Important Considerations When Creating
Scenery For Your Model Railroad Layout

Copyright © Robert Anderson and Market Leaders Ebooks. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy
Help For Model Railroad Enthusiasts
Model-Railroad-Resources.com
Trains don’t just run through an empty landscape, so the scenery (geographical setting) is a vital
part of any train layout. Constructing the countryside and cityscape through which your train will
travel can be tremendous fun. You need to consider the era, geographic location, and relative
prosperity of the area being modeled.
Scenery can add so much life to
your layout - if it's done properly.  
Depending on the effect you
want, the scenery can be simple
to create, or it can take a lot of
work. You need to start with the
knowledge of how to get the
results that you want.  
Generalist Layout or Specialist Layout?

A specialist model railroad layout is where
there's one major source of traffic, for
example a steel mill, brewery or saw mill. In
this case, you most definitely need to study
the subject in order to model it correctly. If you
love the subject, this is the sort of layout you
should consider building.
A generalist model train layout is where almost anything goes. A sea port for example could
realistically be expected to send and receive almost all kinds of freight cars. A generalist layout
allows for flexibility which for many railroaders is a good reason to choose this kind of layout.

Three Important Considerations:
1.  Since scenery is all about "place" it's best
if you think about "era" - or what time period
you are wanting the scene to look like.  

Once you decide, that affects everything -
from the obvious, like the era of the rolling
stock, to the not so obvious, like the color of
paint on a building in that time frame...




2.  The second thing about "place" is where
in the world is it?  Is it in the Rockies?  The
prairies?  What state or province or country?  
If you try to "locate" your layout in a specific
geographical region, you can much more
easily match what you are doing to photos or
life experience.  

It's more realistic to work on a real place than
it is to create a new place in the world.
Remember, sometimes it's harder to copy a well known "real" place in the world because that
comes with expectations (either your own expectations or everyone else's).

3.  Select a season. If you do, it's much EASIER to be able to select the materials you need
because you have a filter to pass things through - for instance, you know you don't need to make
SNOW!

Anyway, these are just 3 of the 9 tips that are covered in Model Train Help Ebook. If you haven't
picked up the ebook, just click the above link to read more about it.

When Not To Make Your Scenery Perfect.
The Model Train Help Ebook includes lots of quick tips like this
one:

Create a Board Effect When Scratch Building

Here is an inexpensive technique to use when scratch building
structures out of balsa wood. Take a flat piece of thin balsa and
then use a metal dog comb with a straight edge to create a
board effect on the wood. This effect can look as good as any
manufactured siding. The key is to use a comb that is the scale
width.
We've all walked down city streets and observed the less than
perfect side to real city life. So, why make a cityscape on your
model railroad layout look like a scene from Fantasy Island.

When modeling an urban scene, never forget the garbage that
could be present. What about adding an old newspaper, some
garbage cans, cracks in the pavement, graffiti, an old rundown
shack, perhaps piles of junk, a broken-down old car and scrape
outside of major industry or railyard.

Although you don't want to overdo it, a bit of imperfection will
add to the reality of most city scenes. Look around you and
come up with your own ideas.
This rusty old tractor has
been there a while.