Hi ya folks,
Still working on three project at the same time. Glue dries on one,resin cure on another and HO E-crane still on the sidelines for now.
So what's the weirdest things you've found to use for you railroad. Being that most Model Railroaders are fairly frugal bunch. At times we find things to use around the house.I do at least.
Just found the little rings on bottled water caps can be used for outside diameter rings on 3/4" PVC pipe. Why would anyone use these ? If you model Steel Mills . The rings can be used for BOF pipe exhaust. A little small for steel mill use. I don't have a picture as reference but still can be used.
Yet another item is Quart Milk bottle caps (used for E-crane base). These milk caps can be found at Family Dollar stores nation wide. They have great structural appeal.
Ordinary kitchen matches can be used for a variaty of uses.
6" wooden coffee stir sticks from your local convenience store (on your way to work) have even more uses.
I use small diameter wire for hydraulic lines. You'd be surprised at how well the model looks afterwards. Gives it that added detail.
I ask my grandson for Lego parts from time to time. Countless uses.
If you have kids. Their old toys hold treasures. Dunno how many projects I've used toy parts for. Dean Freytag method.
What items have you found ? Please share with the forum.
Patrick
Fear an Ignorant Man more than a Lion- Turkish proverb
Modeling an ficticious HO scale intergrated Scrap Yard & Steel Mill Melt Shop.
Southland Industrial Railway or S.I.R for short. Enterchanging with Norfolk Southern.
Head pins for making jewelry.
I use Kato N scale Unitrack mounted on 2" foam. I did not want to glue it down but I wanted to keep it from sliding around. I found that "head pins" work great by drilling out the Kato holes (made for track nails) and then inserting in the head pins. Does good job of keeping track from sliding around but does a poor job of holding the track down if you need that.
Head pins are about 2" long and are used in jewelry making. Very soft pin and can be bent around with ease. Can be found in places that sell jewelry making stuff such as WalMart.
Paul D
N scale Washita and Santa Fe RailroadSouthern Oklahoma circa late 70's
Way back when, I scratchbuilt a couple steam loco shells to go on existing chassis. The boilers were made by making a form by glueing sections of thick paperboard rolls together with plastic wood filler for tapered segments. The form was greased, then covered with paper towels and 12 hour epoxy, chucked into a rotisserie motor to turn all night to get a smooth, drip-free finish. When dry, I pulled the rolls out, leaving the hollow shell. I used .22 caliber shell casings with the base drilled out for the smoke stacks.
Jim
The hub base for my "pit-bashed" Atlas turntable, the black thing below the bridge in the picture, is an old 45 RPM record spindle:
I use coffee stirrers for pipes and plank fences, too.
I used a section of beekeepers' plastic honeycomb to make a mold for a hydrocal cobblestone pattern:
I use vinegar to slow the setting of the Durham's Water Putty I use for my roads. One day I couldn't find the white vinegar, so I used some red wine vinegar instead. My train room smelled like a salad for two weeks.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I used to have an old flower vase turned upside down for a municipal water tower.
Mike
Automobile tire valve stem caps for tree pots, rusty corragated nails for a junkyard fence and small o-ring cord stock for hoses.
I built my N scale turntable drive and support from the main shaft and tachometer drive from a Cummins PTG fuel pump.
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The spider coupling was machined to match the turntable bridge that was made from a piece of 1/4" bar steel stock. The dual ball bearings made a perfect support for the turntable. I used the tachometer drive to drive the main shaft instead of vice versa.
It was a marvel of engineering.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Mushroom powder out of the spice rack as dirt around my newly built two stall enginehouse. A nice brown. Looked great.
Looked even better when it started to "grow"--instant ground cover.
Ed
I used a CD album cover for 90 degrees angles. I built a modern concrete bridge using this method. It wouldn't be straight and operational without the CD cover.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Some dry pasta letters for a sign on a building. And some elbow pasta for roof vents.
Some cut up plastic table coverings in different colors to make triangular pennants around a used car lot.
On my City Classics & Lunde downtown commercial buildings, 2 small finish nails (brads, I guess) through the front wall for the fire department connection to the standpipe, and a thin brass wire across the front doors for the 'panic bar'.
It's the big grey thing beside the locomotive.
From the hardware store, plumbing caps and couplings make great oil tanks. Home Depot has some mini trim items that can be used for cornices or bridge rail. Hobby Lobby has stuff that can be useful. The scrapbooking section has papers that make great wallpapers/ floors. In Michaels I found one that looked a lot like tan brick. The floral section had dried stuff that makes great trees. Also used some beads as "Indian" pottery in front of a HO tourist trap. One time in the lego store with our youngest, they had some L shaped and T shaped pieces that made perfect HO diner booths. Needless to say he got a bucket of lego pieces that day.
I used a Frosting cans for a tank farm and as I have gotten older those little silica gel inserts found in prescription bottles as oil drums. Be careful though don’t want them anywhere near the dog as with most tiny parts!
Joe Staten Island West
I'm also a musician, I use discarded used bass guitar strings (the low "B" and "E" strings) as weights for my intermodal containers. I chop them up into pieces and glue them to the floor of the container with the same adhesive caulk I use to fasten down my track and roadbed.
Pet screen from Menards works great for N scale windows. Latch hooking plastic Grid at Hobby Lobby works great for HO windows.
Some time back, I posted a thread on how I used a record player turntable as the mechanism for a RR turntable. I rigged up a slow Motor-gearhead to turn the platter by a small rubber wheel turning the outer edge of the patter. Very smooth and solid operating TT, all record player hardware hidden under the pit floor. Dan
Fine brass screening used for chain link fence, see through walkways, 12 G solid copper wire for commercial building downspouts, plastic drinking straws as a wire guide to fish mini bulb building lighting wiring, assorted hardware, staples, brads, hat pins and sewing sequins for small building lights. so many other odd pieces can't remember all.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Tile grout for earth tones. They come in many different colors. Sanded or unsanded. It depends on if you want texture or not. Dab some in your rock formations. Put some on to cover Barren ground. Black or charcoal for shadowing.
The results are amazing. The best thing is these products dry flatter than flat for a realistic result.
P.S. You might find like I found after I tried this......... Maybe paint ain't for everything. In my findings paint is a good undercoating to start.
I've used sanded grout, works very well! I saw it in NG&SL Gazette maybe 3-4 years ago and decided to try it.
As a guitar player, I have used old guitar strings in place of "music wire", the thinner strings work for things like connecting switch motors to switches. The high E string is .010", could be used for railings, grabs, etc.
I haven't tried them yet, but at the pet store I picked up a bag of tiny mixed foliage meant for lining the enclosures of like iguanas or something. It looked like what you'd find on the ground in a forest - small twigs about the size of fallen trees, small plant sections that look like pieces off maybe a Norway pine. I also bought some kind of crushed rock meant for I think fish tanks, that looked a lot like HO "rip rap" similar to what the New York Central had along the Hudson.
I also saw a kind of flourescent tube / fixture that was meant for reptile enclosures that was supposed to be the correct light color to represent the desert sun. I wonder if someone modelling say the Southwest might find those usefull?
I used 38 Special cases for smokestacks on the roundhouse.
I have used pieces of small gauge wire with green insulation for garden hoses. I have used cassette tape cases as background buildings. I have used a flat wooden box for a loading dock. I have used toys but try not to make them look like toys, like these barrels I decorated for Oktoberfest. One was blue and the other was red. And I used this medical breathe tester as storage silos for the plastics factory. The trees in the background are from a game.
don't know if its odd or not but used white toilet paper tubes for farm silos . granulated garlic for spilled corn at covered hopper loading site , mountain yarow for tree forms, plastic straws cut with a hot knife to make feed sacks, parsley and basil for leaves. just to name a few
From the garden, a strip of divders. Upside down, they mark the edge of the layout.
I've used all sorts of odd things on my n scale layout including painted coffee stiring straws for oil pipe, painted poster board for roads and streets, window screen wire for the base support of my mountain and tunnels, tooth picks, etc... Styrene plastic model sprus also come in handy for anyone wanting to model the plumbing of an industrial plant or refinery.
Wow, what a response ! Thank you all for your suggestions & tips. Found a few I will try.
We all use basically the same type of stuff.
If it has structural appeal or just looks the part.
my brother traded me for a brass steam engine he painted using a q tip dipped in the paint bottle. That was one sorry mess with cotton pieces stuck in the paint. stripped it and air brushed and sold it since I didn't model that railroad any way.
dragonriversteelWhat items have you found ? Please share with the forum.
How about hidden things, like weights? Using these large steel nuts with double-sided tape keeps these underweight Con-Cor 60ft boxcars from derailing:
...the price per-ounce is a lot cheaper than the stick-on weights you buy from a hobby shop at ~$3-4 for a 2oz set.
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
Made a smokestack with a paper towel tube spread and weighted at the bottom (with a used D cell battery).
When I needed fenceposts to "sell" at my lumberyard, I used round hors d'ouevre toothpicks (with the sharp end cut off). I also use them (with the sharp ends on) to hold model buildings in place without affixing them permanently.
I once replaced a broken crane turntable base with a cap from a Rx bottle.
This car stops at ALL railroad crossings!
Back when I was part of a club, we used to stain the plaster base of the layout brown with cold coffee.