I finally rescued my HO scale models from 13 years ago and found a great way to utilize them without making a huge layout. This will also be my wife's first experience with model railroading so that is exciting to have a project that we can both work on. We have a single mainline going through the center of the board (1/2" plywood) and the terrain is simple plaster gauze over newspaper. My wife is in charge of the stream that will run along the track, since that is what she's most excited about making. The track is my first chance to make track by hand and is code 80. Yes, actual code 80 on an HO layout - it was leftover from my N scale layout that was a bit too ambitious and had to be torn up when we moved. Please disregard any historical inaccuracies of engine paint scheme and car length, etc. This was the first train I actually bought for myself (as opposed to gifts) and I still think it is a good looking train. Both ends of the layout are open more for viewing rather than any modular functionality. The plywood is actually bowed from sitting in the garage and gives a 2% grade - top on the left in the "mountain range."
That looks great to my eyes. Be careful, you may end up building 7 more and you'll have a layout. As to the train, I have a real soft spot for all the stuff we used to think was the latest and greatest. I am always pleased to see it revived and put into use. Also, all that stuff you used to look at in MR magazine as a kid is super cheap on ebay now. I've actually been considering buying a whole set of Athearn blue box stream line cars for my layout.
Looks like a fun project. You should get some great shots once the stream is there too. Well done for involving your better half :thumbs_up: Looking forward to more updates. Mike
Applying today's updates was fun. Above is one of my dad's old sets - I think the RS-1 there will be a great locomotive with a sound add on (once I get some practice on things like my F7s and Dash-8s). Below are a couple shots of the plaster we applied today. I think we ended up with one part paint to two parts plaster so it was a very runny constancy, but I think we might have something usable for ground in a couple more coats. Inherently weight is not an issue on this size of board so we're free to plaster it up. The wall on the left side of the board is a cut out of the mountain, so we're going to try for some layers of sandstone and shale type rock to be cut out of the plaster.
Painted the terrain to try and achieve a rocky look. We used acrylics diluted 16:1 water to acrylics: colors are raw umber and yellow ochre spots with a black overlay to tone things down. Seemed to work out even though using an already somewhat brown base.
The glue is still wet, but I was able to sneak one train on for a few shapshots. Next, we'll do the river or stream that goes in that bare spot in the front right corner.
Most of the glue is dry now. This was my first attempt at ballasting track. I've learned that a good spray bottle can go along way when applying the wet water! Otherwise, there's ballast everywhere... I opted to try and hand paint the track & ties rather than getting an airbrush when my layout is only 4' long; this worked out ok for such a short piece, but acrylics don't stick the best to PCB ties. I think I'll be spraying the next layout I do. Aquarium rocks seemed to work pretty good as talus after a couple splashes of weathering. Can't wait to see how the water area turns out.
