Would some kind soul help with ideas?

[selector]

I am at the point where I can putter around the layout doing weathering, adding finer detail, moving trees around...you know, those who have been there.

I woud be grateful for any ideas or advice about making and placing railroad "junk", discarded stuff, timbers, at places around the rails. What easily available material might I use? What would I see typically if I were to walk along the rails in or near a small town mid-continent in 1950?

Also, I don't want to pay big $ for a (HO) scale barge or freighter moored near the "Valley Cement" factory situated at water's edge. Any ideas for that? Carve wood and hand-paint? What wood? I've never acquired, nor worked with, styrene sheets, but maybe someone has an idea/plans if I'm willing to learn?

Thanks for any help you offer.

[tstage]

Crandell,

Here's the guy to talk to: Casey Feedwater (aka Mike Chambers)

Check out some of his pics on a previous post on this forum, as well as and his website:

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=33673

http://homepage.mac.com/michael21/CMS-RR-Co./Menu5.html

The guy has some amazing scratch building ideas and can probably help you out immensely.

Tom

[selector]

Thanks, Tom.

Good grief, some folks have an eye for detail! I can certainly appreciate all of the work that went into his layout.

I have been thinking of painting unused plastic rolling stock axles and wheels a deep rust and placing several side-by-side on a siding near the roundhouse. I can recall seeing stuff like that from my youth in Peru. I could paint up bits of sprue and shape them into brake shoes, levers, pipes, and so on. I suppose I could use up some of the lumber left over from my bridges and stack them in the yard.

I have enough human and animal figures that adding any more will detract from the effect, and I still need to add a couple of residences to flesh out my village. But real roads are kinda messy places at times. For example, at a "recent derailment site," I could place a couple of pieces of rusty rail, slightly twisted, and the road bed could be discoloured due to being freshly laid. I need to drizzle some black oily goop midline along the road to give a moe realistic effect. The only way I can see doing that is with a single hair plucked from either my forehead or one from my brush.

Anyway, I'm just flashing thoughts here, Tom, and your response is most welcome...and helpful!!

[Anonymous]

The whole pieces of rail beside the track is a good idea. Especially after a MOW crew has relaid a section, you'll find stacks of old ties, individual ties scattered, gauge plates, sections of rail lying parallel to the track.
If you can get your hands on some steel shavings, like the kind you'd find at a machine shop, they make good scrap metal piles. So does old watch parts, parts from disposable lighters (the flint mechanism looks like gears).
If you have a coal mine industry, scatter a little coal along the sides of your track. If you walk along a main line that serves a coal-hauling RR you alway find lots of it from where it spills out of the hoppers

[selector]

Hey, thanks, yankeejwb! I'll have to take a close look at those ideas.

Funny, I was just mentioning to someone that I have learned to 'see' things around me in a whole new way since I began my layout. Looks like I have more to find.

Thanks, again.

[tstage]

QUOTE: Originally posted by selector
Funny, I was just mentioning to someone that I have learned to 'see' things around me in a whole new way since I began my layout.

Crandell, isn't it funny how that is? I was just looking at house windows this morning on the way into work. Wait till you start making your own trees...[;)]

Tom

[selector]

I have done the Aggro-trees already, Tom. All I can say is, thank God for Aggro!

But, you are so right;I am an astronomy nut, too, and have always felt that I had developed discerning eyes from my time at the eyepeice. Now, I know better. I find myself remarking on a building's weathering, having a good look at a proto level crossing as I get near it, closely scrutinizing the bark on trees, and so on.

Help! [:D]

[cwaldman]

A great place to check would be the Photography Forums also at RailRoad Lines Forums.

Here is a link: http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=34

although since I am registered there, it may not work. Mike Chambers hangs out there. But there is a lot of nice stuff there. I am also into detailing a lot also and trying new ways of doing things.

Some pictures can be seen at the link below my name.

[Anonymous]

Selector,

I like all of the white metal castings by companies such as SS LTD. BTS, Woodland Scenics, Rio Grande Models, Sierra Designs, Evergreen Hill etc They make all kinds of stuff from garbage cans, tools, spike mauls, all kinds of mow equipment, oil cans, barrels, compressors electric motors, lanterns,the list goes on and on. Thre only catch (aside from cost) is that they are unpainted. I usually have lots of castings out on the workbench in a perpetual state of painting them. Most of the cool stuff on the chambers site are castings that have been painted. To give you an idea, click on my link in the signature and look at the junk in the first two photos and the last one. You will see a lot of castings.

Maybe this will give you some ideas,,

[Tom Bryant_MR]

See the article in Railroad Model Craftsman (Apr 05 issue) by Bob Walker. He reuses lots of household materials (e.g. blender, coffee grounds etc) to create railroad details such as you are speaking about. I think you have to get this mag from the stands. Web link is http://www.rrmodelcraftsman.com/ ... department is Scratchbuilder's Corner.

[selector]

Cletus! Wow, very nice stuff. Thanks, too, for the links. Maybe I can get to the majors some day. [^]

Guy and Tom, thanks ever so much for the help. Now I can see why a layout is never done; with the brain working subconciously to notice details in everyday life, and then figuring out how to model it, the projects are endless.

I love to see junked stuff half-stacked, hoses coiled, sagging boxes of spikes, spoked wheels and gears. I mean, how sexy can a transistor be!!!??

My gratitude to all of you, once again.

-Crandell [:D][:D][:D]

[Dayliner]

QUOTE: I woud be grateful for any ideas or advice about making and placing railroad "junk", discarded stuff, timbers, at places around the rails.

As someone who spends a fair bit of my free time working trackside in a rail yard, let me just say that you should not overdo it in the junk department. Junk is a safety hazard to workers who have to walk around a lot with their heads up. And railroad junk is not just litter--it is heavy metal that can do you serious bodily harm. Ties and rails should be stacked neatly away from the track, so that switchmen, brakemen, etc have an unobstructed walkway. Spike pails, spikes, switchstands, etc, tend to be stored neatly in an MoW compound rather than just strewn along the right-of-way. Any railroad that is serious about safety (and most of them are, because accidents cost money), will keep the right-of-way fairly tidy.

[Anonymous]

try castings from chooch and mr plaster.old bricks,etc,woodland scenics makes old pallets.and you always see old tires and barrels around. Go to www.gothamcitysub.com,theres a bunch of pictures from FS &M,tons of detail in every picture,it'll give all the inspiration you'll need.

[selector]

Dayliner, and Mike, thank-you both for your input. I think that I am finally well fixed for leads.

What a great forum this is with all the wealth of experience and horsepower in skill.

-Crandell

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by selector


What a great forum this is with all the wealth of experience and horsepower in skill.

-Crandell

Next to my curling team skip, you forum members are a fantastic source of info and suggestions!!!

[jkeaton]

As for a freighter - keep an eye out at sales, dollar stores, etc. for children's toys that would be the right overall size and shape. Once you've painted over the shiny plastic, cut away some of the worst oversized details and replaced them with stuff made from old sprues etc., hollowed out the smokestacks and added a few miniature people, you can have quite a presentable model boat.

Jim

[selector]

Thanks for that helpful tip, Jim. I'll start getting out to garage sales, too

Regards,

-Crandell