Dear Friends,
I just stumbled upon the Scale modelling thread in this section and thought of sharing my progress of my HO scale freelance train layout.
Way back in 2007, when I was posted in South Africa, i came across a colleague from Germany who shared with me his passion for model railroading. Till that point of time, I had no clue that something like this existed. Since I loved trains, it immediately gathered my attention and after lots of reading in the web, watching things in youtube, i thought, i should get into the hobby. Adding to the interest in trains, certain aspects in the hobby which involves a lot of creativity and DIY made me more interested as I love DIY.
I bought a Atlas Diesel train set with some tracks and made a 8x4 layout back at home. I had a good learning experience and shortly that was dismantled as it was occupying space and very uncomfortable. Then, for few years, my train and tracks were lying in the loft. Then, during 2011, it came back to me and thinking of various possibilities, could not arrive at a proper space and ended up doing a 7'x1' shelf layout, a very small switching layout. I was not satisfied and again went into thinking, how can i make this big given that I am living in an apartment, not having luxury of garage space (like our friends in the USA) and also pursue this hobby slowly, doing a good job. After a lot of thinking, I decided to do another shelf layout, this time on a full length wall of 19 feet in my living room, hoping that I can extend this along other walls later.
First module is 7' x 1'
Second module is 12' x 1.25'
A total length of 19'
There is no continuous run and it is a pure industrial layout on HO scale with a small Harbour front, a goods yard etc.,
I am not doing it based on any specific era or any location, but, I give importance to the best possible reality I can achieve given the constraints.
Constraints :
- If I want anything, I need to depend on someone who is travelling from the USA to bring it for me, but, it is OK, I am slowly getting what I want
- I am trying to make my own stuff with available materials in India
- SPACE
- Few things are expensive
Nevertheless, I think I am making good progress and again, I do not get into too much detail like, "how can I use a Union Pacific loco alongside a Sante Fe loco ?" I just want to have good, practical, operational layout with realistic scenery within my abilities and to have fun creating the same. Later, I am sure, I will do multiple railroads, interchanges etc., when i have the luxury of space.
What do I currently have ?
1 x GP38 Santa Fe loco with MRC sound decoder
1 x GP39 Union Pacific loc with MRC sound decoder
8 x different cars like reefers, gondola, box car, hoppers etc.,
total of 6 turnouts (motorised)
Originally my locos were standard DC and then I added the sound decoders to it when I bought my NEC POWERCAB DCC system recently. I will soon try and add a ALCO Mogul steam locomotive with some more rolling stock and more tracks which I will use it on another wall with a different theme and connect both these layouts using removable modular bridges.
Sorry for writing so much without any photos. I am just adding a sample below and will add more photos shortly on the progress.
Current status of the Layout :
All the bench work completed on the wall. The benchwork was done using Pine wood frames and 2" thermocol on top of it.
All tracks laid and basic landscaping done. I am re-doing certain portions of it as I have learnt more tricks recently.
Temporarily fixed the back ground for the layout which has low profile structures as I will be using that track mostly for the Industries. This saves a lot of space and also gives a good back drop. A portion of the background has a mountain/hill which is of sedimentary rocks (i love it). The industries are :
Cement Industry
Grain elevator
Cold storage warehousing
Lubricant manufacturing plant
A beer manufacturing plant
Saw Mill
Coal mine
Lumber dealer
Harbour
etc.,
I will explain each of these through pictures in the days to come and as I progress.
Except for the Locomotives, rolling stock and tracks, everything is being hand made i.e., all the structures using foam board, signs, street lamps, signals, landscaping, pool, water body, mountains, fences, roads etc.,
All the figures are unpainted and then hand painted. I recently bought and airbrush for weathering purposes and I will use for my locos and rolling stocks soon.
Hope you will enjoy this thread and I am happy to share this for any future hobbyists and DIY enthusiasts.
This is an extremely rewarding hobby and you can apply many skills like
Woodworking
Carving
Painting
Electrical
Electronics
Miniature creations
Overall creativity
and then also RUN the trains as in real life, that is the beauty.
Will post more pictures of the full layout in its Current stage tomorrow.
Swami