Customising HO/OO Buffer Stops

I'll be honest - I'm not much of a scratch-builder, but I don't balk at a bit of kit-bashing or customising from time to time. Recently, I looked at the various standard PIKO brand buffer stops on my layout, and decided that they just looked a bit boring.

In the quest for a more interesting solution, I stumbled across the Peco SL-41 Buffer Stop, which is a cheap, easy-to-assemble kit that I've used for both OO and HO layouts.

One of the things I like about this kit is that it's so simple, it's really easy to customise. For example, I painted the wood, added some grass, and topped it off with some ballast to make the texture and colouring a bit more realistic.

I also came across these Gaugemaster Buffer Stop Lights, which can be added to the standard buffer stop and operate on both DCC and DC. However, be warned that on DC the results are a little variable, since the lights take their power directly from the track. On DCC layouts, they light red at all times.

With these two small additions, you can really add some life to the layout. I'll be posting some step-by-step pictures to show what can be achieved when I'm next in a building mood.

Sector Plates : A Space Saving Tip for All Scales

It doesn't matter what scale or gauge you look at, there are always people who have a limited mount of space and who come up with great solutions, and the sector plate is such a solution.


It's a space saving alternative to several kinds of standard track layout techniques, such as the run-around, which usually requires at least two opposing points.


What Does a Sector Plate Look Like?


A sector plate is essentially a piece of hinged track that can swing around to line up with one of several pieces of track.

Sector Plate Based Layout

In the diagram here, the sector plate is the piece of track in gray, which has a green cross where the pivot should be. In this diagram, it is serving as a run-around, as well as track selection to the top sidings.


The advantage of this approach over a turntable is twofold:

• cost - a decent turntable is very expensive;
• space - the sector plate can lie at the edge of the layout.

Of course, the sector plate cannot be easily automated, so will likely remain a small-to-micro layout, manually operated device.


For examples of actual layouts using sector plates, Carl Arendt's site has a whole section dedicated to them.


An alternative to this, and somewhat more prototypical, is the horizontal shuttle; it's a platform which moves side to side, horizontally, and provides much the same functionality, but at the expense of a bit more space.

Another source for layouts that use sector plates is Nigel Adams' excellent book - don't be put off by the negative comments on Amazon, they merely point out that this edition is not as updated as they would have liked. Having said that, don't buy it if you already have it, as it isn't a lot different from the old edition. What it does have, however, is a wealth of inspiration for modelers working in a limited space. (Disclaimer - yes, that's a paid link, but I wouldn't recommend the book if I didn't think it was useful!)