why make scenary

[Anonymous]

i have only just started making a model railroad and my grandpa is to but he got stuck up in the scenary and is to this day still doing it but i did away with scenary and got a board stuck some track on and that was it i spend alot of the time on loco's rolling stock and buildings and have no time for scenary my layouts is on a pool tabel cover and look almost as good as my granpas sante fe mountain range hes workin on i dont know what us think but this is an easy way to save time,money and effort on something most people overlook

CodyR
12Y/O

New Zealand

[IRONROOSTER]

Scenery is a personal choice, but most people like to have some. You are using a pool table cover which means that's your scenery. But there have been modelers who never covered up the wood at all. It's up to you it your layout.
Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

Most people like to model in general when involved in Model Railroading. The Scenery is just a part of things. Some people like to have a super detailed complete down to the tiniest scrap of junk layout. Others are satisfied with a simple loop of track on a 4x8 sheet of plywood.

Heck I dont eveen have that much done yet. My "Layout" is a loop of Bachmann EZ track on the floor of the spare bedroom. At least I can enjoy watching my trains run that simple loop though. I know for me at least, doing scenery is just another challenge to model.

I like to model things somewhat realisticly, but not over much. I am no rivet counter by any means. I just like things to somewhat look like it could be a real scene somewhere possibly. This means I will have some scenery on my eventual layout.

[Anonymous]

For me scenery is a personal Choice. I feel it helps set the feel of the layout. The scenery can tell you if the layout is set in some fanciful, or at least idealised setting, (Like some of my freelance rr work) or in the rouch and scruff of southern Wy during the end of the age of steam.

[AltonFan]

There are some modellers who build beautiful rolling stock, but see no need to build a layout. (Mel Thornburgh comes to mind.)

Really, it depends on what you're trying to get out of the hobby. If all you want to do is build rolling stock, that's fine. If you want to build a layout that consists of a ten-track mainline, with every inch of track occupied by trains, good. If you want to build grand scenery around a 4'x8' loop of track, fine.

However, interests in the hobby do change, and maybe in the future you might decide to try a little scenery, or to do a small display. If you don't need scenery today, don't build any. You can always add it later, if you decide you want it.

[vsmith]

Scenery will make or break a layout depending on if and how you do it.

If the thought of building mountains and grasslands doesnt interest you, then why not do an urban theme and use a lot of buildings as your "scenery". A city theme on a 4x8 makes alot of sense to me . Buildings on the tabletop can be used to hide curves, and create viniettes that could add a lot to your layout.

Scenery to me has always been my Achilles Heal in this hobby. It did in my HOn30 layout. It was my fault, used wrong foam blocks, hell of a mess, never looked right.

This time I am going to do test "mountains", test "trees" etc, etc before I try building them on the layout. That way if I screw up the bisquits I havent wreckied the dinner.

[Anonymous]

I personally think scenery rocks. It really makes the explanation point in the reason and location of your layout. If you haven't already see if you can find a few old Model railroader magazines to flip through and see all there is to really see.

There is so much that can be told in the picture of a thousand words. mini scenes at the station might stir your mind about why a grandmother and granddaughter are going on a trip or the joy of kids jumping off a tressle into the local water hole swimming.

you really set the stage with the stuff that's not track and trains. Buildings or industrial complexes, rolling plains, mountians.

but in the end part of the wonderful thing about railroading is people's interest and folks focus on different things, some like loops and some like switches, some like modeling and some like running.

[CBQ_Guy]

I like scenery because I enjoy trying to get scenes as realistic looking as possible. I don't know why, I don't feel like it's an anal thing, I just really like trying to see if I can at least fool a squinted eye into seeing how realistic my scene looks. To me it's way cool. I've been like this since I was a little kid. I kept bugging my Dad to play army men with me since he had been in the Army during World War II and I wanted his input so that I could "play" right. He never did, BTW.

[DSchmitt]

The wonderful thin about "Model Railroading" is that it has many aspects and one may choose which ones to engage in.

Why scenery? Its fun, It really not hard to do. It enhances the appearance and realism of the models.

While artistic ability can help, one really doesn't have to be an artist to create effective scenery. There are many books showing simple techniques and photographs can bw used as a guide. Super detailed scenery is nice, but often not necessary. Very simple scenery can be effective in portraying an area. Our models are small compared to the protype. When we view a model we are simulating viewing the prototype from a distance where many small details would not be seen individually.

[Anonymous]

Consider buying a few trees at the hobby shop for your layout and watch how it takes on a different look. Then a few buildings, maybe some vehicles and a couple of people and before you know it, you'll have your own minature corner of the world. You don't need mountains, rivers or vast forests to bring a layout to life. Your imagination will reward you with a smile.

[Jetrock]

Scenery doesn't have to be a huge challenge--it depends on where your layout is set. While a Midwestern line might not need much more than a table painted green, one set in the Sierras or the Rockies might not look too convincing without some nice mountains. It is certainly possible to spend lots of time on it--but you don't have to, as there are plenty of shortcuts and simple ways to crank out huge hillsides in a couple of weekends.

I'm an urban modeler, but scenery is still important to me--in a city, streets and buildings become the "scenery" instead of hills and mountains, and require no less effort. In addition, the city I model has more trees per acre than any other city other than Paris, France, so lots of trees are necessary.

Right now I just recently finished laying track, so there isn't much scenery yet--the first "scenic" step I took was airbrushing the ties and rails Railroad Tie Brown and brushed a little Rust onto the sides of the rails. It's amazing how this simple step can make even the comparatively huge Code 100 track vanish and look a lot less "fake" than unpainted track. But since the trackwork is already done, I can run trains whenever I want between now and the time I fini***he scenery--but once the scenery and structures are in place I won't have to imagine quite so hard that I'm setting out a boxcar for a fruit-packing warehouse, because the warehouse will be right there where I can see it.

I wouldn't say most people overlook scenery--it is something immediately identifiable as soon as you see the layout. Even if a visitor knows nothing about railroads, they can tell whether your line is set in the mountains, the desert, the plains, a city, or whatever other setting you choose simply by looking at the scenery.

Railroads are more than just trains--they were built to move merchandise and people from place to place. Representing those places, as well as the people (and where they lived) and merchandise (and the locations that produced them) is, to my mind, as important as representing the trains that carried them.

[eastcoast]

Scenery is a way to add simple realism. It makes the trains seem
like they go somewhere other than in a big circle. Even a slight hill
or something to block your view is scenery and adds to the effect.
Today's scenery is geared towards SIMPLE projects. Try them !!!

[Anonymous]

i got a peice of 4by 2 and some that stuff u get in the train box that stops it moving around and stuck it on then nailed some track to the wood and painted it with some green didnt look half bad, i did this to try it out but i still think on a big scale it would take ages

codyr

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by codyr

i got a peice of 4by 2 and some that stuff u get in the train box that stops it moving around and stuck it on then nailed some track to the wood and painted it with some green didnt look half bad, i did this to try it out but i still think on a big scale it would take ages

codyr

It never gets done. It's a hobby, not a job to be done as fast as possible so you can do something else. If you approach it as a job maybe modeling scenery isn't for you. Just build your rolling stock instead. But you are in error about most people overlooking it. And leave gramps alone and let him do his scenery, that's what he want's to do and he may veiw your obsession with stock and buildings a waste of time and he may feel that a RTR loco looks as good as the one you put 50 hours in and most people will not miss that there are no MU hoses on his. Sounds to me like you two need to join forces and play together better. You build cars and he build layouts. FRED

[n2mopac]

QUOTE: Originally posted by flee307

QUOTE: Originally posted by codyr

i got a peice of 4by 2 and some that stuff u get in the train box that stops it moving around and stuck it on then nailed some track to the wood and painted it with some green didnt look half bad, i did this to try it out but i still think on a big scale it would take ages

codyr

It never gets done. It's a hobby, not a job to be done as fast as possible so you can do something else. If you approach it as a job maybe modeling scenery isn't for you. Just build your rolling stock instead. But you are in error about most people overlooking it. And leave gramps alone and let him do his scenery, that's what he want's to do and he may veiw your obsession with stock and buildings a waste of time and he may feel that a RTR loco looks as good as the one you put 50 hours in and most people will not miss that there are no MU hoses on his. Sounds to me like you two need to join forces and play together better. You build cars and he build layouts. FRED

I have to agree here. The level of scenery depends upon you interests and goals for your layout. It also depends on where you are in your modeling life. When I first started in the hobby my scenery was pretty basic. As I progressed, however, I desired more realism in my layout and found that highly detailed scenery was a great way to get that. I build my layout for me, it is my hobby, but there is nothing like the feeling of someone viewing my layout and commenting on the level of detail and realism

I agree that we should not get in such a hurry. This often happend to newbies wanting to get a loop up and some trains running. I've been there. But now I'm building a new layout, grander scale than ever before for me, and I am enjoying every step. I spent 3 years planning the layout, fiddling with the track plan, industries, etc. Now I am 2 months into the building and have 1/3 of the benchwork done. Am I excited about getting track layed and trains running? Of course. But I realize that it may be a year before this happens and I am ok with that because I am enjoying this stage to the building and I am working toward the goals that I have set for myself.
Ron

[Anonymous]

Also goes back to "wanting is better than having". FRED

[yellowducky]

What makes you happy in this hobby of model trains is your own preferences. Might I suggest that if you want to share your hobby, you have what I call "an attention getter". On my 3x5 N layout it was a Pizza Hut building. Cheap, plastic, not detailed, stuck down. But oh the name recognition. It got more comments from kids and adults! On my basement layout, it was a manual operated gantry crane. On an HO set-up at a library show I did, it was the missle firing flatcar. On the loop of O27 at the kids club, it's the horn on the engine. On the Brio 4x4 layout, it's the log loader. I could go on about other temporary set-ups or layouts. The point is that each had/has something that grabs the looker and transports him/her into your miniture world, whatever the level of scenary. [:)] Enjoy model trains at your likes, not someone elses. FDM

[Anonymous]

making scenary i think is good to make gives me an excuse to sit all day in front of the idiot box while i make stuff

[AggroJones]

Scenery establishes local in country and place in time. If done correctly, it can bring prestige to the modeller. But I've seen some horrible scenery.

[Anonymous]

I answer this question in this way:

A railroad is fundamentally about transportation. Transportation means moving from one place to another. Scenery is what establishes the sense of place, or of places. Without it, trains might be in motion, but they are not "transporting" anything. A model railroad, it can be said, is also about transporting, but what it does is to transport me from the real world into my fantasy. I takes me to the world of the trains, it takes me to the spot beside the tracks where I can just sit, without other concerns, and watch the trains roll by. The more complete and real my scenery looks, the more it transports me in that manner.

Just give it a try... even with something other than a layout, you'll see something neat happening when you start building a scene, a town, a place. Those miniature victorian town buildings that are meant for christmas dioramas come to mind: my mother has a whole town scene (which I have helped her put together) that serves as decoration on a dresser top. Gift shops at the mall sell them; they are roughly G-scale usually. Anyways, once you get enough of these together, and fill in between with some fluffy fake white snow, you start to see a whole village, full of quaint Yuletide activity. You have created a place. And you'll find yourself more mesmerized than you ever thought you'd be by such a simple gesture, as you mentally explore the realm before you.

Scenery on a model railroad should amplify this effect, usually, even the most rudimentary scenery does exactly this.

[Bikerdad]

Because you want to. Don't make it if you don't want to....

Scenery is a two edged sword. The N-Trak module I'm building right now is pure Basin & Range, or at least its meant to evoke the sense of the Basin & Range territory of Nevada and the Mojave Desert. Harsh, blasted mountains baking under the merciless sun, with scattered scrub carpeting the sandy basin's between, and lo, there in the distance, is the train line.

Sounds great? Evokes a mood? Of course, as long as my train is running through that terrain, its mighty tough for me to imagine instead that its slowly pulling through the rolling hills of Kentucky in full fall regalia, eh? Nor does my mind easily cast the scene as that of a long intermodal wending its way along the Columbia River...

Scenery allows you to more fully realize a mood, area, even a specific time and place, and to share that realization with others. At the same time, it limits your flights of fancy.

Methinks the best advice given in this thread is for you to team up with Gramps. Run your trains through his scenery, and you'll both likely develop a greater appreciation for the other's interest, and most importantly, a greater appreciation for each other.

[dave9999]

QUOTE: Originally posted by n2mopac



I agree that we should not get in such a hurry. This often happend to newbies wanting to get a loop up and some trains running. I've been there. But now I'm building a new layout, grander scale than ever before for me, and I am enjoying every step. I spent 3 years planning the layout, fiddling with the track plan, industries, etc. Now I am 2 months into the building and have 1/3 of the benchwork done. Am I excited about getting track layed and trains running? Of course. But I realize that it may be a year before this happens and I am ok with that because I am enjoying this stage to the building and I am working toward the goals that I have set for myself.
Ron

This happened to me on my first layout. I was so ready to get it done and run trains that I didnt
take time to do it the way I really wanted to. Well now I'm starting my second layout and doing alot
of planning. The good thing is that I learned alot about scenery and track laying and now I have
a layout to run trains on as I build the "real" layout. And I WILL take my time this time around.
Dave

[Anonymous]

I'm big on having realistic scenery myself, but one of the most interesting layouts I ever visited was totally without any scenery other than a working signal system. No trees, no grass, no roads, just track and signals. This guy, who was a railroad employee, had block signals, interlocking signals, dwarf signals, etc. that worked just like the prototype, all automatically. He could override everything from his 1:1 scale CTC board.

I asked him if he ever intended to add scenery and he asked "why?"

John

[on30francisco]

To me, a layout with realistic scenery makes the trains and track into a railroad. My favorite part of the hobby is building detailed structures of all types. I enjoy watching the trains run through mountains, forests, towns, rivers, and industries.

[robengland]

Hey when you are 12 years old, stuff has to happen in a hurry :-) Cody, just try draping a cloth over a few boxes to make a mountain - it'll do for now.

You and me live in the most beautiful scenery in the world, gotta have some of it on the RR

Cheers
Rob

[Roadtrp]

codyr,

Do whatever seems right for you. There is no single 'right ' way to do this hobby. The only thing you should do is whatever you need to do to enjoy it.

I'm 52, and my first priority was to get my train running in circles. Believe me, for someone who had never laid 'N' scale track before, that was quite a challenge.

After I had that down, I wanted to run it on something other than my dining room table, so I bought a 4' x 8' sheet of extruded foam. Pretty soon I got tired of looking at all the pink foam, so I covered it with Life Like grass paper. Pretty low-budget, low-quality scenery, but at least it wasn't pink!

Then I started adding additional track and buildings. After a couple of months I had my track built out to where I wanted it. Then I started adding pre-built buildings. Nothing fancy... Bachmann N scale built-up stuff. Does it look terribly realistic? No. But it does portray the modern suburban era I am modeling, and it sure looks better than nothing. By the time I had added a dozen or so structures, I had a pretty decent looking town. Someday I will paint and weather them, and they will actually look pretty nice.

Then it was time to do something about that grass paper. I started laying more realistic scenery over it using Woodland Scenics foam and other materials. It is a slow process. Over the last five months I've completed the 'realistic scenery' on about 10% of my layout.

It is a slow process for me, because it is something I don't particularly enjoy, and not something I am very good at. I do enjoy the finished result though, so I keep plugging away a little bit at a time.

That's OK. I hope to live for at least another 20 years, so I should have plenty of time to finish. And if I don't, so what? Is anyone going to look at me in the casket and say "He really should have finished his layout"? I doubt it.

Every time I try something new, I learn something. My skills continue to improve as I progress. The part of my layout I finish last will look a lot better than what I finish first. That's fine. I can go back and re-do the early stuff. The great thing about scenery material is that it is pretty darned cheap.

Have fun. Don't feel that you NEED to do anything. I have enough people telling me what I should do at work. I sure as heck don't need someone telling me what I should do when I relax. Enjoy your trains.

My trains are a great joy in my life. Would they compare with many of the layouts people on these boards have done? Absolutely not. But I don't care. Someday I will do better, and in the meantime I am having more fun at this than anything else I've tried for years.

[:)]

[jfugate]

Getting experience in the hobby is the most important thing when you are new. For that, David Barrow's "minimalist" approach has much to offer, since it allows you to make changes quickly while you are learning.

If you do build something with full blown scenery and detail, I recommend it be small at first, so you can learn before you commit to something large out of ignorance and then be sorry later.

Also, the standard 4x8 layout design, while apparently compact (32 sq feet) requires a footprint of nearly 100 sq ft to maintain decent access. If you consider your options of what you can do with 100 sq ft beyond the 4x8, you will often get a much more interesting and extensive layout in the same footprint.

[Anonymous]

I think of scenery as part of the process. After support, track and wiring, I'm ready to think about and do something different. I've even set it up so a layout grows progressively: some benchwork, some track, some scenery and on to the next section. That tends to keep all my skills sharp and I do a better job on all the tasks. If you want a good example of scenery minimalism, check out the latest iteration of the Cat Mountain and Santa Fe in the current issue of Kalmbach's Layout Planning annual. Not my idea of a model railroad...but very well done.

[RedLeader]

Besides all of the good thing described in this thread, there's another thing about good scenery: Scale and proportion. Scale trees, buildings and mountins, help your trains look "real" in proportion to their landscape.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by RedLeader

Besides all of the good thing described in this thread, there's another thing about good scenery: Scale and proportion. Scale trees, buildings and mountins, help your trains look "real" in proportion to their landscape.

Yes indeed. Its hard to make trains look huge if nothing is there to show preportion. In my scenery, I also include figures. Groups of railfans near trackside and on hills and such to show the ernormity of railroad equiptment.