Garden Railway Forum

Greetings all.

I wanted to share my little 16mm scale 45mm gauge Indoor layout I call Hammertoe. I hope you enjoy my journey.

I was looking to build a very small indoor layout for fun and to take pictures. Additionally I wanted to try out some ideas I had to see if they would work. Not having much room to work with, I settled on a 1300mmx 700mm footprint that I could just manage to sit on top of an Ikea display case that I could just sneak into one half of my bungalow.

The first thing I wanted to try out was all extruded foam baseboards. I had messed about with some mix of foam and wood on a shelf layout but this time I wanted to see if I could just use stacked sheets of extruded wall insulation foam.



As it turns out this worked quite well. Two thicker sheets as a base and then some more with cutouts for the terrain and another for a view break down the centre and I was quickly in business.

I had already played about with battery power and remote control via bluetooth ( LocoRemote controller) and loved that there was no track wiring to worry about. A major headache I was very much trying to avoid.

I just wanted a simple loop of track with one point and a small spur for an industry. Also on the must have list was a few bridges, a largish water area, a tunnel and a culvert.



All of this seemed to be doable and I jumped ahead. I knew I was going to have lots of rocks to carve and went at the foam with an inexpensive hor wire cutter and knives, etc. Covering the roughed out foam with premixed wall spackle thinned with water.

For track I went with some lovely 3D printed 45mm gauge industrial sectional track printed by LocoRemote. This worked very well and let me squeeze in the loop within the then 600mm width. ( A have extended the original 1200x600 sheets with a single sheet of 50mm all around to make the fascia making all my baseboards out of foam.)

For motive power and rolling stock I have used the excellent PS Models kits by Phil Sharples. Great kits that have been so very much fun to build,



Over the last two years I have slowly added to the layout, adding rolling stock and working on the scernery.



Refining as I go and adding details.



I've tried my hand at making my own figures from Super Sculpty to bring a bit more life to the scene.





And now I just about finished my first lap around the layout so that all the major scenery is in place.







I'm now going back over the whole layout adding details and improving things as I go. I love that there is always something I want to add of upgrade. I have a lot more ideas for figures and characters I want to add. Things to spruce up and change and many many photos I want to take.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my little efforts and if you have any comments and suggestions I would love to hear them.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by for a look.

Dan

The rock work, plant growth and bridge structure in the creek scenes is superb. They'd be good apples coming from that location.
Grant.

Really excellent work! This shows how much can be achieved in tight spaces. I have used extruded foam before when I was modelling in smaller scales and it is a really good material. Easy to cut and sculpt without debris and if several sheets are laminated as in your case, there is no need for any understructure. There is several different types of extrded foams and some (if not most) of them can be used outdoors as they are waterproof. Your layout is a piece of art

Wonderful, nay, inspiring!

The figures are not only well sculpted, they are really well painted. Every detail on the layout is perfect. I'd be as proud as pie to have this in my house.

Rik

DCooper wrote: Fri Apr 17, 2026 4:53 am I wanted to share my little 16mm scale 45mm gauge Indoor layout I call Hammertoe. I hope you enjoy my journey.

That's very impressive.

The geology puts me in mind of the late Rick Richardson's Vulcan Vale layout.

Graeme

Just beautiful.

Hi Dan.
Diorama Heaven ! Those are excellent images of your creation. Thanks for sharing

Chris

Thank you all for your kind word of encouragement.

I have dabbled in Model Railways for years in all kinds of scales gauges but this is the only time I have gotten this far along with finishing a layout to the point that my friends think it is complete. ( I don't think a layout ever truly finished, there is always something to work on or improve.) I always go frustrated getting the layout to work or the area was too big to get finished in a reasonable time. The little battery Hudson will happily run for almost two hours on the two AAA bateries without so much as a grumble. I think the larger size of these models and the limited scope of the idea for the layout helped keep me at it.

I'm pleased that you fine folks like my efforts. Graeme mentioned Vulcan Vale a layout I hold in very high esteem and one that has inspired me to try to do better in all ways for many years. I don't think I'll ever get anywhere near that nice a result but it's heartening that the influence shows.

I spent some time today adding vegetation and some pine trees to the layout. It is astonishing how much flocking, ground foam and scatter materials these large scale scenes swallow up. I like to use all kind of materials and I have been stashing away stuff for years and years. I just do little bits as I go and constantly add bits and bobs as the mood takes me.



Tomorrow I have a mind to drag out the old 3D printer and see if I can print some ducks to swim across the quarry pond. Not sure I have the stl files I need but surely something will fall to hand.

A big thank you for all the comments you made my day.

Always having fun and thanks for dropping in for a look.

Dan

Hi Dan
Love that last photo. It's amazing how much you've managed to cram into such a small space and to such a high quality.

Rik

Thanks Rik, The penny just dropped with me and I have much to thank you for as I have been reading your blog for ages.

As a matter of fact I have spent the morning, between cleaning the resin printer- horrible messy things if you don't keep them clean, playing with something you showed in a blog post back in Oct 2022. I wanted to add some sound to the layout and I have used those little square MP3 players you showed with background noises to add atmosphere. Well I thought if I looped off the antenna I could just squeeze one of the little bricks into the brakevan. I just had to come up with a suitable sound file which took some doing. Mixing running diesel loco and a motorboat putt putt to get something I liked. I know it isn't controlled by the throttle but as I'm just running it round and round like a kid with his Marx toy trains I thought it would be okay. Turns out I like it a lot.

I'll try and add a quick video I shot to show it in action. Fingers crossed it works.

https://dancooper.smugmug.com/WIP-Model ... -pN2nX6F/A



I hope you all enjoy. I'm bouncing around like it was 50+ years ago.

Dan

Hi Dan, I've been watching this thread since the beginning and I was just about to ask for a video, when lo and behold...!
The sound you've added sounds perfect to my ears and just adds the icing on the cake.

DCooper wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2026 5:27 am Thanks Rik, The penny just dropped with me and I have much to thank you for as I have been reading your blog for ages.

As a matter of fact I have spent the morning, between cleaning the resin printer- horrible messy things if you don't keep them clean, playing with something you showed in a blog post back in Oct 2022. I wanted to add some sound to the layout and I have used those little square MP3 players you showed with background noises to add atmosphere. Well I thought if I looped off the antenna I could just squeeze one of the little bricks into the brakevan. I just had to come up with a suitable sound file which took some doing. Mixing running diesel loco and a motorboat putt putt to get something I liked. I know it isn't controlled by the throttle but as I'm just running it round and round like a kid with his Marx toy trains I thought it would be okay. Turns out I like it a lot.
I'll try and add a quick video I shot to show it in action. Fingers crossed it works.
https://dancooper.smugmug.com/WIP-Model ... -pN2nX6F/A
I hope you all enjoy. I'm bouncing around like it was 50+ years ago.
Dan

Hi Dan
Pleased to hear my scribblings have been useful. I've got a couple of locos with similar sound set-ups. If you search on eBay for "recordable sound module" you can get cards with a smaller footprint to insert into the locos themselves.

That sounds just right to me BTW

Rik

Wow, that is impressive rockwork and I love the vegetation. When I see G&D I can't help but think of Gorre & Daphetid and the terrain really suits the association. (And as a tinplate O gauge fan I also appreciate the Marx reference!)

I'm a bit late to this thread but I just wanted to add my compliments to those already given. Whatever scales you have previously modelled in, you have clearly developed a great deal of expertise in many different skills. The colours and use of shading washes help bring the whole thing to life. Thanks for sharing.

I'm pleased everyone seems to like my little layout. Thank you for your kind comments.

There always seems to be something to fuss and fiddle with. Spent the weekend failing to get any useful 3D prints, all my own fault as I'm rushy with my settings and procedures. I like 3D printing but there is diffidently a knack to the whole thing. I got a little discouraged so went looking for something quick and fun to make.

Pine tress are in contrast pretty easy, if time consuming, so I built one. The resin wallabies are from the $2 dollar shop repainted( poorly). I'm always snooping about shops looking for anything I can to use on the layout.

Hope you enjoy the photos. I built this as an ongoing amusement for practice retirement but I'm having too much fun just watching the train go round.








More pottering about working on the scenery is planned but I still want to get me some ducks on the pond.

Thanks for looking in.

Dan

Stunning!!!

Rik

Thanks Rik.

The sunlight was just right while I was having lunch. I had to get the photo quick.



Overall



Peek-a-boo.

Enough fooling around, back to work for me.

Thanks for looking in.

Dan

Always something to do on the layout. This weekend was more messing about with trees, paper and plastic plants, painting( washes and dry brushing), tufts and other bits.

I think it looks a little bit better.







What really helped the creek pop was a wash of sepia and black inks flowed into all the creek beds and soaked in with a spray of wet water. I also some washes on the culvert retaining wall too.


I have repainted the fascia in brown to help it to blend into the edges of the photos.

Hope all are well.

Thanks for looking in.

Dan

True artistry shines through your work, I am in awe of the achievements shown,

Phil

Thank you Phil. You are much too kind, I just plod along. I'm very pleased you like my little efforts. I often never know if what I'm doing looks good or is just more wheel spinning rubbish.

I have looked up your Layout post and am slowly going over all 30+ pages( WOW). So much goodness to look at and be inspired by.

I spent much of the last two days extending the foam rock work on the edges of the of the layout to make it easier to get some of the photos I want to do. More pictures once I get some paint and vegetation on them.