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DISCOVER THE SECRETS TO MAKING MONEY WITH MODEL TRAINS! An experienced model builder reveals how you can turn Your Passion Into An Automatic Money Making Machine, Working From The Comfort Of Home!
Some of the photos Rob has provided show various buildings in Sherman’s Crossing. I have put some of these together to show how things are developing. Rob asks that you pardon the mess as it is a work in progress.
Kathryn’s Feed & Seed building is in place with signage. The little folks are beginning to purchase supplies there. It is named for one of our sisters.
Kathryn's Feed & Seed
Rob isn’t sure yet what Barbara will name the hospital. For the time being it has been dubbed “Hell’s Pass Hospital”. This photo shows the layout.
Hell's Pass Hospital
Rob attempted to repair some of the pavement done previously. He doesn’t like the results and may just remove it and “repave.
Attempt at road patching
The town’s gas station got paved under and Rob is ordering a light for the service bay which will simulate a welder being used.
Paving under gas station
Below are a few overview pics, to give a general idea of where some things are located in relation to each other.
Anyone involved with real estate knows residential areas next to industrial buildings tend to house the low end of society. Notice the lumber mill adjacent to the trailer park.
On the “wrong side of the tracks”, the trailer park couldn’t be situated in a less desirable location.
Trailer Park between tracks and Mill
“Bubble’s shed” as this small building has been dubbed, is filled with cats, shopping carts, and what didn’t fit was placed nearby. Definitely a trashy scene in keeping with the theme.
Bubble's shed near tracks
Barbara talked Rob into painting the characters henceforth called “the trailer park boys.” He almost lost it when she insisted that Julian be holding a glass in one hand. At HO scale, these people are TINY!
To honor the TV show, the Sons of Anarchy have moved to town and are already taking over their new home. Watch for trouble as these bikers mean business.
New home for The Sons
New additions have been made to the trailer Park in Sherman’s Crossing. The driveways have been paved and it has been wired for the lighting of the trailers.
Work being done on the trailer park.
Julian and Ricky are being arrested on trumped up charges by the local cops. On close inspection, bubbles can be found in his shed with his kitties.
Rob has added a field to be plowed by a draft horse, parts of Sherman’s Crossing being in a more primitive rural area. Rocks were added around portions of the field for interest.
A road from the field has been added to go past the plot for the future chicken coop. After that it will either go to the farm house or the main drive, as yet to be determined.
Note: Materials were still drying when these photos were taken.
Plowed field progress.
Location of plowed field
Rob has also added a pond. The water was created using Woodland Scenics realistic water. The bottom of the pond was painted black in the middle with lighter green and ocher tones along the sides.
Not seen in this photo is the “foliage” which looks like underwater growth, added under the surface. Reeds around the edge were made from pieces snipped from a cinnamon broom.
The contrast between the bank and the water is not as pronounced when viewed in person. The flash gave it this appearance in the photo.
Rob notes that the train room “smells really nice now.”
This is the first batch of scratch trees Rob made for Barbara’s HO layout.
HO scale trees
They are made from twigs and weeds he found around the farm. He still needs to paint the trunks with some acrylic paints, otherwise they’re done. The best part is these are really cheap to make.
Due to the various shapes and sizes of the twigs and the different leaf colors, it appears that there are several species of tree, such as you would find in a real community or in a forest.
More HO scale trees for the layout.
While Rob and I think they are cool, Barbara really likes them, and that’s what counts.
Rob continues to apply tile mortar to cover the green foam used to form the hills and to create the appearance of rock. He had to remove the model railroad bridge temporarily to make it easier to sculpt the mortar. It’s tough to see, but the edge of the county fair can be observed on the right.
More rocky hillside
The same material was used on the rock walls lining the river and to cover the mountain in the vicinity of the old cabin.
More rock around the river- bridge removed
Rock behind the old cabin
Boys like to steal apples, even if the orchard is behind the church. To facilitate their actions, Rob added a trail from the church… and added an orchard while he was at it. I suppose the ladies at the church will find enough left to bake some apple pies for the county fair. Rob wonders if there is an Adam and Eve among the parishoners.
Once again Rob has utilized surplus materials from the house addition to add to the HO train layout. In this case, he has formed a barren rock outcropping from leftover tile setting compound.
Rocks behind the town
Still drying in these photos, the crags and crevices were made with a small putty knife while the compound was wet. After they dry, Rob and Barbara will touch them up with a bit of acrylic paint here and there. I like the way the tunnel portal was encased in the rock.
Rock cliff with tunnel portal.
Also seen is a first attempt at using grasses to create the impression of horse trails around this part of the farm, which overlooks the town below. If the barn looks a bit skewed, that’s because it is. Later, rob will level it with a bit of sheetrock compound.
Rock cliffs, grasses, and Horse trails.
Lastly, and yet to be done, shrubbery and trees will be added as needed. This will produce a realistic farm scene for Barbara’s HO train layout. For their inspiration, Barbara and Rob live on a real farm.
With Barbara being a nurse, there had to be a hospital in her HO model train layout. An old Southern town would have to have an older stone building for its medical center. Thus was the Sherman’s Crossing Hospital brought to life.
Sherman's Crossing Hospital
The ER entryway was assembled from scrap materials Rob had lying around, in keeping with the low budget layout.
Any self respecting medical center today has to have a helicopter pad for lifeflight accessibility. This provided a challenge for Rob, as the helipad had to be located on the roof of the old building.
Helipad on the roof.
Starting with a block of wood with holes drilled for 3mm LEDs, he covered it with a graphic he created in Photoshop. The LEDs were glued in place from the back with a hot glue gun. Organizing the wires and hiding them in the small internal area of the structure was a challenge, but the results speak for themselves.
Assembly of the helipad.
Still lacking is the elevator access to the roof.
Barbara is very pleased with the progress so far. The citizens of this rough Southern railroad town now have access to the finest medical care the government can provide.
Any model train layout should represent the interests of the person who runs it. In the case of my brother’s wife, the interests are sometimes a bit out of the ordinary. She tends to look to the underbelly of society for inspiration.
Sherman’s Crossing is envisioned as an economically depressed small Southern town, off the beaten track. Police raids, serial killers, prisons and accidents are only partly balanced by church scenes.
To keep with Sherman’s Crossing’s image, Barbara wanted to extend the trailer park. Rob ordered additional HO scale mobile home kits from NuConp Miniatures. These are high quality plastic models which have to be assembled and finished by the modeler.
HO Scale mobile home being assembled
Rob drilled holes and added LED interior lighting, white for the main room and blue for the entry. In the pictures here, he had yet to add pin-striping and a touch of paint to the roof vent, the trailer hookup, and the gas tanks.
Interior of HO scale mobile home
Windows were added using clear plastic or, in some cases, parchment paper. Window blinds and curtains were carefully crafted from strapping tape. People were added for interest.
HO scale mobile home window with curtains.
As the town of Sherman’s Crossing develops, keeping in the spirit of a small Southern town, Rob ordered another Maxwell Avenue House from Rix Products. These are unassembled model kits which come in white and need to be finished.
HO scale Maxwell Avenue House
Rob weathered the walls of the house with a simple wash of Raw Umber. He also painted the brick footing around the house and the brick porch with a mix of Burnt Umber and Burnt Rose. (It helps to be an artist.) He then drilled a hole in the roof and added a porch light. The wiring became hidden when the house was glued together.
In order to create a more realistic looking model train layout, Rob wanted to copy what is found on a real train roadbed. The ties of real train tracks are surrounded by small stones or cinders called ballast. In addition to a raised roadbed, ballast allows for drainage and holds the underlying roadbed from washing away.
Ballast added to the HO tracks
In a scale model, the ballast is not loose as it is with real train tracks, but glued down. Considering that the real ballast is only an inch or two in size, model train ballast has to be pretty small to look right. Ballast may be purchased from train and hobby stores. In order to keep costs down, some model railroaders use masonry sand.
Ballast is added only after the track is fixed to a base, generally of cork or styrofoam. This base is to simulate the raised bed of real trains. A useful feature of ballast is that it covers screws, joints, and wire holes resulting from laying the track.
Ballast added at a turnout.
There are several suggested methods of adding ballast. Rob, however, failed to remember what he had read and made some errors.
He first spread regular gravel left over from an old dump truck load. He then saturated it with a 50%-50% white glue-water mix and it looked okay.
Then he added a layer of cheap, fine sand from home depot which had been bought for an outside project. Unfortunately, the sand contained some magnetite particles which caused problems and led to a major clean up job. The sand also didn’t work very well with the process previously used on the gravel.
More ballast added going into a tunnel.
In order to finish the ballasting on Barbara’s HO layout, Rob’s plan is to get some non-magnetic, non-conductive sand and proceed as follows…
1, Carefully spread it where it is wanted with a soft brush, keeping it below the ties and out of the moving parts of the turnouts.
2. Soak it drop by drop with alcohol from an eyedropper (note: the paint used on the track should be tested to make sure it doesn’t run when in contact with the alcohol).
3. Soak it with the 50%-50% white glue-water mixture, starting down the center between the rails and then along the edge of the side, letting it wick into the ballast thoroughly. Note – a few drops of India ink added to the water-glue mixture will “age” the ties and the ballast.
4. Clear the tops and insides of the rails to prevent derailment of the trains and let dry.
Having been a railroad enthusiast most of my life, this website will follow the progress of my brothers model train layouts. He recently built a model train room onto his art studio and is currently building an N scale layout for himself and an HO scale layout for his wife. Eventually I anticipate adding my own Z scale layout when I build it. I will also be adding train related stories I have heard over the years.
