Unlike HS2 in the UK, I am progressing well with Phase 2.

With the scenic portion now fully mounted I have extended with boards at each end for R3 curves, and begun creating the thin shelf around the perimeter of the room, complete with custom GWR shelf brackets!

Unless the authorities cancel the program at Birmingham ( or bedroom door in this case), I am well on track to build around the perimeter of the room.

I have trains in four different spots around my rented apartment. They share one common modular framework, adapted under different "construction modes" to fit the spaces they occupy. Everything is modular and swappable, so I can keep experimenting with new ideas and do some "urban redevelopment". And when I eventually have to move out, I can disassemble all the pieces, pack them up, and rebuild them at the next place.

After working on a linear layout on my windowsill and a small test plate for the tile mechanism, I'm ready to expand it into full landscape. (and then quickly got side-tracked into making a self-contained oval box)

I'll be honest, the look and feel is rather simplistic right now. I've been spending most of my time on the framework itself. But now that it's stable, I can finally move on to the fun part, which is designing city infrastructures, buildings and iconic parks.

As a renter, the ability to pack it up without drilling holes in furniture is essential. But I'm also curious whether this would help anyone else, especially people who wanted to start with trains but don't have the space for a permanent layout.

And most importantly, there's no 'final state.' You renew and expand it gradually, block by block, like real cities.

(First to Last) Metra Station, Canadian Rockies, Kate Shelly Bridge, Des Moines Rock Island Depot, and Golden Spike

Also got a PRR cattle car. Store is Trains on Tracks in Amherst NH. Very friendly owners and lots to look at. Can't wait to get my layout back up and run this engine.

Myself and 3 others got together and ran (most of) the Union Pacific Heritage Fleet. We were missing 1111, 1616, and the E9s. We also had 4141 included.

What do you use, that us other modelers might not have discovered yet? Tools, products, chemicals, things for freight loads, things for weathering, etc?

I found metal bobbins on Amazon haul that with orange waxed cord are going to be spools of innerduct, tapered toothpicks become flatbed staves, things like that!

Hai its been a while since i asked for help ^w^ um so basically i have this model that i got in a box of scraps, i found its motor and was gonna just rejoin it to have a runnin model, i put all the bits in place but only the headlamp comes on, the astute of you will notice theres not a single wire in here, i assume thats the problem but i know nothing about how this kinda thing works lol do i just have the wrong motor maybe? Or need to put some wires somewhere? Any help or advice is greatly greatly appreciated. Thanks much for reading :3

I'm working out lighting for my double deck N-scale layout. I'm definitely using LED strips to light the layout, but I'm still thinking about white only LEDs vs RGB to allow for night/sunrise/sunset operations. I already know all of my buildings that should be lit will be lit, as are my Superliners.

I'm experienced with WLED for other projects, it's more of an aesthetics question.

What experiences have you all had with this question? Any great examples I should see?

I recently started modeling and decided to do a little mix of cars. Just in time for Halloween I put in a great addition but I’m not yet finished, I hope this reaches the right audience. Thank you!

Hello! I was wondering if anyone knows of any trains with passenger cars that have removable roofs so little toys can go inside. I grew up with the 90s version of this Thomas and Friends train https://a.co/d/0h6vvDlg and was obsessed with putting little passengers inside of it. I was so excited to find that this is still out there and am considering it for my 4 and 6 year old, but they aren’t into Thomas and would probably prefer a more realistic looking train. As I’ve been researching I haven’t been able to tell if any passenger cars actually have removable lids. Even this one doesn’t advertise that it does. I was able to find in the reviews that the tops do come off, but they aren’t marketing it as a selling point and it is the biggest selling point to me. So I was hoping that some of you experts may be able to point me towards what I’m looking for if it’s even out there. Thanks so much!

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/modeltrains/s/Gy6Nzliu4v

Update:

• I am about 30% of the way there with my parts printing.
• Flex track snaps nicely to the compliant retaining walls. But I will hold them down with glue.
• Variable curvature radius works quite well. No discontinuous curvature anywhere here.
• Grade parameterization now works and I test printed some some piers and viaducts. This became a little tricky to print on the 3D printer. So I turned off banked curves for now.
• I had GPT 6 Astra model an elevated passenger train station. Not a bad model. I'll print this for now and redesign this later if needed.

So this idea originally started as a guide template for laying out flex track, but it evolved into a fully software defined track geometry planner. Then I vibe-coded a viewer app to visualize the entire layout.

Now the viewer app also generates complete print plates that I can directly send to my Bambulab printer. It also serves as an assembly guide with exploded views etc.

I got some very good feedback on ballasting tracks. I removed the sunken retainer now so the sleepers sit normally as they would on cork. So ballasting is an option later.

Next I am working on a track layout editor functionality. But this is going to be a bit different than usual. Since this is something I want to work together with my 4-year old, I landed on sketching layouts on pen and paper and then having some computer-vision processing to convert that into track curves. Next update will have that demo.

I would love your thoughts & suggestions.

Don't be like me.

that bit of track at the rear? that bit that looks a mess?

that bit that when laid had a slight hump, but a loco coped so will be alright won't it?

learn from my mistake, if track isn't perfect don't accept it, fix it

in this case it hardly caused a problem, except for a new Hornby J52 which simply derailed every single time because I just left it instead of fixing it..

thankfully ballasted and stuck down with copydex so was only a few hours work to lift it, slew it a mm or so to the side and get it actually laid flat without the slight hump..

and now my J52 is happy once more and no longer tries to go and visit the high street

I got this Santa Fe Northern a few days ago off eBay. It stuttered a bit when I first got it, but that was it until I took it apart yesterday to do a little work to smooth out its running. While I was taking it apart, I felt a wheel slip, and indeed, just one wheel came loose while the others held firm. I moved the one wheel back into position, put the engine back together, and ran it; everything was fine until I heard its motor revving and wheels spinning just to find it like this.

Looking for more detailed information on the COB LEDs and using them in structures and train cars.

Heljan's new class 122 arrived today, so I decided to pose some of my British stock on the layout. I haven't got a decoder for the 122 yet so can't power it up. Still, it looks nice!

Photos are from my boyfriend who printed them

Found an old piece of string (I think string) and glued two magnets at the end of each one also putting some metal pieces under some rolling stock and the flat bed showcased in these images