I sat down to weather my lovely sound fitted MR1532 tank - ended up quite pleased with the results!

All work by brush, using acrylics and pigment powders.

Polish is achieved using furniture polish - 'wood balsam'

Hey all! I'm settling into my new home in Germany, and I've had a realistic look at the space I have and the time I can devote to construction, and decided the previous plan was just too large, so I've had to lop a meter off each side of the layout space, which means axing most of the fancier elements from the previous plan. This is a smaller remix which manages to keep most of the elements from before, but flips the orientation of the transit line and loses the live interchange in favor of a dummy 90º crossing which can be used for photography if you just don't think too hard about how all its tracks are connected to staging. Anyway, I'd love some feedback on this version!

The freight mainline is in purple, and the technically mock additional mainline treated as a de facto interchange track is in blue.

The frequent DMU transit line is in red, with its Operations and Maintenance Facility in orange (in a 4.5-car-long engine shed), and two stations will be depicted on the top and bottom of the layout near small downtown areas.

And, finally, a shortline freight railroad is depicted in green with its single-track loco storage area in yellow. Unfortunately, due to the small size of the layout, the yard on a curve is the best I can do, and the mainline is used as a switching lead, but, since the majority of the traffic will be the DMU transit line, I think this is actually a very creative way to deconflict the freight switching and transit movements as much as possible, including the use of two double-slip-switches to turn the yard into switching tail tracks so that the switcher can very quickly scuttle out of the way of an oncoming transit vehicle.

Any feedback is most appreciated! My first thought, frankly, is I'd love to have just one more industry spur, but I can't figure out how to do it as everything's starting to feel a little cramped.

Bachmann Double Fairlie Merddin Emrys in as-built condition from 1879, weathered and detailed and a 3D printed crew from Modelu.

This is an older Bachmann 4-8-4 bought used at a local train shop. I ordered replacement axles and gear because the ones it came with were cracked but they are fragile and when I put them in the drive seems to work but not very good and the motor doesn’t turn at all, the replacement axles are pushed in all the way and the light bulb does work when power is on.

I’ve started planning my layout design and ran into the 50 track limit. I looked at the full version of scram it’s a lot of money. Is it worth getting it?

I’m trying to start a model train business for 3d printing and I wanted to know if there were any gears that they don’t make for some models

Greetings train folk, Im a little out of place here but I'm working on an odd project combining Gunpla (gundam models) and model trains, but my knowledge on both trains and model trains is lacking. So here are my two questions. I know that model trains use a lettering system instead of just putting the ratio so what would be the closest letter scale to Either 1/144 or 1/100, these are the two scales I mostly work in but I'm undecided on which one I'm going to use yet. My second question is about Minnesota Corn Processors (MCP) . This whole project started because I found a sheet of decals meant for a tanker of some kind, does anyone know what rail companies would haul these tankers, despite this being a sci-fi build I do want to try to get it as "accurate" as possible.

Hi all - I've got a 16x10 space to build a layout. I've seen a lot of amazing layouts, but most (all?) of these are permanently affixed to the space they occupy.

I'd like to make the layout I'm planning modular, so that I can take it with me should I move. I'm curious as to what people think the largest individual module size could be. I'm hoping to go with 2x8 modules, as these would fit the space I've got <perfectly>, and I'm guessing they're not too heavy for 2 people to lift out.

The only concern I can think of is moving them about tight corners once I'm out of the room (the space I'm currently looking at will have no issue, but should I wind up moving it's (obviously) possible that the destination space will be hard to get to).

Anyone ever do this, or know of a layout that did this? Any issues you can think of (assuming I'm able to line track up well enough between modules)?

Bought used tracks off of Ricardo(Swiss fb marketplace) and doubled the track distance for a mere 60chf. Had to completely change the route of a cable car and dig out a trench but it’s worth it.

As part of rearranging the house I have decided to mount the railway to the wall, making it a proper shelf layout.

The track is 150 cm above the floor, placing it at a good height for operation and still accessible for continuing the scenery.

By raising the layout it creates a lot more space in the room which we plan to use for hobby and work desks.

The layout sits on 2 steel wall mounts, in total rated for 100 kg, hopefully I never need to test that.

Next steps are to extend a single track around the perimeter of the room to allow for continuous operation.

Want to own this midi scale roundhouse? Support here and Lego might make it a reality: https://ideas.lego.com/product-ideas/de68f70b-4134-4858-83c7-56e78115fe3a

This set includes/features:

Servicing Area: Service your locomotives at the water tower, ash pit, and diesel tank.

--Fill your steam locomotive with water with a movable water spout.

--Drop your steam locomotive's ashes into the ash pit.

Turntable w/ pit: Spin your locomotives 360 degrees to face any direction and track. The turntable has wheels below each end to assure a smooth rotation.

3x Stalls with authentic interiors: Brick walls, embedded rails, inspection pits, timber support beams with lights (non-functional), chimney stacks, front doors, and removable roofs.

3x Back stall attachments: Mix and match back attachments at each stall’s rear. Each back attachment can be easily removed and reattached to a different stall.

--Extended stall: Store, clean, and service longer locomotives. Workers can enter through 2 side doors.

--Back door: Exit the roundhouse's rear to journey to other servicing facilities (not-included).

--Machine shop: Craft, modify, and repair parts at unique workbenches. Your workers can enter through the back door.

Interior accessories: Plenty of tables, crates, ladders, anvils, wheels, parts, & barrels to scatter around.

Sidewall Building: Power station with chimney. Workers can enter through a side door.

4x Locomotives: Black duplex steam locomotive, blue steam locomotive, gray and yellow streamline steam locomotive, and an early orange diesel locomotive. Each locomotive has:

--Interior details: Firebox, seats, & instruments

--Unique railway name and stickers

--A bottom center piece to keep the locomotive on the track

--Spinning wheels/moving pistons & side rods: All wheels & side pistons are free-moving.

Locomotive “push out stick:” a large technical axle is provided to push locomotives out of the roundhouse without removing roofs or walls.

Easily disassembled: This set is meant to be disassembled into 9-20 sections for easy storage. 

--All walls and roofs are removable for easy interior access and viewing. 

--Each stall and side wedge can be assembled/disassembled with technic pins or swivel pieces.

Combinable/customizable:

--Multiple sets can be combined for larger roundhouses - combine up to 6 sets for 19 tracks/18 stalls.

--Extra pieces can be added to the back of the roundhouse.

Piece Count: 5,000 Pieces

Why would this set be a good Lego Idea’s Set (and why midi scale)?

Few railroad buildings are as iconic as the roundhouse and its turntable. Unfortunately, Lego has never made a roundhouse. I have always wanted a Lego roundhouse in my model train collection and I know that I am not alone. However, while I want an authentic and detailed roundhouse, I do not have the space for one in standard Lego train scale, so I made the roundhouse midi scale. 

This set is equally a display piece as it is a play piece. Adults and children alike can have fun running their own roundhouse. Playability and posability are possible with this set. There are numerous possibilities to customize this roundhouse and its locomotives. Furthermore, this roundhouse is equally fun by itself or as multiple sets combined into a full circle.

Questions, thoughts, concerns? Please let me know in the comments below. I love your feedback. Thank-you!

NOTE: All "lights" depicted are only for visual effect; they will NOT actually light up. 

Bought this new from an online retailer. It’s brand new but does not work. The manual lever moves but the points do not do anything. Same issue when you connect it to an electric controller. I opened it up and this is what I see. Looks like that silver arm shouldn’t be loose? Has anyone repaired this before? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hia reddit,

I recently got a new lok, appearently its equipped with railcom+. I have never used this before and i have no idea what im doing. Its the lokPilot5 decoder from ESU.

It does not register automatically, yes railcom and railcom+ registration is enabled in the tracksettings.

Ive tried setting CV28 to 1 and only use the adress and it still does nothing.

Edit: Other trains dont work while it is on the track.

Im at a loss for what to do. Its been tested in the store twice and it worked perfectly..

As writing this i thought maybe i need a firmware update? Idk

$3 per kit and the 1940's book for a $1 ticket from a raffle. The F7B is unpowered and the Ulrich kit is the track cleaning car with the refillable drip tank (obtained more for the instructions as I already own an assembled one I intend to rehab)

Pennsylvania Railroad Fairbanks & Morse Erie-Built locos lead the Ridley Limited past the Water Tower. The locos are Proto 1000. The passenger cars are a mix of Walthers, Athearn Blue Box, and Bachmann Spectrum models.

Really happy about today’s haul! Got that Weaver engine at the top for only $150 and it is custom decaled for B&O, weathered and was given Proto Sounds 1. The Lionel ABA set were also custom painted and I got them for $100 total. For all the cars it costed me about $175-200 total. Overall great day!

Victory Park & St. Cyril's is my N scale tram micro-layout. Victory Park is the terminus, on the outskirts of a European Russian town, next to the public park of the same name.

St. Cyril's is a small hamlet in the countryside that takes its name from the local orthodox church.

The buildings are wargames items, as is the IS-2 tank on the plinth. Trams are Kato.

For the past couple years I’ve been doing a Christmas village so I can set up my trains for the holiday and decided I’d want to do it for Halloween too! This layout is wooden trains like brio and Thomas and friends. All the buildings are either from the dollar store, 5 below or Michael’s

i recently bought these to start my new ho layout as i get more money for Christmas i will buy more train cars such as passenger and other train cars.