Reviving a thirty year old layout

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Jim 68cuda

Jim 68cuda

Well-Known Member
WARNING: This is a long read (thirty years long) to describe what has brought me to this point. But there are pictures at the end, of the mess that I will now be starting with.

Thirty years ago, not long after I bought my first house, I started building an HO layout (and it would be my first). There were some limitations that made the construction a bit unconventional. I didn't have a basement, so the layout was constructed in an attic storage room. I also had two house mates and the three of us had very different work schedules. At any given time of the day or night, it was sleeping time for someone in the house. For that reason, I pretty much couldn't use power tools for the benchwork. I had some plastic shelving units and built the layout on top of sheets of styrofoam insulation spread accross the tops. I got quite a long way along on that layout and finished the sccenery on the town part of the layout which was about half of the "L" shaped layout.

I enjoyed the layout for several years, but the poorly regulated temperature in the attic eventually led to problems with the track buckling. The layout sat unusable till 2012. That's when I decided to move it to a spare bedroom, saving as much as possible of the parts that were already complete. But, there were two unused bedrooms next to each other at that point, as the house mates were gone. And I wanted a larger layout. I did still want a desk that I could use and I still wanted one of the rooms to still be a guest room. I had the crazy idea of putting 49" high Ivar shelving from Ikea in each room to put the layout on, and cut holes in the walls to connect the two haves of the now larger "U" shaped layout. A full size bed was under the layout in one room, and a desk was under the layout in the other room. The layout was finally back up and running. And I found that visually, the higher elevation of the layout was preferable. I started the groundwork on the scenery for the modified and new parts of the layout. You can follow that progress in this old thread from back in those days.
Jim 68cuda

Thread 'Crazy idea what do you think'

I don't have a basement, and have just dismantled my HO layout that was in an attic storage room. I would like to rebuild in a bedroom, but may need the space as a guest room for visiting family from time to time.
I don't want a fold up layout, as mountainous terrain would keep it from folding flat against the wall.

Here's my idea.
At work, I may be able to get for free, a used one piece wood 4'x10' conference table top. Meanwhile, theres a 4 post double bed on Craigslist for $195. The four posts on the bed, are 64" tall. (Stay with me on this) The over all height of the bed posts, can...


But then ten years ago, 2016, I moved. I patched the tunnels in the walls that connected the two halves of the layout, and with kitchen knife in hand, I cut through the layers of foam making up the layout into managable size pieces. The house was sold and I bought a new place with a basement. A fair amount of the track and wiring was damaged in the process, but much of the scenery survived. The original Ikea shelving was set up in my basement, and the various foam pieces tossed on top.

For ten years it sat like that. The task of somehow getting all those jigsaw puzzle pieces to fit back tegether seamlessly seemed almost as daunting as the thought of re-laying and re-wiring all the track. But, I was very happy with the overall layout I had, so starting over from scratch was never a consideration.

In the meantime, I was still building structure kits (as can be seen in this old thread)...
Jim 68cuda

Thread 'Bungalows and buses'

So I decided to build a few Walthers HO scale Cornerstone kits. The American Bungalow, the Craftsman Bungalow, the two pack of Single Car Garages, and the Silver Springs Bus Terminal. For the bus terminal, I also decided to use the Walthers Concrete Gas Station Parking Lot that could be cut to fit available space when it eventually finds a spot on my layout. I decided to do the painting assembly line style and then tell you all about my experience. I included description of the paints used and the spray cans appear in the photos. I always have a difficult time finding suitable paint color...
  • Like

...and even built a rather large diorama for some structures that would never make it on the layout.
Jim 68cuda

Thread 'Walthers Motor Hotel'

Always thought that one thing lacking, in HO scale structures, was a good mid century modern motel as were so commonly seen in the 50's through the 80's (and even now in some areas). When building my layout, the only one I could find was the Plasticville Motel. With paint and detailing, it actually doesn't look bad and it found a place on my layout. Now Wathers has released two kits. The Motor Hotel (comes with sign and separate office) and the Motor Hotel With Office and Restaurant (same kit but with the addition of a stand alone restaurant). I ordered one of each believing that the 12...
  • Like
  • Love



The diorama sits in my bedroom and has been growing since it's original completion. But, the only train there is a display piece with no operable track.
(Last picture)


So I've been thinking its time to venture into the basement to see if the old layout can be salvaged. I've managed to work all the multiple pieces of foam layout back together to the point that you really need to look close to see where the fault line was in the areas where scenery had previously been completed. There are issues to resolve. A mountain that was against the wall in one room and a flat surface that was against the same wall in the other room. are now placed in a way that I will need to finish the mountain in a very short space. the mountain is needed as a visual separation between two towns. But there are other areas that stopped at a wall or at a mirror that will need to be modified to work. But, over all, it looks like its all going to come back together beautifully.

The current arrangement has one little 3' section thats up against the wall. So now the first step is to start there and make sure all the pieces of the layout are secured in place. Then the next will be filling in the gap where the wall of the old house used to be.

I have room in the basement that I could add to the existing layout, and for a long time I tried to figure out how to incorporate the diorama into the layout. But, the layout is intended to be the mid Atlantic to New England area. The diorama is more like Florida or southern California. Instead I have decided to add a 4'x 10' wing on one end. That will almost make the layout into an "O" shape except for a 2' walkway in between. Track will be limited to one large loop and a few sidings as the new part will be more rural than the rest of the layout. Since I've been collecting structures over the years, I already have the buildings for a new wing. The framework and legs for this additional section will need to be completed before I move forward with track laying and wiring.

Wish me luck. Its been so long I don't even remember if the existing track is code 100 or code 83. This will be a long slow process, but I hope to be able to post periodic updates.

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Jim 68cuda said:
WARNING: This is a long read (thirty years long) to describe what has brought me to this point. But there are pictures at the end of the mess that I will now be starting with.

Thirty years ago, not long after I bought my first house, I started building an HO layout (and it would be my first). There were some limitations that made the construction a bit unconventional. I didn't have a basement, so the layout was constructed in an attic storage room. I also had two house mates and the three of us had very different work schedules. At any given time of the day or night, it was sleeping time for someone in the house. For that reason, I pretty much couldn't use power tools for the benchwork. I had some plastic shelving units and built the layout on top of sheets of styrofoam insulation spread accross the tops. I got quite a long way along on that layout and finished the sccenery on the town part of the layout which was about half of the "L" shaped layout.

I enjoyed the layout for several years, but the poorly regulated temperature in the attic eventually led to problems with the track buckling. The layout sat unusable till 2012. That's when I decided to move it to a spare bedroom, saving as much as possible of the parts that were already complete. But, there were two unused bedrooms next to each other at that point, as the house mates were gone. And I wanted a larger layout. I did still want a desk that I could use and I still wanted one of the rooms to still be a guest room. I had the crazy idea of putting 49" high Ivar shelving from Ikea in each room to put the layout on, and cut holes in the walls to connect the two haves of the now larger "U" shaped layout. A full size bed was under the layout in one room, and a desk was under the layout in the other room. The layout was finally back up and running. And I found that visually, the higher elevation of the layout was preferable. I started the groundwork on the scenery for the modified and new parts of the layout. You can follow that progress in this old thread from back in those days.
Jim 68cuda

Thread 'Crazy idea what do you think'

I don't have a basement, and have just dismantled my HO layout that was in an attic storage room. I would like to rebuild in a bedroom, but may need the space as a guest room for visiting family from time to time.
I don't want a fold up layout, as mountainous terrain would keep it from folding flat against the wall.

Here's my idea.
At work, I may be able to get for free, a used one piece wood 4'x10' conference table top. Meanwhile, theres a 4 post double bed on Craigslist for $195. The four posts on the bed, are 64" tall. (Stay with me on this) The over all height of the bed posts, can...


But then ten years ago, 2016, I moved. I patched the tunnels in the walls that connected the two halves of the layout, and with kitchen knife in hand, I cut through the layers of foam making up the layout into managable size pieces. The house was sold and I bought a new place with a basement. A fair amount of the track and wiring was damaged in the process, but much of the scenery survived. The original Ikea shelving was set up in my basement, and the various foam pieces tossed on top.

For ten years it sat like that. The task of somehow getting all those jigsaw puzzle pieces to fit back tegether seamlessly seemed almost as daunting as the thought of re-laying and re-wiring all the track. But, I was very happy with the overall layout I had, so starting over from scratch was never a consideration.

In the meantime, I was still building structure kits (as can be seen in this old thread)...
Jim 68cuda

Thread 'Bungalows and buses'

So I decided to build a few Walthers HO scale Cornerstone kits. The American Bungalow, the Craftsman Bungalow, the two pack of Single Car Garages, and the Silver Springs Bus Terminal. For the bus terminal, I also decided to use the Walthers Concrete Gas Station Parking Lot that could be cut to fit available space when it eventually finds a spot on my layout. I decided to do the painting assembly line style and then tell you all about my experience. I included description of the paints used and the spray cans appear in the photos. I always have a difficult time finding suitable paint color...
  • Like

...and even built a rather large diorama for some structures that would never make it on the layout.
Jim 68cuda

Thread 'Walthers Motor Hotel'

Always thought that one thing lacking, in HO scale structures, was a good mid century modern motel as were so commonly seen in the 50's through the 80's (and even now in some areas). When building my layout, the only one I could find was the Plasticville Motel. With paint and detailing, it actually doesn't look bad and it found a place on my layout. Now Wathers has released two kits. The Motor Hotel (comes with sign and separate office) and the Motor Hotel With Office and Restaurant (same kit but with the addition of a stand alone restaurant). I ordered one of each believing that the 12...
  • Like
  • Love



The diorama sits in my bedroom and has been growing since it's original completion. But, the only train there is a display piece with no operable track.
(Last picture)


So I've been thinking its time to venture into the basement to see if the old layout can be salvaged. I've managed to work all the multiple pieces of foam layout back together to the point that you really need to look close to see where the fault line was in the areas where scenery had previously been completed. There are issues to resolve. A mountain that was against the wall in one room and a flat surface that was against the same wall in the other room. are now placed in a way that I will need to finish the mountain in a very short space. the mountain is needed as a visual separation between two towns. But there are other areas that stopped at a wall or at a mirror that will need to be modified to work. But, over all, it looks like its all going to come back together beautifully.

The current arrangement has one little 3' section thats up against the wall. So now the first step is to start there and make sure all the pieces of the layout are secured in place. Then the next will be filling in the gap where the wall of the old house used to be.

I have room in the basement that I could add to the existing layout, and for a long time I tried to figure out how to incorporate the diorama into the layout. But, the layout is intended to be the mid Atlantic to New England area. The diorama is more like Florida or southern California. Instead I have decided to add a 4'x 10' wing on one end. That will almost make the layout into an "O" shape except for a 2' walkway in between. Track will be limited to one large loop and a few sidings as the new part will be more rural than the rest of the layout. Since I've been collecting structures over the years, I already have the buildings for a new wing. The framework and legs for this additional section will need to be completed before I move forward with track laying and wiring.

Wish me luck. Its been so long I don't even remember if the existing track is code 100 or code 83. This will be a long slow process, but I hope to be able to post periodic updates.

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I don't see any fire extinguishers anywhere. Extruded foam is very flammable. Just 2 months ago, a fellow in a neighboring model railroad club could have very easily lost his house. He had left the train running when he went upstairs for something and got distracted. While away there was a derailment in a turnout that caused a short. The DCC system would cut out but then try to restart. Each restart it lasted just long enough to get hotter and hotter. Eventually it ignited the foam. Fortunately he had returned just as this happened but it erupted so quickly from smoke to flame he was able to grab his fire extinguisher and keep it contained until the fire department arrived. As I understand it, the fire destroyed 60% of his layout, and some major fire damage to the wood of the house.
 


This will be fun to follow along, keep us posted.

That’s quite a collection of scale vehicles you’ve got there. I instantly recognized the Greenbrier and the 65 Barracuda, which are on my short list to buy. Somewhere down the road, I’ll be building a diorama for my 1:64 cars (Hotwheels). I guess that will make me an S scaler…

Yes, get a fire extinguisher and a smoke detector. But prevention is more important. I don’t leave trains running when I’m not in the room, have adequate circuit protection (real DCC circuit breaker), and operate my soldering iron on a timer.

EDIT: I also have the whole system on a single kill switch.
 
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Iron Horseman said:
I don't see any fire extinguishers anywhere. Extruded foam is very flammable. Just 2 months ago, a fellow in a neighboring model railroad club could have very easily lost his house. He had left the train running when he went upstairs for something and got distracted. While away there was a derailment in a turnout that caused a short. The DCC system would cut out but then try to restart. Each restart it lasted just long enough to get hotter and hotter. Eventually it ignited the foam. Fortunately he had returned just as this happened but it erupted so quickly from smoke to flame he was able to grab his fire extinguisher and keep it contained until the fire department arrived. As I understand it, the fire destroyed 60% of his layout, and some major fire damage to the wood of the house.
Click to expand...
For anyone interest, there's more on it in this thread: https://modelrailroadforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/ken-patterson-ho-fire.39279/
 
Iron Horseman said:
I don't see any fire extinguishers anywhere. Extruded foam is very flammable. Just 2 months ago, a fellow in a neighboring model railroad club could have very easily lost his house. He had left the train running when he went upstairs for something and got distracted. While away there was a derailment in a turnout that caused a short. The DCC system would cut out but then try to restart. Each restart it lasted just long enough to get hotter and hotter. Eventually it ignited the foam. Fortunately he had returned just as this happened but it erupted so quickly from smoke to flame he was able to grab his fire extinguisher and keep it contained until the fire department arrived. As I understand it, the fire destroyed 60% of his layout, and some major fire damage to the wood of the house.
Click to expand...


I read that it's kind of ridiculous for someone to walk away from a running model. I bet the same person is a big fan of self-driving cars.
Scratch head. yes officer, I was just sitting there, and the dang car crashed..... scratch head, scratch head

I have fire extinguishers because I weld.
Pep
 
Since the entire existing layout was built with Ikea Ivar shelving as a starting point, I decided to visit the Ikea website. Turns out I could order the same 49" high x 11 3/4" wide Ivar shelving end units individually at just $15 each. With these, along with some scrap lumber in my garage, I should be able to build the benchwork pretty easilly for the 4'x10' addition. Just in case I ever need to move again, I won't be making it as a single 4'x10' unit. If I were, I could have gotten by with ordering just four or six of these end units to use as legs for the benchwork. Instead, I will make a 4'x6' section and a 4'x4' section. So for $120 total, I bought eight of these vertical "legs". The shipping was only an additional $10. Worth the $10 to save the two hour one way drive to the nearest Ikea. Placed the order today (Tuesday) and delivery is scheduled for Thursday. This will simplify the additional new benchwork, and will match the benchwork on the rest of the layout.

And in response to the lack of fire extinguishers comments, I guess it will be a good idea to put one in the basement. I've always kept one in the kitchen and one in the garage, and try to keep one in the car as well. Never considered one for the basement as I seldom went down there before now. But, if a layout can catch fire, I guess I should have one down there.

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This weekend's project was adding more of the old flourescent lights,from the train room in the old house, to the floor joists above the train layout's new home. The first two I installed show up in the first basement picture above (also shown here). There are now twelve of them providing light over the existing layout and the area that's ready for the extension. I have my doubts that I would ever be able to replace the flourescent tubes if they go, but the fixtures were nearly new and hardly used when I moved ten years ago. May as well use them and hope for the best. That way funds can be used elsewhere.

I have the Ikea Ivar end units to use as legs for the extension. I was going to use extra lumber taking up space in my garage to finish up the framework. But that lumber is 2x6 and a bit of over kill for the benchwork. So I'll be making a trip to Lowes or Home Depot some time in the next few days. My pickup and SUV have both been down since groundhogs chewed the wiring on them last year. So the only vehicles I have that will take 8' long 1x3's that I need and the 2'x8' foam sheets will be my old station wagon and fastback. I can put the back seat down on both. On the wagon, the 8' length would stick out the back window. On the fastback, the passenger side bucket seat will fold forward to provide the length needed with the trunk closed. Will be taking some measurements and looking for a good weather day before putting one of them to work.

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Jim 68cuda said:
This weekend's project was adding more of the old flourescent lights,from the train room in the old house, to the floor joists above the train layout's new home. The first two I installed show up in the first basement picture above (also shown here). There are now twelve of them providing light over the existing layout and the area that's ready for the extension. I have my doubts that I would ever be able to replace the flourescent tubes if they go, but the fixtures were nearly new and hardly used when I moved ten years ago. May as well use them and hope for the best. That way funds can be used elsewhere.

I have the Ikea Ivar end units to use as legs for the extension. I was going to use extra lumber taking up space in my garage to finish up the framework. But that lumber is 2x6 and a bit of over kill for the benchwork. So I'll be making a trip to Lowes or Home Depot some time in the next few days. My pickup and SUV have both been down since groundhogs chewed the wiring on them last year. So the only vehicles I have that will take 8' long 1x3's that I need and the 2'x8' foam sheets will be my old station wagon and fastback. I can put the back seat down on both. On the wagon, the 8' length would stick out the back window. On the fastback, the passenger side bucket seat will fold forward to provide the length needed with the trunk closed. Will be taking some measurements and looking for a good weather day before putting one of them to work.

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It's amazing that older cars had so much more room inside. I had a 1990 VW Golf and i could fit larger furniture in it than in my 2002 Golf. Way too much padding and insulation on newer vehicles now days.
 
So, the trip to Lowes for the lumber was successful. No problem fitting the 8' long pieces in through the trunk of the car with the back seat down and the passenger side front bucket seat folded forward. But, now that the foam insulation sheets are sold in 4'x8' sheets rather than 2'x8' sheets, transporting those will be a bit more of a problem unless I cut them up to fit in the car. I would really rather not do that if I can avoid it. A buddy of mine dropped by today with three old 1" x 2'x 8' sheets of foam insulation he had lying around in his garage. that helps, but I will still need two full 1"x 4'x 8' sheets, and maybe a 1/2" thick sheet as well depending on how I contour the 4'x10 expansion for the layout. It would help if I had plenty of extra to fill in the half mountain that used to stop at a bedroom wall. The mountain is needed to visually separate one town from the next.

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I made a space in a corner of the basement to set up an old desk for building structures and trees. Though I don't want paint on the basement walls, it won't bother me if the desk gets paint or glue on it. Last time I built models, it was on the dining room table, so I had to be extremely careful. That won't apply so much any more. I did need to run an extension cord across the basement to power the light for the desk.

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I pulled out more boxes of buildings and found that there will be very few that will need minor repairs. Most survived unscathed. There are just a few wooden structures that I left in boxes figuring they were too fragile to put in place this early. For now all four towns on the layout look like ghost towns. The sad thing about these ghost towns is that I once had names for all four towns. But I don't really remember the names of three of them. Perhaps I have them written down somewhere, but, if the names aren't memorable, I may as well come up with some new town names.

Ghost town #1
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Ghost town #2 Myrtle's Cove
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Ghost town #3
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Ghost town #4
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Probably a good time to show the basic track plan. The layout and the trains I'm running are all DC, not DCC. The objective of the entire layout has never been about realistic operation. It has always been more about watching the trains pass through the scenery and towns. Its set up to enable running two trains continously at the same time. The upper left in this picture would be Myrtle's Cove. Ghost Town #4 from the previous post is at the bottom of the loop, and Ghost town #1 is on the right where the track used to disappear through the wall to the next room.

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On this part of the layout, the half mountain is on the left, and the remainder of this section, inside the loop, is Ghost Town #3

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The new extension, drawn out very roughly on graph paper, will come off the bottom of the blue outer loop on the right above, and then extend back to the left. Of course as I start laying things out, I may make significant changes. At the lower right will be a large farm on rolling countryside. The siding outside the loop wil be for a tractor and farm implement dealer. Inside the loop will be a small rural village with an oil and fuel dealer on one siding and a feed distributor and small manufacturer on the other two sidings. A few additional buildings that would be consistant with a small rural community would finish it off, including an old abandoned gas station and likewise abandoned livery stable. This will enable running a third train continously on this section while two other trains can be operated at the same time on the original part of the layout.

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I can tell that both the old original layout and especially this new extension are going to require a huge number of trees. I have some from when the layout was set up at the old house, but I can see this thing needing hundreds of trees. With that in mind, I went out yesterday and started pruning the Crepe Myrtle by the garage. The "harvest" from that plant, should provide several usable tree trunks to start with.

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Current project is the benchwork for the 4'x10' addition to the existing layout. Yesterday I cut some 8' lengths of lumber down to 4'. This afternoon I pre-drilled some holes for the hardware. Didn't expect to get this far today. But, Its kind of together, already. A 4'x6' section and a separate 4'x4' section. Went together pretty quick and easy using the Ikea Ivar shelf end pieces as legs for the benchwork. I may need to make a few adjustments to line up the legs correctly on the 6' long section. I predrilled a few holes in the wrong place. While very stable and level over all, the legs on the 6' section are a bit less than vertical (Oops!). Might be partly due to the 6' long side boards being more warped than I would have liked. Should be an easy enough fix, but I need to do that before adding the cross bracing. It does take up alot of space. But, once I move some other stuff out of the way, there will be plenty of room to get around it.

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Day 2 of benchwork construction. Straightening out the legs was just a simple matter of loosening one nut on each corner (one end at a time), squaring things up and then re-tightening the nuts down. Easy-peasy. I added some cross braces in the center of each section to support the foam top. I still need to go back to Lowes for another 2"x2"x8' piece of lumber to cut up and use for additional support for the foam on the 4'x4' section. Then I'll drill a few holes through the new benchwork in anticipaption of running wiring. That will complete the new benchwork. The additional 2X2 lumber left over will come in handy for filling in some benchwork on the back side of the old layout where I had a section cut out for access to the back of the layout.

I test fitted a couple of 1"x 2'x8' sections of foam on top, along with a 1"x3'x4' remnant I had lying around. Looks like it will work perfectly (though the 3' length remnant made it hang over an extra foot past the 4x4 framework).

I'll need more foam sheets, and I know it will fit in the old station wagon, though it will hang out the open rear window a little. Soon as we have a nice warm dry day that I have free, I'll make a trip to Lowes for the foam and for the one additional 2x2. I know the foam is now sold in the larger 4x8 sheets. So, the bottom layer of foam on each section will be a single 1" thick piece. Foam will need to be 3" high to match the elvation of the track on the old existing layout where they meet, but the lowest part of the scenery on the existing layout (where it meets the new addition) is only 1".

Meanwhile, I ordered a $29 foam cutter off of Amazon.

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Close to 80 degrees and sunny today in north western Virginia (almost but not quite West Virginia). Since the 4x8 sheets of foam would need to stick out the back window of the station wagon, I thought it would be a good day to make that trip to Lowes.

There wasn't any noticable wind when I left the house. But at Lowes, I noticed the parking lot was rather breezy. When I came out with the foam sheets, the wind was strong enough to try to push the foam and the cart a different direction from where the car was parked. Then when I got to the car, I realized the wind seemed to be a strong 20mph with stronger gusts. Have you ever tried to wrangle 4x8 sheets of foam into the back of a station wagon when the wind wants to fold the foam in half and send it flying across the parking lot?

I was lucky. I got the three sheets into the back of the wagon without any breakage. With the tailgate and side windows open, the breeze inside the car was insignificant. I made it home without incident and got the foam into the house with no problems. All in all though, it was an adventure for me, and I'm quite sure, entertainment for those in the Lowes parking lot who witnessed my struggles.

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So, I was planning on working on the layout today, but that didn't happen. A buddy needed to drop off his little red turbo Corvair at a Corvair specialist in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He called me this morning and asked if I could follow him up, from Virginia, and give him a ride back. He suggested a stop on the way back at Tommy Gilbert's Hobby Shop in Gettysburg ( I think it was a bribe). There's no good hobby shop for train stuff near me, and I always enjoy a visit to Tommy Gilberts. I have been making occasional trips to Tommy Gilberts, and it's predessor Gilbert's Hobby Shop for more than fifty years.

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My only purchases, today, were a used Tech II controller and a small pack of Evergreen styrene. The DC controller is pretty basic, but is all I need, to get started, for the loop on the new extension. The Evergreen styrene is because I opened up an old discontinued model house kit I have and found some of the fragile plastic window frames were broken.

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The selection of hand crafted historic HO scale Gettysburg buildings, houses, and barns, are always a treat to see at Tommy Gilberts. The Dobbin House is one of my favorites. The building still looks the same as it did during the Civil War, but is now Dobbin's Tavern, a very nice restaurant. I ate there once many years ago. But, at $211, I left today without one of the replicas. I don't need any more structures anyway. A few of the many Gettysburg structures available can be seen on the Tommy Gilberts website.
www.gilbertshobbies.net

Catalog - Gilbert's Hobby Shop

www.gilbertshobbies.net www.gilbertshobbies.net

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A few of the other HO historic Gettysburg buildings, from the same series, can be found on the Gettysburg Museum Store's website.

gettysburgmuseumstore.com

Historic Replica Buildings

You can take Gettysburg's historic buildings home with you! Each building is hand-crafted by Gary Manville and done to 1:87 scale in amazing detail! If you don't see a structure you are looking for, let us know, and we will see if Gary can create this special piece for you.
gettysburgmuseumstore.com gettysburgmuseumstore.com



Between the Civil War buildings available at Tommy Gilberts, and the 3D printed Civil War era Gettysburg buildings available from The Railroad Connection, someone with a very deep pocketbook could accurately replicate much of historic Gettysburg in HO scale.
www.therailroadconnection.com

CIVIL WAR BUILDING GETTYSBURG PA

3D printed and resin sating scale models for the model railroad hobbyist and wargammers, Custom designed scale models of buildings, vehicles and scenery.
www.therailroadconnection.com www.therailroadconnection.com


I think the reason I like the historic Gettysburg structures, from both vendors, so much, is because they look so very typical of buildings and homes that can found throughout the mid-Atlantic region in nearly every small to medium size town.
 
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Doesn't really look like I accomplished much today. But, it was a busy day. I added 2"x2" strips to each end of the new 4'x4' section. That lined up the top of the 4'x4' section with the vertical posts on the Ikea Ivar shelving that the original 30 year old part of the layout sits on. It adds a few inches to the over all length, but thats a good thing. Its also mounted such that the hardware for the two separate new sections (4x4 section and 4x6 section) doesn't interfere with a flush fit. I added additional support for the foam that comes next, and I drilled holes everywhere I thought I might need to run wiring in the future.

I previously mentioned some repairs that needed to be made to the old part of the layout. In it's old location, the layout was against walls and built right into the corners of rooms. Now, the layout is almost completely walk around. As a side note, you don't know how glad I am I didn't follow the advice of all those scenery books that said to never waste time detailing the sides of structures that would never be seen because they face the wall.

So, the first 'repair", was that I had to graft in some support for new foam in a section that used to be against the wall. It was an access hole. Now, there will be a hill in the space.

Next 'repair' was a small section of removable scenery. Originally this part was removable for access, and was supported by wall mounted shelf supports. I had added some spare Ikea Ivar shelving that supported the section when I first started throwing the various pieces of the layout together. It worked, sort of. But, it wasn't quite the right size. I grafted in some additional wood so there would be support for the entire section. Then i moved on to another similar section of the layout (not pictured) and did the same. Some of it isn't pretty. But it'll work. And best of all, I think I can put my drill and saw away. The wood benchwork is done. Next is attaching the first layer of foam to the new section of the layout.

I must have measured pretty well. With all the lumber I bought for this project, I only had one little 4" long section of 2"x2" left over. The boards I bought for the 6' long sides were actually 6' long. All the other lumber was 8' long. So to have just that one little piece left over is kind of amazing.

Now my hands are all cramped up from using the tools, and my legs and feet hurt from standing on the concrete floor for hours at a time.

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Jim 68cuda said:
As a side note, you don't know how glad I am I didn't follow the advice of all those scenery books that said to never waste time detailing the sides of structures that would never be seen because they face the wall.
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I never followed that advice either. Even though I don't have one yet, I always envisioned having a car-mounted camera for "cab-ride" views. Also handy when I decided to relocate structures.
 


The wire foam cutter I ordered off of Amazon arrived, but I decided to wait till another day to cut the foam sheets to top the benchwork.

Instead, I figured building a few model house kits would be a good use of my time. The Bachmann Spectrum Sears Catalog house is a twenty plus year old kit thats been sitting on a shelf forever. The matching garage is a new Walthers Cornerstone kit. The Sears house and garage will become part of the farm on the new section of layout. The other two kits are Atlas house kits I ordered off of Amazon fairly recently. Figured they would work in the small farming community on the new section of the layout.

Walthers Cornerstone kits were never this difficult to assemble. The two Atlas houses were a pain in the ass because each tiny clear window was precut to fit within the window frame (well, not all of them fit). But each window had a film on both sides that had to be removed. I should have just got some clear plastic and cut a piece to cover all the windows on each wall. I would have saved hours of headache.

The Bachmann Spectrum kit was a real pain in the ass. The fragile plastic window frames were brittle. Some of what wasn't already broken opening the package, shattered into multiple pieces just trying to cut them off the sprue. Some of the window frames I spliced back together. Others were pieced together with the help of some Evergreen strips. One of the walls broke when I was cutting it off the sprue as well. That piece was easy enough to glue back together and can't be seen. Over all, not my best work, but I refrained from smashing it on the floor, so I'll call it a success. The directions weren't great, the porch roof was hopelessly warped, and the four piece pyramid that forms the roof was kind of like trying to build a house of cards and kept collapsing when I tried to close gaps between each section. The Sears house allows the option of building with a full basement or just a partially exposed basement as shown on the box top. I chose the full basement since it will be on a hill side and more of the basement wall will be exposed on two sides.

The blue Sears house and the garage I painted to match each other. The other houses I pretty much just sprayed a clear dull-coat . All the bases and concrete parts I painted light aircraft gray. I did the painting last week after working on benchwork. The assembly of the two Atlas houses took a full day due to all the film on all the windows. The Sears house was uncooperative and ended up taking more than two full days to assemble.

I have a few other structure kits to build, but they are all Walthers Cornerstone kits and I expect them to go together much easier.


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