Bachmann Trains & Accessories

Ho Scale Track Layouts
Is there anywhere I can get an HO scale steam machine for under the track?

What I mean by a steam machine is something that you can put under the track and press a button to make steam come out. I have seen something like that in some episodes of “Thomas the Tank Engine”. I’m just wondering if they are on the market for HO scale layouts.

The best place I’ve found for steam generators is eBay. Take your time on searching and you just might be able to find one. I have been looking at the same idea for a while now for a candle plant on our layout. The steam melts the wax and then is pumped inside the building.

What I was going to do was hook up rubber tubing to the output of the steam generator that would have holes in it that would feed up through the layout; come from under the tracks to make it look like the steam was hitting the tank car.

Just do a little searching for Steam Generators and you should find a couple on eBay. Also check you favorite manufactures such as Atlas and you may find some in their catalog.

Ho Scale Track Layouts

Make the land look real, and have a great time doing it. That just about sums up the purpose of scenery on a railroad track layout. It adds that final touch and realism. You may even give it that “WOW” appeal. Folks of all ages will admire how authentic the surrounding environment is. They’ll absolutely marvel at how it’s all in miniature.

Let’s face it, there’s something totally mesmerizing about a village that is a tiny, detailed version of the real thing. Many model railroaders take this portion of the hobby every bit as seriously as they take the locomotives and rolling stock. Amazingly it is not too difficult to do!

Any serious model railroader can do it, if they really want to. To get started, you could go to the hobby shop and buy buildings, vehicles, men, women, and children. You could pick up your mountains, trees, sawmills, domestic houses and most other things you will see from a train carriage window.

There’s absolutely no shame in buying the finished article, especially when you’re first starting out. But there just may come a day when feel confident enough to build your own.” The next thing you know, you’re heading out the door to buy supplies. Either way, keep the goal of this hobby in mind if you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it.

In many ways, it’s your scenery that makes or breaks the aesthetics of your layout. As a model railroader, it pains me to say this, but I have to admit that trains are just a small part of our world. If you really analyse it, a railroad is nothing more than a ribbon of steel that connects cities, manufacturers, industries, mills, and yards and of course people.

The locomotives and rolling stock are part of that, but only a part. So if we can display everything as one within their natural surroundings, then we have really shown the true nature of what railroads meant to people 100 years ago, as well as their true role in history.

What you choose as your scenery – a small town, a coalmine, a large town, a steel mill, a textile mill, or anything else you can imagine – is totally up to you. No matter what you choose, you can find it in miniature. You can either find kits for specific scales, or the finished article.

One reason many of us use kits is quite simple: the options are simply amazing. All you need to do is walk into a serious, dedicated hobby shop to see an overwhelming number of structures that can be built with kits. This is especially true if you’re running HO and N scale systems. The variety of choices will take your breath away.

A technique I’ve used is to combine parts. If I think a building should have a different front, like the one I just bought with a different kit, I put it on. After all, I’m the one in charge of this city!

Some model railroaders even go so far as to cut their kits in pieces. They use these as the basis for a building of their own design. This practice is so popular, it even has a name: kitbashing. It’s a shame the action has been given that violent-sounding name, because the finished products of these “kitbashers” are usually quite beautiful. The most common material for scenery kits is plastic, you can also find wooden and kits of a hard plaster (hard white clay with a resin additive), cast polyester resin, and even cardstock.

How are you going furnish your layout? Make all the scenery yourself or build it from kits? Maybe you will want to do a bit of kitbashing, just go out and buy the finished article. Truth be known I’ll do anything to make it look right.

For more information on scenery and a whole host more model trains and scenery, visit http://www.bestmodeltrainguide.com. While you are there have a look around my site, you will be glad you did.

Multiple gauges in O scale?

I’m working on using as many different gauges in O scale as I can use with readily available track in a mining/industrial layout. Here are the combinations I’m thinking of using. Any hints on a better track or where to find info on how to model certain gauges would be most appreciated:
#1 track for 7′ broad gauge (like the Great Western in Britain)
O-27 for standard gauge (or 5′ & 5′3″ if Proto-48 is feasible for std)
S track for meter & 42″
On30/HO for 24″, 30″, 36″ (is TT around for 24? is there cheap On3?)
HOn_/N for 18″
Nn_/Z for 12″

Other then Standard gauge (2 or 3 rail) and On30″ you will have to scratch build almost everything.
TT is all but dead. (I don’t know any companies that produce it)

Railfanning My HO Scale Layout