,cardboard,toilet paper rolls and styrofoam then painted it white with simple house paint. I believe even if you don’t have a lot of money to invest a little paper mache, junk around the house, a little patience and a little imagination can go a long way. I have included a picture of my Life Like Sante Fe train HO scale going through my home made tunnel. It’s under my Christmas tree right now but when Christmas is over I hope to make my first train table.
–Christina”
“Hi Alastair,
II’ve found that fine ‘wet and dry’ sandpaper makes excellent station platorm tops, parking lots, etc. You can get it in any grade you want. If the coarser grades are too sharp and could cause abrasions, just lightly spray paint it before cutting to shape.
Still trying to source good looking furniture and artefacts for N gauge – most of the plastic stuff looks to chunky to be real.
AND where can I get pre-war cars and trucks in N gauge?
Thanks,
Don, Australia”
And here’s a response to Dave’s wiring problem (that’s here):
“I had that problem once, and learned that it was due to a pair of contacts, where one strand of a stranded copper wire, had worked loose, and made contact with another connection; which caused several switches (turnout), to open or close, in opposite of what I wanted them to do.
I don’t remember how many times my trains derailed due to that short; although I do recall I spent four hours tracking the wiring, line by line, to find the problem.
Deranged Dragon 99”
Hope you like them. Keep ’em coming. Still getting the boats emails by they way. So if you’re in that camp, boat stuff is here. Uboat pics are amazing – take a look at the gallery.
Best
Al
