Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
The other replies you have had have dealt with the making of mountains, and are valuable for their information. I'll try to address the "realistic" part of your question. First and most important thing is to OBSERVE MOUNTAINS. Treat them like a prototype that you are modelling, and spend some time looking at pictures of the kind of topography you are trying to create. For me and my Northern Virginia / West Virginia layout, this means regular trips to the area, and reading/owning books about the region, with pictures. The kind of info you can get for free these days via the internet is staggering, so just find those resources. The second most important thing, I think, is to GIVE MOUNTAINS SOME ROOM. I mean, plan on dedicating a large portion of your horizontal area to the mountain(s), because once you study the real thing you'll see that most mountains are much broader than they are tall. Of course, with methods of forced perspective and controlled veiwing angles, we can get away with some tricks to compress them, but to feel right, a mountain is just gonna have to be wide and fat. If you do it right, of course, then you make it look as if your railroad really had to contend with the rigorous terrain, rather than ending up with a "hill" that just conveniently droops away from one side of the tracks. Thirdly, I would expound on the above to say that the way your right-of-way encounters the mountain ought to be varied. It isn't always giant bare cliffsides and deep canyon-style ravines; include some long low cuts and fills, a few culverts in retaining walls, short low trestles, relatively few tunnels, and perhaps even a "daylighted" tunnel (one that has been turned into a deep cut). The tracks should run at various angles to the direction of slope, even though railroad engineers try to keep them mostly parallel to the contour lines (i.e. perpendicular to the slope); this is because the mountain's undulations happen too frequently for the track to curve in and out all the time. Finally, I'd say that you should never hesitate to plant more green growies. Soil will collect anywhere it can on a moutain face, and trees will grow there, even if it's right in the middle of your big detailed cliff rock casting. Try to avoid big bare stone patches, unless of course the geography you are modelling calls for it. Cliffs erode over time, leaving little piles of talus that collect on ledges; you can easily simulate this by sprinkling fine sand or gravel over your cliffs and seeing where it collects; then, fix this in place however you like, and be sure to plant some shrubs or even trees in it. Hope this helps.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag

Update Reply

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Model Railroader Newsletter See all

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!

Subscriber & Member Login

Edit post

Post Body

Tags (Optional)

Subscriber & Member Login

Users Online

Search the Community