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It's HO - but an older era (1930s) - so smaller buildings & rolling stock will be the rule. Thanks for taking a look!

After several rounds of hard negotiating with my landlord... I mean, my wife... I've negotiated a 6.5' x 10' area of our bonus room for a layout. I've come up with the plan below but I'm looking for feedback. Here are the limitations of the space: 1. In this diagram, the left side and the top...

Okay, I mistyped the name of the magazine - it's Railroad Model Craftsman. The article is by Trevor Marshall and called "Scratchbuilding a Quarry Turntable." He built it in On24 scale, but you could easily adapt his methods for HO. You would also want to make the bridge longer; his is only 38...

Thank you, Choffman, I've been meaning to ask this. The Jordan kits are fine - they can come out quite nice - but they are rather difficult to fit together and quite fragile. I would love to find a source for vehicles from the 20's and early 30's.

The Model Railroad Craftsman magazine that arrived in my mailbox today (April issue, I guess) has a nice article about scratchbuilding a turntable. I haven't read it yet, but it looks like it would be worth reading carefully.

Do you have the Modern Roundhouse? I have the Walthers 3-stall roundhouse (actually two of them combined to make 6 stalls), and the floor of the building had slots to slide the rails into. I would expect that the design for both structures would be similar.

How do you keep the wires from getting twisted as the table rotates?

I have a Walthers 90' turntable that's never worked as well as I would hope - the mail problem is that power is supplied to the tracks via a set of brass wipers, which seem to conduct only about 50% of the time. I've been thinking about replacing the stem of the turntable with a 1/4" headphone...

One of the problems I first had when I tried to do one of these kits as a novice was not knowing all the terminology used in the instructions. ("Bolster? Which one is the bolster? What's a poling pocket?") I ended up putting the kit away for a few years, and when I came back the instructions...

I love F&C models - they come out great if you take your time. You're off to a good start! Myself, I stick to the boxcars - one advantage being you don't have to detail the interior!

I read this wrong at first, and wondered at having disposable fingers... I need all mine!

Thanks for all the ideas. This is what I did. I took some Tichy attic windows (#8023) and cut away the frames. These are 28" x 26" which is close enough to the 30" x 24" I needed, and the same configuration (three panes wide by two high). To make my 20" x 24" windows, I sliced out one column...

That's not a bad idea, Wayne. I'll have to take another look at the Grandt inventory and see if there is anything that might work.

I'm about to rebuild my CPR Standard No. 2c station in styrene (HO scale). I have the actual plans for this station type and it has many windows, in the following sizes: 20x24; 30x24; 20x48; 30x48. I'd very strongly prefer to use premade windows, like the ones from Grandt Line or Tichy. But...

One mistake I made early on that you should avoid is using too much ballast, especially between the rails. If you have too much, it's hard to brush it away and keep it off the ties or away from the rails. I've used both white glue/water and Scenic Cement. SC is a little more expensive...

I've been ballasting all week, and it's coming out pretty well. I distribute the ballast with a teaspoon, spread it between the ties and along the sides with a very soft artist's brush, then apply first rubbing alcohol and then Scenic Cement with an eyedropper. But I feel your pain... my...