Model railroad layouts plans

Paul’s been in touch with his 8×12 HO layout:

“Hi Alastair I thought I would send you some progress photos of my new 8 X 12 around the wall layout.

It is constructed using 3/4″ plywood to form L Girders and the baseboard.

The mainline layout is a three times around over-under track. There is a liftout which has 3 tracks crossing it.

The liftout uses copper pads and contacts which I made to continue the electrical circuit when in place.

The layout also uses Woodland Scenics inclines to create a 2 degree incline and decline throughout the layout.

There will be a steam flowing to a lake which runs under the three small bridges.

I cut out the foam using the Dremel tool seen in the photo. It works great by allowing you to slice off the foam in small layers until you reach the desired effect.

Essentially the layout is blowup or dissected version of an old 4X8 layout I found in an old Model Railroader magazine. What you do is cut a copy of the layout into 4 pieces, or quadrants. You separate the pieces and then draw lines connecting the tracks to form an around the wall layout.

I finished the basement room this past summer and started construction of the L girder baseboard in September. The trick I am learning is that you have to plan all your moves so as not to make any parts inexpressible. That’s the fun with an 8×12 HO layout.

So right now I am building a small hill to fit in a corner of the layout that will be hard to reach in the future. It is removable so I will landscape it on the workbench and then put it in place.

I have also built a temporary bridge over some of the layout so I can sit on top and not crush my work.

I will send more photos as work progresses.

Thanks for all the great tips you forward to us via your blog.

Paul”

A huge thank you to Paul. An 8×12 HO layout!

It just goes to show how a little planning can go a long way. Can’t wait to see an update from Paul, his layout reminded me of Jeff’s: HO scale layout 8×15.

Dominic’s springs to mind too: Scratch build a HO scale trestle bridge.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And don’t forget the the Beginner’s Guide if Paul has inspired you to stop dreaming and start doing.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here. Stil updated daily.

PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.

Don’s been in touch with his 4×10 HO scale:

“Hi Al,

I was sitting around the house so bored when someone said to me that I need a hobby.

Well, I thought about my interest in trains, and helping my stepfather build his layouts when I was very young.

Most of my family were railroad people working for the B&O railroad at the time, and I was living in Baltimore where all of the facilities were.

The museum is still there, but I haven’t been back in many years.

I started reading Model Railroader, and began getting your tips with your readers sending in their layout photos. As you say, it’s all about getting started, so I did.

My layout is HO scale on 4×10 base.

I was a sales representative in my prior life, and know nothing about carpentry, electricity, tools, etc, so I had to read a lot about everything, and was amazed how model railroading has changed since my early years.

Most everything was Varney and Athearn kits in our basement. I had to learn about building the benchwork, wiring, DCC, and constructing mountains and tunnels. Well, I found out real fast, that I
could forget about the latter for now.

After three attempts, my mountains looked like multicolored lumps of foam and plaster. I am not very “artsy”, so, I just was content to build this first layout with just a rocky pass at one end. I am no longer in the days of brown mountain paper you could just wrinkle up, and there it was. That was then, now at 83 years old, the world is a little different.

I tried to use everything available in these modern times, so I could judge the pro and con of it all. That way on my next layout, I might know what I wanted to use, and what I did not want to use.

There was quite a learning curve for everything, and things got re-done many times. Most of my buildings are card stock, and you might recognize a few. I also used Model Builder software on my computer, trying to copy the looks of structures around my neighborhood.

I used Kato track because it was so easy with sure connections, but I later realized that it was sort of “limiting”, so I will use different track and roadbed next time. I will also make my layout larger so I can do more with it, as I learn to make those mountains and tunnels.

I went DCC using the starter control from Digitrax. I have that coupled with a row of Kato individual controls for my turnouts. Some might call this a “jury” rig, but it works for now until I learn more.

Living in Florida with constant high humidity, and having my layout in my garage (no A/C), I found things like the asphalt-like roadways shrunk over several days, so I had to revise how to install them. I just put patches in some of the seams to look like “roadwork repairs”.

Long story short, I am having a great time doing my first layout, and looking forward to a second one with improved methods, and material. It doesn’t represent any real life scene, but it is my little village of Rockingham named after the street on which I live.

It’s the first thing of this kind in the neighborhood, and everyone stops by to see how things are progressing.

These are a few scenes of my first attempt. Keep up your good work, and keep those tips coming. They give novices like me great ideas and advice.

Don R.

Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA”

A huge thanks to Don for sharing his 4×10 HO scale.

He’s absolutely right: it’s all about getting started. Once you take those first few steps, look what happens!

Of course, I’m biased, but I think those buildings look great – he’s done a really good job on them. Especially the houses from the printable buildings..

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming. I know I’ve said it lots recently, but it’s really thin on the ground this end, so if you have something to share, now’s the time to do.

And don’t forget the Beginner’s Guide is here if you want to make that start, just like Don did!

Best

Al

Brian’s been back in touch with his HOn3 boat house.

But before we start, I know some of you missed yesterday’s post. Here it is.

Now to Brian:

“Hi Al,

Hope you can use it as you said that you were running a bit thin on articles.

As a follow on of the previous post of the RAM boat suppliers.

I used the same plans of the above scratch built model to make a full size Boat builder building with full interior, lights and people working around it.

Below, again using photostat copies of the plan, cut out and taped together to get the size of it and position on the layout.

The wood siding cut according to the paper templates.

The side office (plaster) assembled and a base coat of red painted on the exterior.

Here it has been weathered and highlights added.

The building has been painted inside and outside with interior details added.

Folding doors added above the boat ramp.

A view from above showing some of the interior detail as well as the upstairs office.

Lights have been added both inside and outside.

A night photo of the exterior of the boat builder/repair shop.

Another night shot of the fully detailed and lit interior.

The same plans used for two different buildings and in two different size’s around the layouts waterfront.

That’s all for now until my next building project.

Kind regards

Brian – the HOn3 guy from Knysna RSA”

A huge big thank you to Brian for sharing what he’s done since his last update.

In fact, his last post gives a really good overview of his layout: HOn3 shelf layout.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

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

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.