Model railroad layouts plans

David’s been in touch with his 7×10 HO scale layout:

“Al,

thanks for all of your effort and time involved with all of your posts. I look forward to opening my email daily to keep up with the wonderful hobby of model trains!

I have loved trains ever since my parents gave me a MARX 027 gauge train set in 1959 for my 12 th birthday.

Later, when our son was nearing the teen years, we began purchasing HO equipment and built a layout. He spent many hours enjoying the hobby.

When he reached college age, we packed the trains in their original boxes and kept them in storage. We moved from Iowa to Indianapolis in 2010 and within a year I decided to take a 7 x 10 foot area out of my shop in our detached garage and once again develop a layout.

The layout extends from wall to wall so is 7 x 10 feet. It is 24 inches from the back and side walls so I can reach everything from the center.

The layout on the door wall is only about 12 inches wide – where the bridge is, so the center area is 6 ft by 4 ft.

I am not using DCC. I have two DC transformers. One transformer does the ‘mountain pass’ and the other one handles all of the lower level – which includes several sidings which I can power on and off with switches. This info is not critical, but thought someone might ask about it.

As I have read in many of your posts, a layout is actually never finished.

I have had fun using our real-life camping experiences with the family to create miniature scenes on my layout.

Such as the campground has white picnic tables that I created using the wood purchased at hobby stores along with the fire pits created using the round metal ends of pencils that hold the erasers and filling them with tiny pieces of wood that appear at each campsite!

I also chose to operate the trains from the center of the layout, so used ideas from a few old posts that showed using a portable ‘bridge’ in the doorway, thus eliminating the need to crawl under, which has proven to be a great benefit to the aging process!

For this I chose to use small phono jacks to furnish the power in correct polarity for the trains, which continues to work perfectly for me. It is important to make sure that when the bridge is placed in position, the track rails are in perfect alignment.

I also installed a red arm at each side that can be lowered to assure the safety of any rolling stock falling to the floor by mistake when not operating the trains!

I work hard at trying to make the layout appear very realistic with the scenes as close to scale as possible. I like to imagine what it would look like from the view in a plane flying overhead!

Readers may also notice the retaining walls I created for the gradual elevation of what I refer to as the ‘mountain pass.’

I cut small rectangular pieces of quarter inch plywood about one half by one inch and glued them together to build the walls.

Sorry but I’m not into the video area, but hope the model train group will enjoy the pictures.

David, Indianapolis USA”

Thanks to David – adding a camping scene is quite popular on your layouts:

HO scale camping scene

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

Now on to Jack:

“Hi Al

I have been enjoying your site for more then a year now and its wonderful.

I thought you may like my kit bashed locomotive. Actually its a junk bashed locomotive. The boiler is 55 gallon drum, the drivers are bicycle rims with the centers welded in, the front wheels are off a go kart, the domes are mixing bowls, the headlight is a house light with a car bulb – yes it has high and low beam, the boiler head is a skillet, the bell came of a sunken yacht, the whistle works off a scuba tank in the tender, it has smoke and choo choo.

The sound is from four speakers and a radio detuned so you get static, then the speakers are turned off and on by a cam and switch on a drive wheel, works well. The cab will hold four kids and the tender holds the engineer and six more kids. Because it has rubber tires I can drive it down the street, took it to McDonalds drive thru once. It has a 8 hp motor and a lawn mower transmission. The entire locomotive took 9 months to build, its my baby. It celebrated its 20th birthday this month. Little neighbor kids who rode in it are now bringing their kids over for a ride.

Oh yea I gets of adults asking for rides also. Keep up the great work with the web site.

Jack, Jupiter, Florida”

A big thanks to Jack and David.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming because it’s ghostly quiet this end.

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

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

George has been in touch with his S scale model train layout – he’s found out a few things about his double loops:

“Hi Al

Hope this finds you well.

This message is a little different. It’s about what I built, was unhappy with, and then I dismantled it for bigger plans.

First this was an S scale layout on a 9×12 base. The scheme was an over under outer loop and turn-outs to an inner loop.

I was so excited about watching the trains run the big long loop and I was happy about that. When it came time to add scenery the high outer loop prevented me access and I quickly became discouraged.

I also saw that the passenger trains did not do well on the inner loop and that was to be the station location. I became very unhappy with those awful Lionel turnouts- too tight and soon defective- and the track with cast ballast grew boring.

What I learned was the inclines were just too much, the valley in the middle was inaccessible, and there are such better ideas than this one. I still like the loops that “keep em rollin”. I treasure that Polar Express but it flew off the Christmas layout and is in for major surgery.

This is very far from the wonders you bring to light but I need to share some things that just might be useful to others.

Hope you “ keep em rollin”.

George”

And now on to Bill:

“Al

What I have included today are a variety of pictures from both the HO switching layout and my N Scale layout as well. The past month or so I am enjoying running both layouts and also adding in new details.

I have picked up numerous automobile kits in both scales as well as different road construction equipment.

Another area of focus for me has been building and detailing the city of Alta on my N Scale layout. Basics are completed and soon I will turn my attention to completing the building that remain.

I have also started to repaint N Scale people I have. I am close to populating the N Scald layout but I wanted to give a more realistic paint job to many of the lower cost people I have. It’s actually easy to do just takes a little while. More in that maybe in my next submission.

One picture shows three F7a’s – different versions but all Pennsylvania Railroad.

I am close to starting a two rail O Scale & ON30 layout in the garage to join the HO and N Scale layouts.

A car will never see the inside of my garage again I think and I’m ok with that. Someone else is begrudgingly ok with that. At least she always knows where I am when she can’t find me.

Layouts are never finished. There is always fun little things we can do to bring our worlds to life.

To all modelers Keep Having Fun on Your layout’s!

Cheers!

Bill in Virginia”

A huge big thank you to Bill and to George for sharing his S scale model train layout.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming because it’s ghostly quiet this end.

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.

Dave has been in touch, this time showing how strong his magnetic couplers are.

“Hi Al…

Not sure if of interest but just done another test with the magnetic connections.

I have added them to a full rake of 11 coaches and used the deltic to pull these, as can be seen they held without any problem, and that’s going up an incline and running through curves as well.

I kept getting asked how strong the magnets are, think this proves that they sure hold a good rake… excuse the jumpy bits as using a Gimbal on my phone and seemed to have a mind of its own

Regards

Dave”

If you missed his first post on his couplers, it’s here.

Peter shared his experiences too: Kadee couplings.

Now on to another Dave, who has a question:

“Hello Al

I’ve been getting your emails for a couple of years. One thing I do not understand is the underlay of track.

I have never used it with my trains. But then my brother and I grew up with Marklin, that our Father brought when he was stationed in Germany in the mid-fifties. So it’s the stamped metal type of track.

We put it up, like most at the time, at Christmas.

When my brother retired the trains were set up in a spare bedroom for the his grand kids to watch. And he set up an American set that make a single loop around the perimeter that they could control.
I retired a couple of years ago and we move into a home that has room for me to set up some or all of ours.

So with the pictured track what would underlay do, or do I even need it?

These are from the first box I grabbed. It is some of the newer track that will work with the older track, that has a solid middle rail.

Thanks,

Dave
In Virginia, just a bit south of Washington D.C.”

I thought it worth posting because the older I get, the more I subscribe to the point of view that if a question helps one person, the chances are it’ll help others too.

It’s very similar to this post, when Keith asked about how to secure his foam/cork bed.

Now on to Steve:

“Hi Al,

Wondered if you guys might be interested in a smaller 00 British layout project that I’ve been working on.

After a house move I down-sized and have very limited space. This layout is about 6’6″ x 3’6″, so VERY compact for 00 Scale. Some would say too small for a viable layout.

I considered N scale but I have so much investment in 00 with DDC sound locos, rolling stock and buildings etc. that it was too expensive to change.

The layout is very much a work in progress and nothing is fixed down because I need to dismantle everything when I need the space. The board is in two pieces, made of 9mm plywood and 2″×1” bracing.

It’s far from perfect but gives me a lot of pleasure with plenty of running options.

Hope that you like it.

.

.

That’s pretty much it so far. I’m married to an American girl so live between the two countries. Its been interesting looking at the HO layouts and comparing them to my 00 things. Considering a HO layout for our US base now.

There’s often a lot of negative comments on other forums dismissing anything small as insignificant so I’m hoping that it may buck the trend.

My previous garage layout was 12’x12 sort was a real challenge.

This project is limiting because it has to be packable when my wife needs to invite dinner guests !!

She’s a very tolerant and patient wife but she has her limits 😉

I’m in the US at the moment but will be back in England in a couple of weeks.

Thank you for all your hard work. The site is fascinating.

Regards

Steve
Withernsea, East Yorkshire”

A big thanks to Steve – his layout is another fine example of how lack of space should never stop you having fun.

Please do leave a comment below if you can help with Dave with his foam question.

That’s all this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you join in the fun, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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