Cable ducts

Observe almost any railway track in Europe and you will likely notice a line of cement tiles running all along the track-bed. These are the covers of ducts that carry electrical cables used for running the railway.

I decided I would add some to my layout and set about creating some designs which could be printed on my 3D printer. The first question was, "How big are they?" I spent some hours browsing through the online product catalogs of European manufacturers who specialize in making the ducts and various trackside accessories for the rail industry. They come in almost every size imaginable!

I settled on making ducts 40cm wide, and designed them with gaps between the edges and covers.

Adding concrete and cable style road barrier

When I made the road past the farm in 2007 I used a set of steel fence with concrete posts made by Faller (item 180432). Now that I have painted the road along the side of my big valley, I decided to add some more of that kit there.

Telephone poles

I have had some HO scale plastic telephone poles in my train stuff for 3 or 4 decades and I decided it was time to install them. I have no idea where they came from or what brand they are. They were plain brown plastic, and one was a very different brown so obviously came into my possession at different times.

Making small signs

When I was adding my distance markers, there were some places where there was no catenary mast or tunnel on which to affix the signs. They thus had to have their own mounting pole.

Distance markers

One of the details on my layout is the inclusion of distance markers along the tracks. These signs tell the locomotive engineers where they are. They typically appear every 200m along the track. The upper number indicates the number of kilometers from the origin and the lower number indicates the the additional hectometers.

EMD 567 prime mover Diesel engine

When I was in my local hobby store I noticed a tiny kit from Walthers Cornerstone series for an EMD "567" prime mover Diesel engine, and I thought it would look nice in one of my loco sheds.

I painted and weathered all the parts before their final assembly, opting to make it look like an engine about to be refurbished rather than a new one waiting to be installed.

Weathering with acrylic paint

Here are the steps I used to paint and weather some metal die cast machines for the roundhouse.

The machines are made of 'white metal' - some kind of alloy that is shiny silver in color.

First I painted them green and let that paint dry.

First Roundhouse

The roundhouse is at last installed on the layout and all wired up...

Roundhouse interior walls

A large proportion of the effort to create interior details for the roundhouse was the preparation of the interior walls.

This page shows how I made them and I also provide links to the files so that you may use them for your own personal purposes.

HO Fire extinguisher Tomar SP-804

I needed some fire extinguishers for my loco shed and I tried to make something up using wire etc and nothing looked acceptable so I started searching the web... I found some made by Tomar Industries at http://www.tomarindustries.com/

I was not sure what they were made of so I emailed them for more information. "White metal" was the prompt reply so I ordered their 10 pack on Friday and they were in my mailbox on Monday!

Some needed removal of small bits of extraneous material...

Loco shed smoke catchers

Loco sheds have large funnels above the tracks to help direct smoke out the chimneys. Since I was creating interior details of my roundhouse I have made smoke catchers. I need two per track. This allows a steamer to be parked head first or tender first, or even two small locos on one track.

I made mine out of a thin card and used a 6mm drinking straw cut to 30mm lengths for the new chimney. This allows the catchers to be positioned 60mm above the rails. The chimney caps from the Märklin 7288 roundhouse kit can be made to fit in the top of the drinking straw.

Oxyacetylene bottles

I made up an Oxyacetylene dolly

The dolly was from a NASCAR racing set my son had as a boy. I made the bottles out of some bits of plastic that had ends just the right shape already.

Roundhouse interior details

I put a lot of effort into the interior detailing of my roundhouses. 

Heavy machinery

I have been looking for some heavy machinery for the loco shed and today I found some at my local dealer. (Maine Trains)

They are die-cast. Made by Kramer Products. The dealer had them in an unfinished, unpainted state for $2.20 and finished and painted for $3.60. By unfinished, I mean one still needs to file off bits from the casting process. I bought a lathe, drill press, small crane, guillotine, grinder and a press. I have painted them up and made them all dirty and I think they look very nice in the sheds.

I used acrylic paints.


Drill Press

Winery vegetation

While I wait for the rest of my grape vines, I added some other vegetation including a big Oak tree. This is where the horse buggy will bring guests to the hotel.

Preiser 25001

This box contains three cyclists all in different positions. There is also a sheet of transfers of shirt numbers so that one can combine multiple sets and still have unique racing numbers.

I installed two going up through the hairpins of my mountain road. The third will go elsewhere sometime.

Farm road

I have now completed the road that runs past the farm. I also installed a fence along the farm side of the road.

I painted white lines by laboriously applying masking tape in parallel stripes, leaving a narrow gap between them for the paint. It was not easy.

Milk churns at the farm

The farmer puts his milk churns out next to the road where they are picked up each morning and returned later.

Sheep

I installed 66 sheep, a shepherd with a lamb, and 2 sheep dogs

Graffiti

Graffiti - a touchy subject in the hobby.

To some it is nothing more than ugly damage to property, to others we include it because we want the layout to look realistic.

Here is some of the graffiti I painted onto my signal box before I assembled it...