Joe’s been back in touch – this time he’s added some HO scale floodlights to his layout:

“Hi Alastair; I havent sent any updates in a while as there have not been many changes.

I don’t want to say the layout is complete; it will never be but eventually, you have time to just sit back and enjoy “running trains”.

For a couple of years, I have wanted to install some floodlights in the engine maintenance yard. It finally happened!

“Fresh out of the box” I found this on Ebay in excellent condition but the lights didn’t work.

While I was at it, I weathered the tower.

Installed!

Again Al, thanks Al for all the great layouts you post.

Joe”

A big thanks to Joe – you can see more of his superb layout, right from the very start, here: Joe’s 12×8 HO scale.

Now on to Ken.

You’ll remember him from his layout – well, he’s had some fun with ai and made this vid which made me smile:

“Hey Al,

Most of your readers say they’ve been busy working on their layouts, and you post some fabulous photos every day.

Well my layout is complete (except to clean it), so the next step for me logically would be to create a video of it.

But I didn’t want a typical video of my trains running, although that’s why we really build layouts.

I wanted one that captured the true “fictional” essence of my layout, and all the magic that happens within my imagination, including my trains running.

I read a while ago that Eric White (Editor of Model Railroader) magazine, said that AI was a “no-no” when it comes to enhancing photos of your layout. I totally agree. You could easily say it’s disingenuous to post a photo of your layout when it’s actually not your layout.

Not to worry here because all of the photos of my layout here are actual photos.

I wondered how I could use AI to enhance the video of my model railroad layout to make it more fun for viewers to watch.

So, just as in the movie “Night at the Museum” when all the exhibits came to life after midnight, I decided to use AI to turn my scenes into living clips. I believe it created something interesting that would grab your attention.

So, I created somewhere around 75 short video clips of scenes from photos in my layout that I used in my montage. The downside was that the video turned out to be 31 minutes long. Yikes!

But I hope you find it amusing, and in some cases somewhat comical. See if you can spot the young unlicensed driver crossing the tracks, or a parked car having a blowout surprising a young lad who is trying to swoon his gal.

Or a cabin in the woods with some uninvited guests.Can anyone yell “Cannonball” while jumping in the pool?

Or, who can spot a couple of very dejected aliens who just crashed their flying saucer into the hillside in which they have to report back to their leader?

In my previous video a few people said they couldn’t spot Bigfoot. Well, Bigfoot will be hard to miss here. It represents my version of the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot clip that has captured the imagination of many for generations.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I enjoyed making it. As always, if you do give it a like.

Thanks Al,

Ken”

A big thanks to Ken – if you’re not a fan of ai, you can see Ken’s actual pics here.

Thanks to Joe too for sharing his HO scale floodlights pics.

That’s all for this time folks.

Please do keep ’em coming.

And if today is the day you press the fun button and get started, 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 store.

They are great fun to make and great value too.