“Al:

I have been reading for quite awhile and …just thanks. I really appreciate the tips.

I sent one post in about making some street lights and keep telling myself that I should do another on some of the things I have been doing for my lay out.

Mine is about 5 x 9 feet, takes up half the garage (which my wife constantly reminders me about, but that’s another story).

I bought the cookie cutter layout benchwork from a guy who just likes to construct roadbed.

I have added all the pink foam insulation for the mountains and to fill in between the tracks. It’s a work in progress, but I thought to share, hope it’s worth looking at. My first layout, and I made mistakes and have learned much from the experience.

My layout has little towns named after my grandkids. Caelville shows a couple of boxcars being unloaded at the local mercantile.

Downtown shows the teaming metropolis of Hunter and a couple of policemen shaking down two suspicious guys hanging around outside the shops. A little welding operation is going on at Teds workshop across from the new house under construction.

Downtown #1 gives us a view of the biker bar tucked back in the alley. Farther down the road we see the plumbing and hardware store and the local market.

A hot dog stand supplies snacks to the people getting off at the train station across the street.

I also wanted to put lights in a truck, so I drilled out the headlamps and glued two grain of rice bulbs inside them and ran the wire down through the roadway to the transformer. Turned out OK.

At the outskirts of town, below Caelville some folks are enjoying the lake and the fishing, camping and canoeing. On the other end of the layout, Sonny’s gas station has the monopoly on all the cars coming into Hunter.

I’ll take some better pictures next time, sorry for the blurry ones. I made some silos and a corrugated steel workshop that I will send pics in of. They turned out OK and were interesting to do.
Thanks, and keep up the good work.

Craig”

Now on to Texas Bob:

“hi alastair,

I’m Bob from Harrisville RI. I…like your email details and tips

i’ve been working on my mapleville Vermont railroad for 15 years now (isn’t it a shame there isn’t such a town ),and with an injury I had ample time to finish it (well 95% anyway).

I haven’t posted any pic’s anywhere I didn’t think any were worth posting well here goes

tx bob”

Well, Bob, I’m glad you sent them in because I think your layout looks fab.

And a big thanks to Craig too.

That’s all for today folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you jump out of your armchair to join in on the fun, the Beginner’s Guide is here.

Best

Al

PS The very latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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