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The Plywood Railroad

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MASTER MODEL RAILROADER # 641

 

The gauge of the Railroad's that I model are 7.5 and 1/87 HO scale. The 7.5 is transported to different railroads in and around the area. The HO layout is in my basement. The HO track is code 100 flex track with a gauntlet in a curve.

The railroad runs on car-cards to send the product to the different companies on the layout.

The railroad is a working road that connects two other railroads together. (That makes it a Point to Point Railroad)

The layout is totally freelanced.

The towns and buildings are named after Friends and Family.

The layout covers 1500 sq ft of the basement with 850 ft of dual main line track.

We do have rail ops sessions with training classes.

 

Click on any picture with the mouse to enlarge the picture

   

 

 

1/87 Scale

North West corner

Lighting the KK&L Railroad

Originally, the layout was illuminated with 75 watt incandescent bulbs. Over time, more energy-efficient bulbs were tried, but the lighting remained uneven and tough on the eyes. Finally, a solution was presented, using 3w LED bulbs housed in used cat food cans. The illumination is now consistent and yet does not strain eyesight when viewed for long periods.

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1/8 Scale

Rebuilding a Steamer from the year 1923

I've always have liked Steam Engines and wanted to own on in 7.5 gauge. A new on was way out of my price range so I needed to build one. I located one that needed allot of work. I decided to take on the challenge to rebuild it. This is how it's going and where it has been.

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When you have a tight space to fill

In Howard yard I have a narrow area to put in some side tracks to run some cars into to make the area more interesting to work. So I designed a building that would take three cars on one side and two cars on the other. This turned into a Z building that when using plastic kits ended up being 2 inches wide. Each of the sides ended up 8 inches long.

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Building Custom Cars

I like to build the riding cars so people have transportation on the track.

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Maid spacers to hold the track in gauge

Running the Gauntlet: Solving a Switching Problem

One of the main curves of the layout had a switch at either end of the single track which no one could keep straight, resulting in head-on collisions and derailments. The fix was to hand-lay and install a Gauntlet at that spot. This is how it went.

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Building Manual Brakes

I needed to go from one height to another in a small area. The way to do this is to run the track back and forth on the wall or fold it over its self. The track is at a 2.3 % grade with the height between the decks at 4 inches in height. It took some planning to get the front tracks to clear the rear tracks going down the grade. Each on of the sections had to be leveled and set to 2.3 % grade.

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Building a Helix

I needed to go from one height to another in a small area. The way to do this is to run the track back and forth on the wall or fold it over its self. The track is at a 2.3 % grade with the height between the decks at 4 inches in height. It took some planning to get the front tracks to clear the rear tracks going down the grade. Each on of the sections had to be leveled and set to 2.3 % grade.

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2023 Winter Fest Florida

Glad we were able to make a trip to Florida for the Florida Live Steamers Winter Fest.

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Latest Articles

Winter Work 7.5 Gauge

When you need a project for the winter. Think BIG Checking out the seats on the riding cars made me want to ride instead of sitting on my butt. Made a mock up of a flat car with a seat. Welded the car up.

MMR # 641

It’s official Master Model Railroader # 641

7.5 Gauge

7.5 Gauge bug I was looking for something to change and still work with the trains, so I Jumped gauges from 1/87th to 7.5 gauge. Click on any photo to enlarge the photo So in comes 7.5 Gauge work shop.   The body of the switcher engine is cut on a plasma cutting table. Holes […]

Building cars

4 Scratch Build Cars Click on any photo to enlarge the photo 1. Flat Car 40′ HO Scale I started with a old sign that was thrown away. It was cut into strips  to be able to move it around. Even set up a work table at the railroad, so I can use the LED […]

Rail Ops in July

This is a heads up, the date for the NMRA is July 21/2018 to have a rail ops. 23 members showed up.  9 went to lunch. Great to have the group over. This is what’s happening, we’ll be going to the railroad first, and operating after the meeting is over. The meeting will be at […]

NMRA AP Awards

Started working on my AP Awards in 2017. I have worked on them instead of the railroad. On some of them it was just filling out the paperwork. In January 2018, I picked up five AP Awards. Master Builder – Scenery Model Railroad Engineer – Civil Model Railroad Engineer – Electrical Chief Dispatcher Association Volunteer […]

Lift Bridge 2track to 3track Module

It all started with the trains running so long that the modules in the Club layout wouldn’t let but 4 trains run at a time, and when more were added there  were problems. The Club made the rules follow the NMRA standards set for modules. This is a lift bridge to let members get in […]

Making of a hand built module from scratch

For several years I have been working on making up two new modules for the Concord Area Model Rail Road Club. This is just to let people know that I have started them. The first one is the left side transition. Because there will be three tracks on the new modules, a track is needed […]

Adding Loads to the Coal Cars

Adding Loads to the Coal Cars is a way to show different trains. One that has empty cars and one that has full cars. I had a problem with the weight of the cars to. I had to add more weight to the cars so this helped. After some thought I came up with a […]

Weeds to Trees

Weeds to Trees is what starts in or around Labor-Day weekend. The weeds start out on the side of the road in uncut fields on the east side of the United States. I’ve seen them in North and South Carolina, Tenn, Kentucky, and Ohio. I have found the lost photo’s to show you what they […]