Model railroad layouts plans

Ken’s been having a lot of fun with his HO scale loop – have a look at Godzilla!

“Hello Al,

I like you decided recently to get back into model railroading. After all, I’m retired now and it’s only been 50 years since my last layout!

Boy, I wished I had a photo of my little goofy layout. With raising a family and building a career, it’s almost inconceivable that I managed to keep anything leftover from my childhood layout, but somehow I did manage to hold onto 3 little shack buildings that were on that layout. I’ve got them placed in my new layout for sentimental purposes.

I’d like to show you some photos of what I’ve done so far on phase 1. I’d love to hear comments good or bad on what I’ve got so far.

This layout is proof that not all train layouts have to be prototypical, nor do they have to be “point to point” switching layouts in order to have fun with them.

My layout is an HO scale that has evolved since its conception around the holidays last year.

This first phase is built on a 5-1/2’ x 10-1/2’ table. It does raise some challenges if an issue does arise that is out of my reach, but nothing a “reach extender” can’t handle.

My original design was going to have three or four small industries for me to putz around with. But I found Woodland Scenics Built-up structures and my mind started going in all kinds of directions.

Out of nowhere a little town that I call “Willougby Junction” (named after my favorite Twilight Zone episode) was born. It is modeled in the 50’s – early 60’s time period.

Phase one has only one small fueling depot in the upper right corner, and a train depot at the left to stop and pick up people from the neighboring towns.

Phase two will have more industries to monkey around with.

It is basically a freelanced double oval with an added “town loop”, and an arrival/departure track that leads to and from the yard.

I have 11 turnouts all controlled by Tortoise switch machines and my homemade control panel.

The entire track was laid with code 83 Atlas Flex-Track. I have about 8 or 9 bus feeders supplying ample power all the way around. It’s taken me since early January to get to this point.

I think the beauty of a continuous running track is when you get a couple trains on opposite ends that are speed matched at say 15% power, you can sit back have a glass of wine (or your favorite beverage) and enjoy the movement and listen to the clickety-clack sounds as well as the prime mover sounds when they go up and down the grades.

I’ve only had a couple people come over and see it, but they are amazed at not only the trains, but the town, the landscaping and all of the small hidden things that takes a while to find.

For example, I was looking out at the back of the layout and there’s a place where I have a couple deer hanging around. I wanted to a have an eagle perched on a tree. I found some eagles online that were printed with a 3-D printer.they’re not much higher than 1/4”. I had to paint them of course, but they came out beautifully.

There is also a “Bigfoot” up on the mountain near the cabins. But you have to search to find them. The pond was quite ambitious. It took 5 separate pours of epoxy (almost a gallon) to complete it! I practiced with the epoxy by adding a swamp at the upper left side. I have some deer down by the swamp too.

I grew up in Flint, MI and the only trains running there were Grand Truck Western trains. So it was natural to pick up a Grand Trunk locomotive and some Grand Trunk rolling stock. I even added some Hobo’s to a 40’ box car with a sliding door.

All in all, I’m enjoying my new found hobby and wanted to share my story.

Ken

P.S. Try to guess who this VIP is with the 1st Lady? The presidential limo and security detail might give it away! LOL This was as close as I could get to him with my telephoto lense. The crowds were quite large in Willoughby that day!

A huge big thanks to Ken for sharing his HO scale loop. If you want to see what he did next it’s here: HO scale switch rebuild.

I absolutley loved the Godzilla pic – it’s all about making your layout your own!

In fact, there’s quite a few layouts on the blog that feature Godzilla. He’s a popular fella.

Dave’s pics reminded me of another HO scale, by another Dave: HO scale train layout.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you get started on your layout, just like Ken after a 50 year gap, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

Bill’s been in touch with his narrow gauge model railroad.

He’s more than made a start – he made a purchase. Still counts! It’s all about having fun:

Some people like the scenery side. Some people like just like running trains. Some like both.

The point is, it’s your layout and your rules…

“Al,

I am just back from attending the excellent Narrow Gauge Model Railroad Meet held at Harrisburg, PA. This is the second one I have attended and both were instructional and inspirational.

I have been a long time subscriber and reader of your daily blog and have found them to be both entertaining and informative.

Your mantra has always been “Take the first step and get started”. Well, I took my first step albeit a bit larger one than you may have intended, I bought a completed On30 modular railroad at the Meet.

At 75, I have neither the manual dexterity, the eyesight or the ambition to learn the skills necessary to build a layout for myself. This purchase allowed me to have a layout which I can, sooner or later, adapt to my purposes but that I can enjoy and operate in the now.

In the vein of showing pictures, I am enclosing some of mine.

Having this layout has enabled me to take my accumulated On30 equipment off the mantle-piece and put it back onto the track where it belongs.

There are still a couple minor things remaining yet to be completed on the layout like completion of the electric service to the track sections and getting the buildings on the layout to be sceniced into their surroundings but, that will come.

Here are a couple pix taken after I brought my new “baby” home from Harrisburg.

Thanks for being the “Still, Small Voice” that inspires us all every morning.

Bill McCourt
Dover, DE”

And now on to George (who always puts a smile on my face with his post comments)

“Big Al

This is the start of the big guy in the garage and I thought I’d offer a few nuggets for the gallery of train fans to ponder.

I am creating (2) spiral helixes on the left half of an approx. 10 x14 donut shaped layout that will have S scale on the bottom & ON30 on the 2 mountains with the helixes. I am constructing the helixes first on the left half of the donut and see how they run.

The space in the middle is access/operational space and the top of the baseboard will 4 ft off the floor. This is a CAD drawing that is tough to read but I know what’s in it.

While creating the helix, I experimented with a roadbed for HO and S scale that I like and it is Armaflex, 2” wide, 1/8” thick, black, insulating tape at approx. $.60/ ft instead of $1.00/ ft cork.

It has an adhesive back, you stretch it to make the curve, and you’re done. I don’t like cork for some reason. The yellow roll is the tape and is available at Home Depot in the States. If you look carefully the helix track is on it with no thought of how it looks since most of it will be in the mountain.

I made a spiral helix in order to keep the distance between levels the smallest and be able to have a high smokestack loco.

Starting with a 4 ft dia helix and 4” height between tracks you get 2.65 % slope which is more than I like but I cant change the parameters.

You make a spiral by using a spool of thread nailed to the center, a loop at the end of the tread to hold your pencil, and that’s your unwinding compass.

The sketch below- not to scale- exaggerates why I did it that way.

The ON30 theme will be lumber, freight, and ore cars so there will be short and light consists.

We start at elevation 0” and the first crossing must be more than 4” clear for the stack then we keep a steady helix height of 4” between levels to the upper level of 7” elevation.

This old coot with a bum back is taking forever but God willing I’ll send updates.

George”

A big thanks to George and Bill with their narrow gauge model railroads.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing George’s layout unfold over the months (years?), he’s got off to a fab start with a well researched track plan.

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 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 showing us his modifications to his HOn3 turntable:

“Hi Al.

Some time back, someone on the blog asked how I modified my Atlas turntable to be powered from underneath it.

Here are two modifications that I did to two separate Atlas turntables. Below is the actual Atlas turntable.

Below is a photo of the Tamiya Gearbox that I used. (purchased from a radio control shop) part number 103 – universal type, mounted onto the underside of the turntable.

A very quick and simple mounting with a metal shaft supplied with the gearbox through to the top side where the plastic shed would be placed.

I replaced the supplied plastic corrugated shed with the turntable to a more fitting shed that suited my era. Happened to be the exact size. Photo below shows it in place on the turntable.

The new gearbox is less noisy than the existing one and more reliable with gearing instead of a rubber band drive.

I am very happy with the result.

The shed can be seen on the left hand side over the original drive plate as shown above.This one was added to the upper level of my layout many (about 12 – 15) years ago.

A surrounding ring was cut from plastic card to cover and hide the original track placement guides and will be covered with ground cover eventually.

Next, I decided that I needed another of the same type turntable on the lower level of my layout beyond the harbour to be able to have the locomotives running in the forward position. The lower level being point to point and has a turntable at the other side.

That one was a modified Heljan ‘n’ scale one as seen below.

One of my friends in our WhatsApp group had a spare Atlas one which I obtained from him for the new location on my layout as seen above.

I did a lot of thinking about this one and decided that it needed to be an “Armstrong “ type which with be manually operated. (By hand)

I did not want to cut a hole in the layout for it to fit in as a jig saw (or any saw) would have caused too much vibration and jolt all the surrounding buildings and details.

A start was made by adding HOn3 track over the HO standard gauge track and short wires would be soldered from the track below to the one above it. Here, the motor base has been removed (right hand side) and all the associated gears. In doing this, the turntable no longer uses the “Geneva “ system of locking it in place.

Below I added wood side supports for the “A” frame that would be over the track.

Below I added a wood deck over the existing plastic one.

fter a bit more thought, I figured that the outer circle would have to be removed to lower it into the cork roadbed.

After carefully scribing the under side of the outer ring, it popped off and minimal cleaning was required to the table itself. This is the outer ring cut off shown below.

The photo below shows almost everything in place ready to be placed on the layout. Note the NBW castings added. Still need to add more. The cables to keep it level will be installed next.

Cables installed below

The last item to be installed is the arm on one side of the top the turntable next to the track to be able to push the table around. I used 14 mba brass nuts and bolts which look pretty neat.

With this modification, it spins nice and freely.

Very pleased that it has worked out as I was very apprehensive about cutting up a new Atlas turntable.

The new turntable is right at the front of the layout therefore easy to operate without knocking any of the surrounding buildings and detail.

Once it installed, I will post some new photos of it in situ.

After biting the bullet and listening to other modellers about the colour of my facia boards, I changed the colour to a medium grey. (Don’t know what I was thinking way back then) with the green.

Once again, big thank you to Al’s excellent work on the blog.

Brian – the HOn3 guy in Knysna RSA”

A big thanks to Brian. Some clever stuff going on there with his HOn3 turntable. If you want to fast forward and see how it panned out, it’s here: HO turntable conversion.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming – it’s still very thin on the ground 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.