Anyone up for some CHEAP trackside detail?

[loathar]

I've torn apart old cd rom drives to get the the gears and other parts out. Painted and weathered, they make great great flat car or junk loads The small screws are great for mounting couplers.I'm toying with the idea of cutting up some old hard drive ribbon, painting it silver and seeing how it works out for corugated tin roofing or junk yard fencing.
loathar

[JimValle]

After years of model railroading, I accumulated a lot of steam engine parts, Particularly cylinder assemblies and old rods and wheels. Scatter them around your engine terminals and roundhouse. Stain them with Floquil rust. With crossties, the new ones should be black on account of being saturated with creosote. Stain them with black India Ink. The old ties being replaced are brown and splintered. Stain them with shoe polish. Any large part that might be salvagible should have wooden runners under it. usually brown or gray weathered wood. Strip balsa can be used for all these effects but regular ties used in handlaying are cheap by the bagful!

[Medina1128]

Hey!! [(-D] We're not "cheap", we're "thrifty"...

[Anonymous]

"Cheap" the only way to go. My favorite motto. My two are: I work in a food plant. The honeycomb type hairnets make good chainlink fence when sprayed with hairspray. I also save all sprues from kits. I have a whole drawer full. They make cheap downspouts for buildings and industrial piping. Also piles of pipe behind industries.
Both are freebies, the BEST kind of cheap.

[Anonymous]

I like to use fine grit sandpaper for tarpaper roofing. Cut it into strips, paint it grimy black and glue it to your roof.

[grandeman]

QUOTE: Originally posted by underworld

grande man Those look great! And at a great price!!!

underworld

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

Thanks! Are we talking crossties or cow chips?[:D][:D]


I hope if you have a layout up they'll work for you as well.

[underworld]

grande man Those look great! And at a great price!!!

underworld

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[Anonymous]

Couple tips on cheap scenery items. For crossties on the sides of the right-of-way or stacked, I use wooden matchsticks cut to proper length and stained with my brush cleaning fluids which are usually a brownish black.

For tarpaper roof patches I use tiny pieces of masking tape painted flat black or dark flat gray.

[grandeman]

Great ideas guys! I especially like the tree bark rocks. I've seen that in N scale and it looked good.

Little grande man thought of this one. Our small cattle operation needed some detail. Look closely, that's one messy cow (and a spotted bull at that![:D]). It was done with spots of acrylic burnt umber.

[tcf511]

A friend makes some really realistic "rocks", the kind that you would see poking up through a field. He takes tree bark chips, uses a belt sander to flaten one side, a wire bru***o shape the edges, paints them appropriately and voila, instant rocks.

[Darth Santa Fe]

Another cheap detail idea is to get some rock and keep hitting it with a sledge hammer until it's real fine and can be used for HO gravel.

[grandeman]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeffshultz

In inches, what is the correct dimensions for HO scale ties?

Thanks!

Atlas Code 83 ties are about 1 1/8" long. We just matched the balsa to a tie from a piece of flex track for a pattern.

[Noah Hofrichter]

dharmon, I like those dumpsters! Are they just styrene? I must have missed that last place you posted those, all though I saw those construction signs before.

Noah

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by KenLarsen

QUOTE: Originally posted by grande man

Ken, what are you going to use for chain link fence posts? You've got enough mesh in that pic to fence your whole layout. [8D]

I was thinking maybe some of those tiny nails where the 'head' is just a slight bulge at the top (I don't know exactly what they're called by professional carpenters though[:I])

How about sewing pins. Just cut the head off and CA your chain link material to it. I had it on my old layout but i dont have any pics[:(]

[jeffshultz]

In inches, what is the correct dimensions for HO scale ties?

Thanks!

[BMRR]

Ken..... I think your talking about " finish " nails.

Stan.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by grande man

Ken, what are you going to use for chain link fence posts? You've got enough mesh in that pic to fence your whole layout. [8D]

I was thinking maybe some of those tiny nails where the 'head' is just a slight bulge at the top (I don't know exactly what they're called by professional carpenters though[:I])

[dharmon]

Well I already posted these once, but dumpsters...



And here's some construction signs



and here's chain link fence and orange safety qwik fence. I use the silver colored fiberglass window screen. Don't forget pallets on loading docks, a few minutes and some wood strips.

[Doug Goulbourn]

grande man,
There was a short article in MRR years ago (Oct.'59, I think) entitled "It's the Little Things". A lot of what we see in everyday life hardly gets modelled but when it does, it makes a scene stand out.

Doug

[grandeman]

Ken, what are you going to use for chain link fence posts? You've got enough mesh in that pic to fence your whole layout. [8D]

BXCARMIKE, the embossed foil is another great idea.

Thanks Guys!

[grandeman]

QUOTE: Originally posted by exPalaceDog

Consider mile posts, whistle posts, speed limit signs, and so on.

Consider, handcar escape areas, two ties spaced at the proper guage accross the ditch to hold a hand car while a train passes.

Consider company phone boxes, waybill boxes near interchanges

Consider, signal boxes, relay boxes and so on.

Have fun

All these are great ideas!

[Anonymous]

If you have any building kits that have corrigated roofing, just use some aluminum foil and emboss it, you'll have cheap aluminum for fences,siding or roofing.Cut it to scale 2'x6 or 8' lengths,paint it brown and rusty orange,twist up some, it makes great scrap around buildings or junk piles.

[Anonymous]

I haven't had time to actually do this on my own layout since I'm still at the "benchwork" stage, but... how about some cheap HO scale chain link fencing?

First, get some "tulle" (ballet costume meshing - available at most craft stores):



Grab a good SHARP pair of scissors, and presto! - all the chain link fence material you'll ever need![:D]

[exPalaceDog]

Consider mile posts, whistle posts, speed limit signs, and so on.

Consider, handcar escape areas, two ties spaced at the proper guage accross the ditch to hold a hand car while a train passes.

Consider company phone boxes, waybill boxes near interchanges

Consider, signal boxes, relay boxes and so on.

Have fun

[grandeman]

Hey guys, were getting away from cheap here with a Walther's power line kit, but here's a shot (albiet a poorly focused one) of one of the same areas with the strewn crossties after adding power lines. My next detail for this area will probably be a working signal.

[ChessieFan13]

cheap is the way to go if at all possible thanks for the idea ...........I think I'll see if the wee ChessieFan would like it as well

[steveblackledge]

CHEAP, i like the sound of that, if it's cheap it's up my street

[grandeman]

Anyone got any other detail ideas?

I want to do a hobo camp, various fences, powerlines and the like but am open to suggestions for detail projects.

[Darth Santa Fe]

Another cheap way to get wood is to pick up sticks under trees and cut and file them to whatever size you want. Or just cut ties off broken pieces of track and use them.

[ereimer]

QUOTE: Originally posted by grande man


I know this isn't anything Earth shattering, but thought ya'll might like them too. [:)]

earth shattering ... no
a common sight near rail lines that's rarely modelled ...yeap!

nice project for you and the little grande