Encyclopedia of Postwar Lionel
A very informative guide to Lionel products: Engines, cars, accessories, transformers, tracks, etc.
Ideas, resources and instructions for building model railroading projects
Articles
A collection of Articles with a wealth of knowledge about model railroading in O scale as well as some of the other popular sizes.
Scale and Gauge
BROKEN LINK -- Differences in the various sizes of scales, gauges, and track can be very confusing. This article will help you make sense of it all.
Plasticville
Plasticville is a small piece of "Americana" that has become a traditional favorite of collectors world wide.
Advertising Art
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DIY Projects and Instructions
Some of my ideas, projects, and instructions can bbe found here
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Sidings are rarely used or maintained as well as main trackage. Sidings might be privately owned and not served by the railway’s maintenance-of-way equipment. It’s not uncommon for a siding to have weeds growing within the ballast
Goal
This is a simple project that can be done in just a short time, but really adds detail to your layout. It is a very easy way to improve the realism and short siding can be completed in less than an hour.
What You’ll Need
- tacky glue
- white or carpenter’s glue.
- scissors
- commercial grass Fiber or a wide natural fiber paint brush
- small chunks of ground foam in grass color
- finely ground foam in assorted grass colors
This is my own technique. There may be other techniques that are just as good or even better, but this will get you started. First, squirt a glob of tacky glue about half the diameter of a dime, wherever you want the grass to grow the tallest. That is typically next to the crossties, rails, bridge abutments, tunnel buttresses, discarded lumber, ledge rocks, coal heaps, equipment boxes, fence posts, etc.; places where mowers don’t reach and people and animals don’t tread. Pinch the long grass fibers or paint brush bristles between your finger and thumb, and cut to about one inch length. Without letting go, work one end of the fibers down into the glue with a tight, circular motion making sure the outside edges are covered. Hold it until the fibers will stand up on their own. Repeat until you are satisfied with the coverage and density of the tall grass.
Continue by gluing small clumps of grass-colored foam between the ties, especially on the ends.
The weedy siding will have a more convincing appearance, especially if the weeds are growing around discarded equipment.
Window mullions are so small, you would think them difficult to model. But using a technique credited to Tim Fairweather and Mike Chandwell, they can be modeled quite easily. You can watch Chandwell’s YoutTube video here.
Goal
The goal of this project is to simplify the modeling of tiny window mullions. This project can be completed in a few hours, depending how many windows you decide to make. It requires moderate cutting skill with a straight edge and razor or scalpel.
What You’ll Need
- Inexpensive label sheets
- computer with drawing program (optional)
- a printer (optional)
- Clear acetate plastic (can come from a blister pack)
- razor or scalpel
- steel straight edge
Printing the Labels
Draw the windows full-scale with mullions about 3mm wide. Print the mullions in white or on a colored paper, and print the glass part in black or a contrasting color. Print them on full-size self-adhesive label paper. Inexpensive labels work better, premium labels tend to adhere too well.
Cut out one or two widows at a time from the label paper and press them on the clear plastic. Use a straight edge to guide your cuts, Cut along the outsides of each mullion using a straight edge to guide your blade. Cut fully from side to side, and top to bottom. don’t worry about the intersection of mullions, just cut through as if the crossing mullion weren’t there. Cut lightly using a sharp blade. Try to cut completely through the label paper without cutting through the clear plastic.
The Magic
Once all the mullions are cut out, use the knife point to lift the corner of the dark boxes, leaving the mullions firmly attached to the plastic. Trim the plastic to the window size and finish with a frame.
Undoubtedly, most structures look much better with a lighted interior. Unless you use a battery, a lighted interior will require some kind of external wire connection to a source of power. You could connect your wires straight to the source, but what if you want to remove the building later to replace or repair it? It would be nice to have some kind of reusable connection between your structure and the power source. You could just leave your power wires dangling freely in the breeze, or put crimp connectors on them, but that’s not very tidy. Here is a clean, elegant and inexpensive solution to connect your hand-made structure to electrical power.
Goal
The goal of this project is to make a simple and inexpensive yet durable power junction for connecting and disconnecting wire leads between lighted accessories and the power source. This project takes a few hours or less and requires minimum skill.
What You’ll Need
- thick styrene strips about 3/4″ wide
- drill and drill bit, same diameter as bolts
- (2) small stainless steel bolts
- (2) small stainless steel washers
- (4) small stainless steel nuts
- 18-gauge stranded hook-up wire
- 2 crimp rings and crimper (optional)
- wire strippers
- cyanoacrylate glue (super glue)
- soldering iron and solder
Construction
Cut the styrene into strips 1 ½” to 2″ long. Drill two holes centered vertically. Cut the hook-up wire into a manageable length do ONE of the following:
- Option 1: Strip 1/4″ of insulation from the end of the wire. Feed the wire into the crimp ring and crimp it down. Repeat to make two.
- Option 2: Strip 1″ of insulation from the end of the wire. Fashion the wire into a loop and solder it. Repeat to make two.
Install a washer on each bolt and push them through the holes in the styrene. Add a nut and tighten it down. Slip one crimp ring OR one wire loop over each bolt and add a second nut as shown in the diagram. (Note: You may want to add a lock-washer here) Glue the nuts in place with cyanoacrylate. When the glue dries, the nuts should hold fast, but the bolts should move freely inside the nuts. Loosen the bolts to allow for external wire connections and then tighten them back down. Do not over-tighten the bolts, or the nut will break free. Glue the junction assembly to the back of your project and connect the lead wires from the crimp ring or wire loop to the lights inside your project.
The Bachmann Brothers plastic company began producing the O-scale Plasticville small gas station in 1950. Its initial production spanned the years 1950-1954 and it was reissued again in 1967. The assembled structure measured 8 ¼” long x 2X ½” deep and 2 ¾” high. That’s a scale depth of 10 feet. A typical American automobile is 14 ½ feet long and the average single car garage is 12′ x 22′, so you can see that the small Plasticville gas station is severely under-sized. In fact, a scale car or truck is about 4 ¾ inches long; 2 ¼ inches longer than the bay. Additionally, the station’s bay doors are too narrow and the roof to low to look real. This article tells how I remedied those problems.
Goal
The goal of this modification is to make the garage bay large enough to accommodate a 1:43 – 1:48 scale car or truck and give the station a more realistic appearance overall. This project will take moderate model building skills and a day or more to complete.
What You’ll Need
- A Plasticville small Gas Station
- a hobby or razor saw
- a ruler
- a jeweler’s file
- 1/8″ thick foam-core poster board (10″ x 10″min)
- razor or hobby knife
- white or Carpenter’s glue
- Tacky Glue (see recommendation)
- hot glue gun and glue sticks
- Styrene sheet with concrete block texture (see sources)
- Clear Plastic sheet (can be cut from discarded blister packs)
- Grandt Line 18-pane Factory window (optional)
- strip styrene, 4″ scale width
- clean fine sand
- aluminum foil, cut to 2 x 3 inches
- 18 volt GE-1813 incandescent bulb and socket or L.E.D.
- 18 volt grain-of-wheat bulb and shade
- printed graphics (see link at the end of this post)
- resin-cast detail items
- white chalk paint
- glossy enamel paint in your station’s color
- light grey or tan flat acrylic paint
Building Modification
Begin by cutting the front wall of the gas station apart between the entrance door and the first bay door. Be sure to cut all the way through the wall as vintage Plasticville material is usually quite brittle and does not snap cleanly like modern styrene.
Measure from the outside wall to your cut. Carefully transfer the measurement to the roof and rear wall sections and cut them as well. Set aside the office walls and the short section of roof to reassemble the office. You could potentially use the front and rear walls of the garage section and just cut new side walls and roof, but I decided to cut an entirely new garage bay from foam core board.
After cutting the front wall, you will find the name “Plasticville” is split between the two sections. Take a jeweler’s file and remove the raised letters “Plasticville” from above the door on the front wall.
Build A New Bay from Foam Core
To construct a new scale 17′ x 22′ scale bay for the station, cut the following pieces from a sheet of 1/8″ foam-core posterbord:
- Two 4 ½” x 2 ½” panels for the front and rear wall
- Two 5 ½” x 2 ½” panels for the side walls
- One 4 ½” x 5 ½” roof panel
Use Tacky glue to attach sheets of textured Evergreen Styrene to the wall panels. Trim to fit. Use Tacky glue or hot glue to assemble the four wall panels together to make a box 4 ½” x 5 ½” box 2 ½” high. I painted the block walls a chalky white. Cut an opening for a Grandt Line Factory Window in the side wall of the garage. If you do not have a Grandt Line window, you can cut a donor window from a Plasticville airport hangar or a Plasticville Bank. Again, be sure to cut all the way through as Plasticville material is brittle and will not snap cleanly like modern styrene.
Glue a scale 4″ band of strip styrene horizontally about one-third the way up the wall as a construction detail. Paint it with a glossy paint. I painted it a contrasting glossy red. Recess the roof section about 1/8″ from the top of the box, and glue it into place. Cover the roof top with white glue and sift on a layer of fine sand to resemble roofing gravel. When it dries, paint it with light grey or tan acrylic paint to both color it and seal it down. Hint: do not use black or dark grey for the roof; it should appear sun-faded.
Modify the Bay Doors
The stock red Plasticville garage doors are too narrow for O scale, so use a razor saw to trim the edges and join the two garage doors into a single, wider door. Glue a strip of styrene across the back side of the joint to reinforce the junction and keep it straight.
Reconstruct the Office
Turning your attention back to the office, file off the window tabs that hold the cardboard window insert. Use Tacky glue to glue together a frame of 4″ scale strip styrene and glue a piece of clear plastic to the inside of the opening. Glue another piece of clear plastic to the inside of the door opening. Use Tacky glue to cover the inside roof portion with the aluminum foil. This will help distribute the interior lighting later. Print the graphics sheet (see the link at the end of this post).
Cut out the interior wall graphics and glue to the side and rear walls. The sheet includes wall calendars, signage, and both a wooden floor and a tile floor graphic for you to choose from. When everything is dry, glue the office together with hot glue.Paint the office with chalky white and a gloss color to match the bay.
Cut a large hole in the side wall of the foam core garage bay where the office will attach. This is to let light into the bay. Attach the office to the garage bay section with hot glue.
Lighting
Here you have a choice of lighting. I used a single GE-1813 type, 18 volt incandescent bulb in a bayonet base to light the interior. I hot-glued the bulb base on the ceiling between the office and the bay so the lamp would light both interiors. Alternatively, you could use two white LEDs with a current limiting resistor (see my article on lighting with LEDs).
Drill a small hole in the front bay wall directly over the center of the door opening and fish the wires of a grain-of-wheat bulb with shade through to the inside. Again, you could use a super-white LED for this. (A super-white will throw a spot of light on the ground in front of the station). Solder or tape the leads tothe wires that connect in parallel to the GE-1813 bulb, or other LEDs, and run the wires for both lamps down the inside corner of the back wall. Secure with hot glue. You can leave the wires bare for the connection, but I recommend you build an electrical junction instead.
Add Finishing Touches
I painted the layout base where the garage bay would sit a concrete grey and dripped some blackish-brown wash on for oil stains. I glued the checkerboard graphic to the base where the office would sit. In front, I placed a surplus tire from a model kit mounted in a frame built using scraps of styrene. I glued a resin-cast tool cabinet (of unknown manufacture) to the side of the office. I reused the Plasticville oil cans, but scratch-built modern fuel pumps. I glued pump graphics to the face of the pumps. I added resin castings of oil drums, boxes and tires to the back, and added foliage and weeds to complete the station transformation.
The Graphics for this Project
This PDF File includes all the graphics used.