Layout design
The Rock Island in Peoria
The gritty dark days of railroading in the 1970's have a special appeal for me, and the Rock Island is the epitome of the era. It was a major player in Peoria, Illinois, and the one railroad I was always drawn to visit in my hometown as a teen with a camera. That fascination has never left, and serves as my inspiration for my model railroad.
Model Railroad in a Bonus Room
Hello all. Quick question:
I'm soon moving to North Carolina and most of the houses that my wife and I have looked at renting have a fairly large bonus room. The open space of these rooms gets my model railroader senses tingling, but there's a problem: the "knee walls" that cove in to fit the contour of the roof.
Has anyone built a layout in a bonus room or attic and how did you overcome this?
TOMA resources?
Is there a definitive place to get information about all things TOMA?
ie: A primer article or post that explains TOMA and give links to resources?
I see a lot of questions about starting a small manageable layout on other venues and it would be great to have a single place to point people to to get started with the concept.
Lakewood Branch in O Scale
This is a build log for a 2-rail O scale switching layout based on waning days of the Chicago & Evanston’s North Line, better known as the Lakewood Avenue Branch of the Milwaukee Road. The layout will be a 11’ x 9’ “L”-shaped shelf layout located in a second bedroom.
ALPINE RAILROAD IN NJ-EVOLUTION IN PICS PART V
Now that I have gone over most of the build for my layout up to present day (I will take pics of the newest table with the mountains and rock faces in place and post them soon), I thought I would show some of the details I have been working on like tunnel portals, bridges and structures. Since I didn't take any before pics of the portals or bridges before I painted/weathered them, I found pics online of what they look like out of the box.
ALPINE RAILROAD IN NJ-EVOLUTION IN PICS PART IV
After fixing my problem with getting my locos up a 2% + grade (it was never consistent for the entire run) I then saw another aspect of my original plan that I never really loved. At that point I had my loco run up hill about 4 inches over the course of 8-10 feet or so but coming back down hill was done inside another tunnel on the opposite end of the layout in about 3 feet. Needless to say it was a steep hill downward though a few tests showed that locos would not fly off the track or even move that much faster so it was doable but I didn't love it.
Bedroom Layout
I have been searching for many hours today to find an internet image of a bedroom layout I recall seeing a number of years ago when I was looking thru MANY magazines for model railroad items scenery, layout designs etc. I was searching in response to a particular person who was looking for just such information. I recall making copies of this layout idea to be passed out at my friends train shop, to those city people who just might be looking for a 'bedroom/spare room layout'.
ALPINE RAILROAD IN NJ-EVOLUTION IN PICS PART III
Due to the nature of my job I was unexpectedly out of work from last Christmas until te beginning of May which presented a wonderful opportunity to fill the cold winter days by working on my layout uninterrupted. In that time I feel like I achieved quite a lot on the layout construction itself as well as building structures and whatnot. Like most railroad modelers, I tend to get "on a track" of maybe wiring for a while then when I get bored I shift gears and build a structure or two or maybe work on scenery.
The building of the "ANNELIESVILLE RR" / Layout Design.
Bonjour Railroad modelers,
This is the ANNELIESVILLE trackplan that I posted on the 'Trackplan Database'.
It's a rural & coastal type of branchline with a rather 'narrow gauge feel' since I love this type of Railroads. Plus the fact that the late Paul Scoles inspired me with his type of 'imaginary' and overall feel. I also tried to follow guidelines & info from Lance Mindheim, to keep things simple and manageable. It's not my first build but it's always a challenge to build in this size.
ALPINE RAILROAD IN NJ-EVOLUTION IN PICS CONT'D
I left off with the stage of my railroad development having built the benchwork, added foam risers and platforms, fascia, newspaper and tape to prepare for the addition of Woodland Scenics plaster cloth for the mountains.
>> Posts index
Navigation
Journals/Blogs
Recent Blog posts: