Hall of Fame Rob’s been back in touch with an update on his OO scale model railway.

(And by the way, there’s a new entry into the Hall of Fame! I’ll reveal who tomorrow.)

As well as a fab youtube update, Rob’s taken the time to talk us through his train journey and shared pics too:

“Farland is a OO scale 1:76.2 model railway. It is my impression of Britain. It is not historically accurate.

When I started it, I intended to keep to a narrow time frame of 1965-1968, but the time frame has leaked to pre-1950s and post-1990s. I add anything that piques my interest.

I started modeling in OO in 2012 after buying what was described to me as a locomotive with sound. Sound? Yes, the London store clerk explained, it has sound when it runs. That started me on this journey I have been on ever since.

I had some Lionel O gauge trains as a youngster and a wind-up, clockwork-type train given to me when I was about 6. I still have it, though the 3 rail O gauge stuff is long gone. I guess I should also explain that as a child, I lived in London, England, for a time when I was a kid, once again that 6-year-old period.

The current Farland is actually the second version of it. The first version was built in our unfinished basement at the time. I made every mistake possible with this first layout.

There was no plan at all in the beginning. I bought a sheet of 4-foot by 8-foot plywood and put legs under it, then set up my sound locomotive to run on it. It wasn’t long until I added 2 more feet along one side and then one foot along the end. Within 6 months, the layout was “U” shaped and 22 feet by 13 feet.

Around then, my loving and understanding wife decided she had had enough of seeing out the junk that we stored in our basement in the YouTube videos I started making. She suggested we finish off at least the part of the basement that the layout was occupying.

I agreed and came up with an overall plan for a completely finished basement. We didn’t feel we could afford to do the whole thing so scaled down to the hall leading from the bottom of the stairs to the would-be train room.

I then worked on a track plan that would maximize the running track and include some of the elements I wanted on my model railway. One and most important was I did not want a duck under or bridge. I wanted to be able to walk into the layout unencumbered. All Farland plans achieved this.

By the way, for those of you that are unfamiliar with the OO scale or gauge, it uses the same HO track with a 16.5 mm gauge as HO uses. The track for all purposes is HO track.

Here are three track plans. The first is about the third iteration of the first unfinished basement layout.

Next is the final plan of the first Farland in the unfinished basement.

Last is the as-built version of the current Farland in the now-finished train room.

The room is 23 feet x 22 feet with a bump out in one corner and an inset at the opposite corner.

Rob”

A huge big thanks to Hall of Fame member Rob for sharing his OO scale model railway.

It reminded me of Stuart’s: OO scale steam locomotives.

Lastly, don’t forget, there’s only a day or so left to grab the new printable buildings and new track plan PDF at just $19.

There are 3 new buildings and 1 new track plan PDF in the latest sale – you can grab them all for just $19.

Here’s John, showing what they look like.

If you are unfamiliar with the printable buildings, you just download them and stick them together:

(Watch on youtube here.)

Here are the three new buildings:

All the buildings are HO scale. Just reduce the print size to 54% for N scale.

You can print as many as the buildings as you like.

When you mix and match the buildings, you can get some really nice effects.

And best of all, you can get these three new buildings – and the latest track plan PDF – for just $19 over the next few days.

Volume 3 of the track plans is made up of another 20 track plans – all new, and featured on the blog, with the links to the posts.

If you’ve enjoyed the blog over the last few months or years, please do help it out and grab the new buildings and track plans.

To keep things simple, I have bundled the new buildings and new track plans PDF with the Beginner’s Guide, so even if you’ve already got the Beginner’s guide (I know many of you have), grabbing it again gets you the new buildings and the track plans.

It just makes it loads easier for me to do it this way.

And of course, if you’re new to the blog, and you’ve not got the Beginner’s Guide and all the bonuses, now’s the ideal time to grab it.

You’re saving $10 on the Beginner’s guide, and $27 on the new buildings, and $10 on the latest track plan PDF.

That’s a whopping $47 saving, and you’ll be directly supporting the blog too.

So there’s big savings to be had, and you’ll also be helping to keep the show on the road too.

Don’t forget, there’s a 60 day money back guarantee on all of the products – the buildings and everything else – so you really have nothing to lose.

You can grab the new buildings and the new track plans PDF here.

Best

Al

PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.

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