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18 year old newbie...
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Trees are easy to make from the right kinds of weeds, or from floral material you get at craft stores. When I was your age, I used a lot of green lichen clumps draped over twigs, but ultimately these weren't very convincing. What I am doing these days is to use the floral material (you can find a decent variety of dried material) which I cut out at basic tree shapes, then gather two or three sprigs together and glue them to form a thicker trunk, and finally dip the tops in a diluted glue so as to sprinkle ground foam as leaves on it. For background trees, I'll probably use lichen clumps which I sprinkle with ground foam as well (so that the overall colors and textures match). <br /> <br />Another cheap trick I did back then was to use Christmas tree lights (the small kind) for lighting buildings; the circuit is simple, with all the bulbs wired in series (i.e. the output of one bulb leads to the input of the next bulb), so in order to get the right distance between bulbs I just cut the wire and splice in extra length. However, you need access to the bulbs, since if one bulb quits the whole strand does. You just plug the complete strand (with the same or greater number of bulbs total) into a regular outlet or extension cord, there isn't any connection to a power pack. <br /> <br />Overhead catenary wires are difficult enough for experienced modelers to achieve, such that many never even attempt them. But, there are a large number of modelers who have done them, and there are commercial products available; the thing is, though, it won't be cheap. One thing you might do is just represent the main support posts/bridges, either with commercial kits or with your own scratchbuilt stand-ins, and delay doing the full wire rigging for later. Once the wires are up, it will be difficult to access trains on the track and it will be delicate work to do any maintenance of the track, so you would need to be sure that things are working as flawlessly as possible before stringing them.
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