A model train display’s scenery is greatly enhanced by realistic buildings.

Whether the theme is New York City or a small village, the model railroad buildings you use will illustrate all that is human about any landscape.

If you are modeling a prototype scene, then you most likely will want to find or to make specific buildings for your display.

If you are “freelancing,” or making up, your cities and towns, then you can choose whatever buildings you want. 

Hobby shops provide pre-made and ready-to-assemble kits for all kinds of model railroad buildings. Buildings from kits are typically made out of plastic and can be decorated with paint or decals. Some examples include: 

• Apartment complexes
• Large industrial plants
• Skyscrapers
• Movie theaters
• Row houses
• Barns
• Stores
• Restaurants
• Gas stations
• Churches
• Railroad yards
• Buildings “under construction”

You may also choose to create your own buildings by altering a kit, combining kits or even building your own structures completely from scratch. You can use raw materials that you may already have at home, such as wood, foam, cardboard or paper.

Then use an acrylic paint to decorate them accordingly. Creating original pieces may be necessary in cases when you are building a specific prototype and cannot find an exact kit. 

In addition to the model railway buildings themselves, you can integrate accessories that enhance your display’s realism. Accessories are basically anything that you would see in real life: people, cars, roads, trees, billboards, benches, chairs and fences.

Strategically place items around your buildings to bring your display to life, such as: 

• Constructing driveways up to houses and planting trees around the yards
• Parking cars in business and industrial parking lots
• Placing people ice skating on a frozen pond
• Corralling animals in fences
• Lining up people waiting for the train at the railroad station
• Adding humor with a police car pulling over a speeding motorist

To further enhance the realism of buildings, you may consider pasting miniature pictures and curtains on the inside. Wiring small amber/yellow lights inside of buildings will also create a realistic nighttime effect and will “show” that people live and work in your buildings – just like in real life. 

Furthermore, applying a flat water-based acrylic weathering medium creates faux dirt and grime that are inherent to the outside of buildings, thereby enhancing your display’s credibility. You can purchase this medium in different colors, such as brown/orange to mimic rust or black to represent soot or dust. 

When placing model railroad buildings throughout a landscape, perspective also comes into play. Depending on how the display is set up, you may need larger buildings closer to the foreground and smaller buildings in the background.

Small buildings “way off in the distance” can be made from painted wooden blocks – which not only saves money but it may also save time, as these may not need as many details as buildings closer to the foreground.

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I’ve added this tip to the Scenery Techniques page as well as posting it here:

The easiest way to paint brick, even N scale, that I have found is to:

1. Paint the base color of the building.
2. Use flat latex interior paint thinned about 2 to 1 with water and a drop or two of liquid detergent.
3. After the base coat has dried, use a paper towel dipped into the mixture and rub the brick areas.

The finish will generally look great from any distance and resemble “used brick” in your base color. -Robert Herring

Thanks Robert.

If you would like to submit your scenery tips to share with Model Train Tips readers, you can use the contact form at the bottom of the Scenery Techniques page to send it in.

PS; feel free to use the comment area below to expand on, or share your thoughts about Robert’s tip.

Image credit: Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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If you search online you will be able to find all kinds of different hints and model train tips, from how to choose the right model train scale, to how to create realistic looking model train scenery.

In this article I am going to bring some of the lesser known tips to your attention though. Now, in the introduction I mentioned model train scale and by typing those words into any search engine it’s relatively simple to find tips as to how to determine model train scale and what the difference is between scale and model train gauges.

Too tight a radius here could spell disaster for the businesses next to this curve!

However, do you know what the implications of these size differences are? Now I’m not talking about the fact that different scales can’t be used together (well, not without modification, but that’s a different whole different story!).

Instead, I’m talking about a consideration that is rarely thought about with much level of detail by newcomers to model railway building, which is the curve radius or your model railway trains.

More importantly, I want to look at how to avoid derailment, which let’s face it, is an extremely frustrating problem.

It comes down to calculating the tightest turning circle available that allows the locomotives and carriages to get round safely. A simple guide for this is that the layout width must equal at least the minimum turning circle your train can make without derailment. For example, in HO a tight 180 degree turnaround takes 86cm / 34″, whereas on a TT scale model railways, a tight 180 degree turnaround takes only 53.4cm / 21″.

Another tip that I feel is worth mentioning here is that many people who are new to model railroading (and even some experienced ones too!) are unaware that model train track curves can be bought with different radii, with track pieces possibly be available in 15, 22.5, 30, and 45 degree arcs, depending on manufacturer. This means that sharper or more gradual curves are possible with the same amount and length of pieces.

The trick is also to making sure that you trains are designed to work within a certain turning circle, with four axle trains being able to get round tighter turns than those with six axles. It’s also worth noting that older trains and freight wagons which, often have shorter wheel bases are going to be able to handle tighter turns much better than newer, more modern passenger trains. Therefore, if you are designing a layout for small space with tight turning circles, this will lend itself better to a freight yard theme than an Intercity passenger set up.

My final tip is to remember, although we want to make sure that our model railroads are as realistic as possible, we also have to remember that we have to be realistic about the amount and size of space that we have available. Just because you may not see a turn of such radii in real life, if your lack of space dictates that you must then there really isn’t much you can do to change this.

If it is something that bothers you though, I’ve learnt a neat little trick and that is that you hide this in your scenery in some way, such as in a tunnel or behind a hill, row of trees or building for example.

A word of warning though, relating to the point I made earlier about derailments and that is that even though you may have managed to hide the tight turns, your longer locomotives will still not be able make it around these turns and this may limit the choice of train available to you. You will therefore have to choose between more rails and smaller trains.

Of course these are just a few tips and tricks that are available and there are obviously far more model train tips than can ever been written in a single article!

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Walking my daughter down the aisle

I don’t know about you but my summer turned out to be far more hectic then I thought it would be. If you’ve been a visitor to Model Train Tips for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that my blogging here has fallen off over the summer.

Summer is always a time to get outdoors and enjoy the weather, especially here in Minnesota where we get four to five months of winter. And, as I get older, I find that I appreciate good weather more than I used to. Although I didn’t get to play golf nearly as much as I would have liked to, I did get out a few times.

Being busy this past summer ate into my blogging and model railroading time far more than I thought it would. My oldest daughter and her fiancé of six years finally tied the knot at the end of July. Of course, this was a planned event and I proudly walked her down the aisle.

I was also happy that my younger daughter, her husband and my three grandsons were able to make it here from Arizona for the wedding. I don’t get to see my grandkids very often because of the distance involved and I was very excited to have them here; and all three love trains!

Reading a "Thomas The Tank Engine" book to my three grandkids

Of course, after a week I was glad they had to go home . . . is that bad? I guess I understand now why grandparents are glad to send the kids back home after spoiling them for a while. They’re planning to move from Arizona to Minnesota next summer and I’m looking forward to that.

On a more somber note, something else that wasn’t planned, but expected, did happen. My grandfather took a turn for the worse in August and I made a trip to Kentucky to see him before it was too late. I got there in time to tell him Happy 98^th Birthday and spend a few days visiting him in the hospital.

Grampa passed away about a week after I came back home. A few days after he passed, I wrote an article on my main blog website about why my grandfather is my hero; it talks about some of the things he lived through during his long life, things that put today’s gripes into a whole new perspective.

On a more upbeat note, my work with the Twin City Model Railroad Museum has paid off in another way; the board of directors has commissioned me to develop and manage a new website for the museum. I’ve been maintaining the current (archaic) website for several months, but I’m happy to start from scratch with a new design using current web design technology.

Although I wasn’t able to get going on it right away, I expect to have the newly designed website live later this month. I’ll keep you posted.

Now that fall is here and winter is coming, I expect I’ll be able to spend more time at the museum and should be able to write some more articles about things I learn from the experts there.

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It’s a lot of work to set up a user’s forum, so I want to make sure it would be something the community that visits this site would find useful. You could use the forum to swap ideas, post messages to the community about problems you are having, look for deals or offer your stuff for sale to the community like Chuck Shutz did in a recent reader feedback article.

What do you think? Would you find a user’s forum at Model Train Tips beneficial? Post your comments below or message me using the form on my Contact page if you would like to see a user’s forum here as well as any ideas you might have for a forum. If I get enough positive feedback, I’ll work on adding the forum.

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We all make mistakes when creating a model train layout, but the important thing is to learn from them, or avoid making mistakes in the first place.

One of the most common mistakes is to choose the wrong scale when getting started in the hobby of model railroading. Talk with others in the hobby – we all have our preferences on scales (otherwise known as biased opinions).

You will need to do plenty of research and measure how much space you have available. Many beginner railroaders start collecting one scale of model trains only to find that there are more accessories in another scale. They either start all over or start mixing scales (ouch!).

Have a picture in your own mind before you start on what you want your layout to represent before you rush out and buy anything. Do you want diesel or steam locomotives, DC or DCC, a one level, or multi-level layout, or maybe an around the wall shelf layout? There are so many questions to ask and it is better to answer them sooner rather than later.

By the way, a shelf layout is usually built around the wall and typically sticks out about 12 inches from the wall (there are exceptions). A backdrop can provide depth and interest.

Model railroading is a wonderful hobby in so many ways. It involves everything from carpentry, scenery design, through to basic electrical work. Some clever model railroaders have constructed hideaway layouts where the track on a board which is attached to a cable and pulley system lowered from the ceiling. Obviously the roof structure needs to be able to support the heavy weight of lifting the layout up and down. If it is strong enough, then this may be a clever space saving solution.

Most things can be learned from watching others and a bit of trial and error. Books like my Model Train Help PDF Book are packed with clever ideas and can prove invaluable as can networking at your local model train club.

The important thing is to enjoy your hobby and take your time getting things how you want them. No two model railroad layouts are exactly the same, so you can be creative and add your own person touch to your layout.

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It occurred to me recently that I shouldn’t keep this feedback to myself. I should share some of this feedback with the whole audience; this is, after all, supposed to be a community of model railroad enthusiasts.

Here is some of the feedback and comments I received during the fall of 2009. I’ll share more feedback in future postings.

Daniel B. wrote in and shared his experience with model railroading:

For myself I think it is a great hobby. I am 64 years old and have been building ho models since I was about 27. I build them for other people on the design they are looking for.  Some of them are cheap and others have gotten pretty expensive, but it was what they wanted. Over the years with all the good tips and advice I have learned how to save a lot of money thanks to you and others like you who love train modeling. Thanks again so much. –Daniel B.

Graham W. from Brisbane, Australia wrote in and shared this:

Thanks for the tips, can I start by telling the whole picture of my trains, at the moment my trains have been idle in a 22 ft caravan for many years due to a lot of issues, but in about three weeks my wife and I move to another state in Australia which is quite some shift and along with the move my train will also be moved, this means a whole complete new layout, so at this moment of time I am seeking ideas and plans that will fit into my new shed, my scale is HO, so can you please tell me what is the tightest radius for a track layout, I have enjoyed your emails and in particular coming from the US.  -Graham W.

I answered Graham’s radius question in a previous newsletter, but I’ll answer it again for those that missed it. I didn’t know so I looked it up on page 20 of my copy of Model Train Help by Robert Anderson. The minimum radius for HO scale track is 15″.

Rob M. in Australia wrote to tell me where he was at in modeling:

Rick, Have a Heap or rolling stock and Locos.

Also have Track. Designing a layout as we speak. Looking at double oval with turnouts to each oval in both directions. Also have 3 sidings on the layout as well. It will be approx 3 metres by 1.3 wide. The biggest problem I have is designing the wiring in DC.

All the locos are approx 20-30 years old (they were mine when I was 8 yrs old) so DCC is out. My father shipped them over from the UK to Oz [Australia] a few years ago. I have 3 controllers with enough grunt to run the layout.

Thanks for all the tips keep them coming. If you could do an idiots guide to wiring that would be a great help. Modeling etc isn’t the problem just trying to wire the layout up. Any tips on wiring would be of great assistance.

Attached is a pic of a circle nailed to an old door to test the trains. Cheers -Rob M.

From Chuck P., an armchair modeler:

OK HERE GOES, I’VE SPENT THE LAST 30YEARS AS AN ARMCHAIR MODELER. RAISING 5 CHILDREN AND NOW DEE SAYS I’M THE ONLY ONE LEFT TO RAISE.

I’M VERY INVOLVED IN SCOUTING IN WESTERN IL, NORTHEAST MO. SOUTHEAST IOWA. AM AN AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER. TRAINED SEVER STORM SPOTTER.

MOST OF MY MODEL RAILROADING HAS BEEN DONE IN SMALL PLASTIC BOXES THAT I CAN SEE THE PROJECT IN ON MY SHELVES ABOVE THE WORK BENCH WHICH IS NORMALLY COVERED WITH ELECTRONICS AND RADIOS.

I WORK I ‘O’ SCALE AND AM BUILDING THE IOWA AND SAINT LOUIS RAILROAD.

IT SERVICED THE CHARITON RIVER VALLEY IN NORTH MISSOURI AND SOUTHERN IOWA.THIS WAS COAL MINE COUNTRY. IT IS AN OLD ROAD THAT WAS BORN IN 1900 AND GONE BY 1941THEN BOUGHT BY THE QUINCY, OMAHA AND KANSAS CITY, WHICH WAS TAKEN OVER BY THE C,B&Q. STEAM POWER AND DOODLEBUGS IN THE LATE 30′S AND 1940.

THERE WAS A UNION DEPOT IN THE LATE YEARS, THAT I WANT TO PUT IN A DIORAMA THIS WINTER. I LIKE SCRATCH BUILDING. COULD USE IN FORMATION ON THOSE TYPE SUPPLIES INCLUDING LOCOMOTIVE BUILDING SUPPLIES. I HAVE ACCESS TO PICTURES MANY PICTURES. WRECKS AND THE LIKE. ONLY 2 PICTURES OF THE DEPOT AND WATER TANK.

PRECUT WOOD, CARDSTOCK, LOCO BUILDING ITEM WHEELS AND AXELS DRIVE SYSTEMS. THOSE KIND OF THINGS WOULD BE OF GREAT HELP…… CHUCK P. O SCALE ARMCHAIR MODELER

I’ll bet many of you can relate to being an armchair modeler for several years until you could actively pursue the hobby.

Very good info. Newbie here….mid forties, had a 8′x16′ layout in my basement as a kid. Now I am trying to figure out how to do a 4×16 or 8×8 Pittsburgh 1910 era theme. Got a lot of info from your site, and just wanted to say thanks!

 p.s. wish I could 3 or 4 sheets of plywood, but it would fill my Florida room! Possibe I could do a T-shape and 3 sheets…. anyhoooo… thanks again! -Mike from Clermont, FL

Thanks for writing in Mike.

Hi Rick,absolute rank beginner,I have a Hornby 1955,all original,a bit worn,but I need to restore the tracks,and I am looking for the book or tips on doing that job,so perhaps your sit will help?? Regards, -David

Again, this is just some of the feedback and comments I received during the fall of 2009. I’ll share some more soon.

How about sharing your experiences in the comments area below?

Rick

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For some model railway enthusiasts, it is a way of re-creating a fond childhood memory.

Others simply enjoy building a world in miniature with all its detail and realism.

Then there are those model railway enthusiasts who love solving the technical problems of building and operating an electronic control system.

It doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re 5 or 95 . . . or somewhere in between. The personal satisfaction of building and operating a realistic miniature railway layout is rewarding and fun . . . no matter how old you are.

Model railroading is a truly rewarding leisure activity that will keep most model railway enthusiasts busy and entertained for hours…if not a lifetime.

The Model Railroaders Own Wonderful World

Model railroading is a fun-filled leisure activity that provides plenty of scope for the creative individual with a technical bent. It incorporates a variety of interesting activities from building, maintaining, upgrading and operating a model railway.

What kind of world you create, where you create it, and how much time you spend in it . . . is entirely over to the individual model railroading enthusiast. We are all different.

A model railroader can build a layout in the solitude of his or her basement, attic, shed or garage workshop . . . or they can sit in a sun lounger and watch trains weave around their garden . . . or the model railway enthusiast can join a local model railroad club and share their model railway ideas and experiences with others.

The opportunities for the model railroading enthusiast are endless!

‘We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing’ – George Bernard Shaw

Article by Robert Anderson, author of the best-selling Model Train Help ebook.

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Pick a Railroad… Any Railroad
Choosing a specific railroad to focus on can make the hobby much more more economical. Your railroad can be modern day like the Union Pacific, BNSF, or Canadian National. Or it can be a “fallen flag”, a railroad that’s been taken over by a larger company. Many modelers choose the railroad whose trains they watched passing by as a child.

Home Is Where You Lay Your Track
A model railroad takes space. Whether you’re playing with toy trains on the floor, building landscaped modules to participate in a club, or devoting your entire basement to a railroad empire you need to decide how much space your railroad is going to take.

I actually think it’s better to play with your trains and track for a while before thinking about building a permanent layout. The experience will help you plan a better layout. A 5 x 9 foot ping-pong table is great for experimenting with temporary layouts to get started, provided its not too flimsy.

Plan Your Layout
Once you’ve selected your scale and identified your available space, you can start planning your layout. There are a number of track planning software packages available to help you design your layout. First you need to decide what kind of you’ll be using.

It’s also helpful to look at layout plans on club and manufacturer web sites. These plans specify the use of a specific brand of track, but if you find a layout that you like on a web site, don’t choose your track simply because the design calls for it. With a little work you can implement nearly any track plan using any brand of track.

Power To The Trains
A packaged train set will usually come with a transformer or powerpack. The photo shows a DC powerpack that comes bundled with Kato track and train sets.

In recent years serious model railroaders are turning to computer controlled trains. Digital Command Control (DCC), the industry standard for digital model train control, is widely available today. Three-rail O scale manufacturers tend to have their own proprietary digital control systems instead of using DCC.

Form Follows Function
Okay… we’ve covered the mechanics of model railroading; now let’s talk about the aesthetics.

Model railroading is as much an art as an engineering discipline. I’ve seen one fellow posting on model railroad forums refer to his layout as a “kinetic sculpture”, and this is a completely accurate description of what we do. A model railroad layout is a sculpture in motion. This is what distinguishes it from most other art forms.

There’s a Time and a Place for Everything
So where exactly is your railroad? The Canadian Rockies? The plains of Texas? Downtown Chicago? What time of year is it? Is it spring, summer, fall, or winter? Is it 1888, 1952, or 2002?. All of these factors influence how you will decorate your layout.

You need to decide these things before investing in any trains, landscaping materials, or structure kits. You don’t want to be running a Japanese 21st Century Shinkansen Bullet Train alongside an 1880s Consolidation steam locomotive that’s pulling Overton passenger cars on an elevated track through downtown Chicago in the 1970s… or maybe you do.

The Bottom Line
What’s it going to cost? The real question is, how much do you want to spend? If you want to buy quality equipment you’ll need $350 to $500 to get started in HO or N scale, and more for O scale or Z scale. Of course that’s just the beginning. Whether you’re collecting trains, building and painting kits, or landscaping your layout, like most other hobbies, model railroading will have ongoing expenses. It isn’t about the money; it’s about the pleasure you derive from it.

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Coming in on a Saturday would give me a chance to work with some folks I normally don’t get to work with, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to learn something new. I did learn some new stuff but I also re-learned something I already knew; or so I thought.

It was time to pull one of the freight trains off the main line into the Midland Yard and send out something else for awhile.

There was a young boy watching me work the control panel, and, since I like to engage the public whenever I can, I asked him which train I should sent out next.

He picked the “Yellowstone” engine shown in the picture at right, a massive 2-8-8-4 steam locomotive.

I brought the other train in from the main line and sent out the Yellowstone. While the train was pulling out onto the main line I was distracted by a commotion on the other side of the layout. After I returned to the yard control panel I started moving some of the rolling stock around to set up another freight train to run next.

I was pretty intent on what I was doing in the yard and didn’t notice the small crowd of about a dozen visitors lining up to watch the yard action. As I was happily moving an engine around the yard I heard someone say, “Hey, I think that train is going to . . .” and then CRASH! The train with the huge engine I had sent out a few minutes earlier came crashing into the yard at nearly full speed, rear-ending another train!

I had forgotten to reset the switch that leads from the main line into the yard. Instead of continuing on the main line, the train followed the track back into the yard. Three sidings full of trains were now scattered all over the yard, and in front of an audience of about a dozen people! It would have been embarrassing without the audience, but I wanted to crawl under a rock!

One of the other volunteers helped me clean up my mess and got the train back on the main line. Fortunately, none of the trains were damaged. As we were cleaning up the mess, I ran through my head what had happened to lead up to the crash. In the same way that I was modeling freight yard operations, I had inadvertently modeled a railroad disaster. I had allowed something to distract me from following the procedures that would have prevented the crash.

Fortunately, I don’t have to deal with an NTSB accident investigation and, other than my bruised ego, no one was hurt. I will no doubt, have to endure a little more ribbing from my fellow volunteers at the museum.

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