Model railroad layouts plans

Bill’s added ot the Lionel track layouts on the blog, and what a stunner too:

“Al: I have been enjoying your daily emails for a number of years.

Many of your contributors have much better train layouts and more realistic landscapes than I do and they certainly have nothing to learn from me. Nevertheless I think that there are a group of model train enthusiasts who might benefit from my story.

In 1950 when I was 11 years old I received a much sought after Lionel 027 starter train set. Our family had no space for a permanent layout so I assembled and disassembled it many times. After I was married I sometimes set up a layout around the Christmas tree to entertain our children, but I took it down after the Holidays.

When my grandchildren were young I set up the train set at Christmas again. The second Christmas with grandchildren I put the layout on a couple of 4×8 sheets of plywood supported by saw horses in a spare room in the basement and added some rudimentary scenery.

For Christmas in 2007 my children (who always find it difficult to buy me presents) recognized my interest and bought me a new Lionel model railroad, the Polar Express set with Fastrack. For a while I had a mixed layout with part tubular track and part Fastrack. But the trains ran a lot better on the Fastrack and over time I replaced all of the tubular track.

The layout expanded until it filled the 15 x 17 foot basement room. I sometimes regret not taking the opportunity to switch to HO gauge so that I would have room for more train equipment.

Above is a SCARM diagram of my current Fastrack layout. I run two LionChief trains and occasionally a third conventional Lionel train. The layout is not meant to represent any particular time or place. The scenery however is typical of the sandstone cliffs in the Yellowstone Valley, where I live.

Although it is not clear from the diagram there are three tunnels, indicated with blue track, and the bottom left section is a level above the rest. The tunnel on the right is actually in a closet. (The closet door is open in Figure 02.)

I have wired the sidings in the closet with Azatrax’s D2X Exhibit controller with infrared sensors so that without human input two trains can run alternately in opposite directions around the upper loop.

Most of the scenery is carved from 2 inch sheets of insulating foam. The sheets of foam are supported by a simple framework as shown in Figure 05. No attempt has been made to conceal the line between layers of foam in many places, as it is meant to represent the layers of sediment in the sandstone cliffs. I found the best tool to carve the foam is a drywall saw, with a Shop-Vac handy to control the mess. (See the saw in Figure 06, next to the waterfall). The carved foam is painted and sprinkled with Woodland Scenics turf.

On the mountain side, the left side of the track diagram, the trees are mostly pine. They were meant to be table decorations. I purchased them in an after Christmas sale at Hobby Lobby. The deciduous trees are home-made … twigs from sage brush with bits of foam glued on (also from Woodland Scenics).

A few of the structures are Plasticville kits but most are scratch-built from 3/16 inch foam poster board covered with printouts from Evans Model Builder computer software. Most of the structures are lighted. I cut up strings of battery powered Christmas lights and use 3 AA batteries to power the lights. The asphalt roadway is cut from asphalt shingles left over from my recently repaired house roof.

In order to provide more track power than the Lionel CW80 transformers I acquired with my LionChief train sets, I recently purchased an MTH Z1000 transformer from a local hobby shop. When I was in the hobby shop the other day I mentioned that the Z1000 was working fine. The salesman said “Lionel model railroads make you feel like a kid again, don’t they?” I think it was a rhetorical question, but I answered, ‘Yes!’

Bill”

A huge thank you to Bill for adding to the Lionel track layouts!

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did. Not only is it a wonderful layout, the narrative behind it makes this hobby what it is.

It reminded me of Mark’s: 10×18 Lionel layout.

That’s all this time folks. Please do leave a comment below, and keep ’em coming.

I leave you with this thought – if today is the day you stop dreaming and start doing, the Beginner’s Guide is here

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Paul’s been in touch with some pics of real military trains.

I don’t know what it is about them, I just found them interesting to look at, so I thought I’d post:

“Hi Al,

This is a bit off piste, but I spent the weekend in Warsaw and dropped into the Railway Museum there.

It’s a bit old and dusty and almost everything is labelled and described in Polish, making it a bit difficult to figure out just what’s being displayed.

There are some unique exhibits though (at least I’d think so) and I attach a few pictures of them. As I say, my Polish is non-existent so I can’t tell you what these are.

All the best,

Paul”

Now on to Ralph:

“Hello Al

Thank you for the informative and inspiring newsletter.

The variety of wonderful layout ideas that people come up with is always amazing.

I have sent pictures showing you my interpretation of the stone house to show what is possible with the printed buildings.

Two views show the final build and a picture of it placed in the layout scenery.

The only thing I tried that has not shown up in the pictures was to dab varnish on the window panes to make them shiny.

Keep up the good work.

Kind regards

Ralph in Australia”

A big thanks to Ralph and Paul.

I know the printable buildings are a popular way to dip your toe in the water, and get back into the hobby, just as Ralph has done.

And Paul’s pics reminded me of a layout from many years ago, which I really enjoyed.

You can see William’s army themed layout here.

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

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Boyd’s been back in touch, this time with his HO model train trees.

He shares how he makes his fantastic trees:

(If you missed his last post, it’s here: HO scale logging camp.)

“Hello Al,

A couple folks expressed an interest in how I make my trees, so since I had to make a few more, I took some pics as I went.

My method is basically bits and pieces of various techniques I saw online that I combined into a system that works for me.

The pics are not the greatest quality, but they should get the point across.

I start with sisal rope.

Depending on the type you will find it can be untwisted to yield some number of individual strands. In my case, the rope is untwisted into 3 strands, and each of those strands is comprised of another 3 strands.

I use an old comb to finish separating the strands into individual fibers. The individual fibers are wavy, and I found them difficult to use as is. I stumbled across a video late one night that suggested soaking the fibers for a few hours, that is what I do now, and it yields straight fibers that I find much easier to work with. Below is before and after soaking.

The next few steps are basic bottle brush tree making. Lay the fibers on a folded wire, hold one end with pliers and loop the closed end over a hook clamped in a drill chuck.

While gently pulling on each end, spin the drill until the wire is tight along its entire length. You will end up with a rough tree.

Trim it into a tree shape of your liking. I just try to make sure they all don’t end up looking the same, and that they do not look like Christmas trees.

After making as many trees as I want or need, I stick them in a scrap piece of foam board and spray paint them brown. I make sure the ends of the branches have good coverage as they will show through a bit when finished.

After painting, give the tree a good coat of hairspray. I tried a few different brands then settled on the one shown below.

For me, the important piece was that it be pump spray, as aerosol spray tends to be too strong for the 2nd coat, blowing off some of the flock you just added…

Next sprinkle on the flock of your choice. I use a coarse flock for the first coat, and a fine flock for the 2nd coat.

You can use as many coats as you want to get the fullness you desire, but try to use a couple different colors to create some shadow appearance.

Give the tree a good coat of hairspray before each application of flock. I use whatever flock I have on hand, some store bought, some homemade.

Once all the trees are done, let them sit for 5 minutes then give them one final good coating of hairspray.

Next step is to add a trunk. I gather up small pine tree branches I find along the road or paths when out walking. I find the best appearance is when the trunk is one half as long as the branched portion.

Cut the twig to the desired length, carefully drill a hole in each end. Cut the wire from bottom of the tree, leaving ½ inch to insert into the trunk, then use the remaining piece as a pin in the bottom of the trunk to attach it to the layout.

All that’s left is to plant them on your layout.

A huge big thank you to Boyd.

If you’re new to the blog, it’s really worth having a look at Boyd’s first post – it really did create quite a stir. It’s the comments that make it.

See for yourself, it’s right here: Model train hobby.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming. It’s still very thin this end.

And if today is the day you get started on your layout, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.