Model railroad layouts plans

Hall of fame Rob has been in touch with a stunning church scratch build.

Have a look at the night shots of the windows:

“Hi Al,

In a search for something to build for my layout last fall, I came across a church in Cornwall, UL I found very interesting. Apparently, the original church was started in 1259. That is long ago by US standards. The building has been added to multiple times and has evolved over very long periods.

I wondered how I could determine the exact shape to model it. Things like how long, how tall, etc., came to mind. I first found as many pictures as I could find on the internet. When that resource was exhausted, I decided to contact the Parish directly and see what information they had.

The administrator of the Parish was very helpful and connected me with more photos, and also a study by an archaeologist done in the 1960s. He had studied the various stone types used to build it. Fortunately for me, he was very methodical and created a sketch showing the various stone types related to where they were in the structure. The sketch was to SCALE. Not any particular scale, but it was proportional.

By determining door heights and a bench I found in a photo, I could start to decode the information I had and develop a scale drawing. Once I had one dimension, I could interpolate the archaeologist’s sketch and, before long, had a plan drawing in my scale, 1:76.2.

Now I had the plan view and still needed the elevation heights. After thinking about it for quite some time, I realized I had one height, the distance from the ground to the top of the seat on the bench. I estimated this bench seat at 19 inches, a standard height. Then, using lines of perspective in one of the photos, I could start estimating the heights of gables and arches.

The one thing I was unsure of was the tower’s height. I estimated it to be 58 feet. A friend in the UK offered to find out the tower’s height for me and eventually found it 61 feet to the top of the crenulations. I had begun by this time, and it was too late to change the tower, but it was certainly close enough.

There are 4 videos associated with this project, but I recommend this last one as the best. In it, I demonstrated a couple of techniques developed to build and paint it.

Thank you, Al, for this news and information system you have created. We all appreciate what You do for us.

Rob”

A big thanks to Rob for sharing – I think the windows are amazing. Have a look at the vid and you’ll see what I mean.

Rob’s post reminded me of these:

Church kit build.

HO scale church

You can see more of Rob in the Hall of Fame.

Next up is Susan. Can anyone help?

“Dear Al:

Thank you for the opportunity to ask the experts for help with my first ever HO scale layout.

I am building two tables per your Beginner’s Guide (Thank you!). They will have a small 3 ft x 3 ft section joining them, making a broad U shape.

I bought Faced Expanded Polystyrene Board Insulation to go on top of my plywood because that is what my small-town hardware store supplies. One side is a silver barrier, the other is pressed styrofoam. My plan is to put the silver side down against the plywood. This is because I have the idea to dig ‘trenches’ for my electrical wires so I can join them up before creating a ‘pass-through’ hole to beneath the table where the electrical supply will come from. I hope this makes sense.

My layout will be building-heavy and I intend to light almost all of them, plus street lighting etc. I don’t want to create a pass-through hole under every structure – I may hit a support board or move around my buildings. I wish to minimize the holes, maybe one at the end of a block for all that block’s buildings’ wires to go through.

Does this sound reasonable? What are other options?

Also, maybe it’s just the girl in me, but it feels like I should put something down on top of the insulation board before I put the structures on it. I see many layouts where the track/structures are right on the foam board, so I’m thinking probably not. I would use landscaping to hide the insulation. Correct?

And talking about the track…I intend to use cork under the tracks. I would glue the cork to the insulation board, then I nail the tracks to the cork. Correct? Nailing the track to the insulation would not work…I believe.

Thank you for the continued inspiration. Maybe my railroad layout will one day be featured on your blog!

Kind regards from across the pond

Susan
The Woman Engineer, Head of the Cannon Central Railroad”

Please do leave a comment below if you can help.

That’s all for this time.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get started on your layout, 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.

Brian’s been back in touch, this time with his HO barge:

“Hi Alastair,

First off, an industrial barge project.

I saw a photo of a model industrial barge which I liked and thought that I could use one on my waterways around the layout. I love anything boat wise.

After searching the internet, I found a file that had the barge that I was looking for.

I sent the file to my friend who does the 3D printing and asked him if he could print one for me in HO scale please. A couple of days later (after 14 hours of print time) a slightly shorter barge modified to fit his build plate in his printer, I had my barge.

The raw resin hull shown below. (Top view)

It is 250mm long by 70mm wide and 18mm deep. (The original was 310mm long)

The painting process started using Tamiya Red oxide fine surface primer for the hull.

It turned out to be the perfect colour. (Especially after it was weathered).

The inside all rusted up from hard use using various colours to get the correct effect.

Wear and tear on the top side. (And the rust)

I used some details from my bits box to fill up the hull. (Note the 3D printed generator sets at the back in the 3D printed hull). Scrap vehicles on the way to a scrapyard.

Afloat in the harbour and must still add the tow ropes at the front. I have some chain around somewhere that can lay on the front deck of the barge or inside.

HO Barge:

A resin Tug boat kit painted and weathered many years ago towing the barge.

A close up view showing the weathered hull with tyre bumpers on the sides.

The wood loads need a bit of weathering. (Possibly a black or brown wash on them)

Here, it just fits on the waterway in front of the freight terminal at Pelican Bay.

Found the chain in my bits box and weathered it with rust. Note the seagull found a perch at the front.

Second project – another small fishing trawler.

The one below was already in my small fleet of lobster boats for my layout.

I had another one incomplete. I used my Dremel tool to cut out the bait box.

I painted the cabin interior and lightly weathered it, then added a floor to it.

Added a mast and guy wires to keep it steady. I also added some fish boxes at the back. The loop at the back will be used to bring in the nets. I also added working lights, one inside the cabin and a spot light on the cabin roof.

A boat captain was added to the inside of the cabin with a steering wheel.

Here I am making sure that would look perfect in the harbour. It is 37 HO scale foot in length.

It now needs to be completed – the hull painted then the deck edges, bumper tyres painted and a final weathered coat and a lobster cage on the roof. I will add fine netting used to catch the fish at the back.

Another two short term projects almost completed and ready for placement on the layout.

Thankfully I have a lot of water on the lower level around 3 sides of the ‘U’ shape.

Thats all for now, until next time.

Brian – The HOn3 guy in Knysna RSA”

A big thanks to Brian for sharing his HO barge project.

You can see more his work in the Hall of Fame.

(Have a look at another of his barges: HO scale river barge.

That’s all for this time 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

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.

Peter’s been back in touch, this time with his stunning Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo Model Railway:

“Hello Al,

It’s been over two years since you posted my first “trial” switching layout. This gave me the confidence to proceed to my Empire Layout – inspired by the Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo Railway (TH&B), and fictitiously known as Amaranth Falls.

I started with benchwork that allowed a set of donated kitchen cabinets, mounted on casters, to slip under the benchwork making a more appealing facade to everything, and providing storage space for rolling stock.

I have an unusual and choppy space to fill, but the large section is a 5′ x 9′ space with a side fiddle yard.

The photos show progress throughout the various construction phases. It was challenging putting a river flowing down a 5 inch drop with numerous falls and rapids…. and a golf course!

More photos to come once the final lighting, signage, fencing and level crossing lights become installed.

Peter”

(Peter’s last post is at the bottom of this one: Model railroad grass.)

Next up is Frank.

He has a problem – can anyone help?

“Alastair,

I have a BIG problem and is a great one (I hope) to go into the section asking for help.

As you are aware, I have told you about my building a model railroad, I have come up agains a BIG problem.

I am using Kato track but it does not provide any way of communicating it’s position to an external device (an Arduino to control signals).

I am wanting to use a SPDT Reed Switch to communicate with the Arduino, but the issue was how to get the turnout to tell me which way it was set?

My first idea was to mount the reed switch UNDER the turnout and using the position of the magnet inside the turnout to operator the reed switch. It does work but it is a LOT of work to dig out the table below to install the turnouts with the reed switches below.

A second idea was to put a magnet on the peg of the turnout and put the reed switch on the side of the turnout. Several attempts with small magnets but it didn’t work because of the field of the magnet.
The third idea was to mount the reed switches INSIDE the turnouts. Again, this does work, but again, it is a LOT of work.

I am still looking for a solution, though, having built AND wired a lot of the layout, I am rapidly painting myself into an impossible corner.

I am open to any idea that is simple and works.

Thank you.

Frank

Surrey, BC, Canada”

That’s all this time. A big thanks to Peter for sharing his Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo Model Railway.

And if anyone can help Frank, please leave a comment below.

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.