10 Quick Tips For Creating Realistic Model Railroad Scenery
One of the oldest and still most popular hobbies around the globe is model railroading. No matter what size or scale or gauge, be it the very popular HO scale, OO gauge, or smaller N scale, there are plenty of interesting aspects to the hobby that will keep any model railroader entertained and busy for years, if not a lifetime.
Trains are iconic to the history of the United States and throughout Europe and other continents and countries, especially in the 1950’s through the late 1960’s when model railroading was at its peak of popularity. The hobby has developed over the years and continues to attract newbies especially with the advent of newer technologies such as DCC, micro controls, and LED lighting to name a few.
Although technology and electrics are what attracts many to the hobby; the building of scenery and structures is a hugely popular aspect of the hobby too. With that in mind; here are some basic scenery tips to help create the most realistic and impressive model railroad layout. Follow these tips and your model trains will be less likely to derail, stop or chug erratically. Here are just a few quick tips to get you started:
1. If you are a first timer to model railroading, then keep it simple. Don’t make your first model train layout overly complex with multilayered scenery, long tunnels, waterfalls, trees, structures, people, and animals. Scale your ideas down a little and decide on just two or three simple scenery features such as a small hill area, a bridge or railroad trusses, and perhaps a building or two. That would be the most I would attempt the first time around. You could buy your structures in kit form, or even use downloadable buildings to get you started. You will learn new skills as you progress and that will keep you busy enough for some time. And remember, it is not a race to get finished.
2. Find a plan for the layout of your tracks and draw that plan onto your base with a pencil. Now take cork board and lay it where your tracks are going. Nail it down on the outer edges. Do not lay your track at this point.
3. Test your track design before you make it permanent. Layout your tracks along the cork board and try it out. Make sure your train never derails, glitches, or stops. If it all works, remove the track from the base. Avoid sharp curves, steep gradients, and S bends in the track design.
4. Keep all your scenery time and place specifically to a location and time frame. Decide before you begin what scene you are depicting. If you are doing the California Gold Rush of the 1940’s, then don’t put a car from the 1960’s in the scene, or include a bulldozer from the 1970's. Make sure everything in your scene is consistent with the story you are portraying and credible.
5. Whatever the scale or gauge your trains are, that is the scale that all your scenery needs to be. Do not vary or deviate from your chosen scale. This is an absolute must. If you choose to use some buildings, structures or trees that are a different scale, your layout will lose its realism. It will look disjointed and the eye will tell visitors that something is not right.
6. Make sure your scenery and your structures are weathered if your time era is anything other than the present. Downloadable buildings generally come already weathered. Even the trees and landscape for a 1940’s scene need to look like it looked in 1940. Use photos on Google and your local library as a reference.
7. Use dark paint or chalks on the space between your train tracks. This area of the ground in real life gets very dirty almost black from the heat, soot, and oil from the train. Put a few tiny pinhead sized dark pebbles on there as well.
8. Add lights or curtains or even people to the interior of your model buildings to make your layout more realistic.
9. Being faithful to your scene, time era and place, add animals to the scenery. Even including a dog or a cat can make a huge difference along with a few people. Don’t overdo it with either the animals or the humans though. They will add reality and character to your railroad layout.
10. Once you have all your scenery constructed and painted, but before you attach the structures and trees, bushes etc., attach your track. Attach the track on the cork board you laid earlier. First, put glue on the cork board and press your track onto it. Wait for it to dry and your track to be firmly attached before adding any other elements.
Following these easy scenery tips will get you started on your first layout and hopefully help you learn new skills along the way.
