Building Model Railway Trains and Model Train Scenery
The scenery and layout of model trains are a significant part of creating your personal layout. Add style to your model train layout with your own, custom scenery. If you’ve become weary of setting up and deconstructing model trains encircling your Christmas tree year after year, you may want to install something that can be displayed permanently.
Get started building model railway trains with some ideas for the theme and trackplan you’d like to achieve. Themes are a great way to add realism to your layout and add destinations to model trains. An example theme includes freight trains carrying coal to plants or freight to cities. Or a train transporting logs to sawmills. The trackplan is the design of the track. A simple trackplan is an oval or figure eight, whereas a more complex trackplan might include a double oval or folded dogbone. The theme and trackplan then provide the basis for building model railway trains and your model train scenery.
The foundation to build model railway trains is the benchwork. As a train hobbyist, you can build the benchwork to your own specs, or you can purchase a kit which has been pre-made. Purchasing an existing benchwork offers certain benefits. Kits will come predrilled and precut for you. They are also more solid and reliable than the usual rig of plywood on sawhorses. A kit also allows you to easily disassemble it so that you can take it to train expositions or even to another room in your house.
Needless to say, constructing a benchwork of your own is a complex, time-consuming process, but this option also allows you to customize it to your own specifications. You should begin by making a design to base your layout on. Decide on the size you’d like you benchwork to be. Also try to determine if you’d like to build additions onto it later. Measure the space in your house before you begin your layout. Also decide on the shape which will be on the top of your benchwork. You might make it circular, ovular, rectangular or square. The table’s legs are usually 28 inches, but as it’s your design, you can make them any height you’d prefer. When creating benchwork, it’s crucial to ensure that your setup is solid and can uphold any weight you need to put on it. A solid platform is usually plywood that measures between 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick. If you require portable benchwork, you might want to cut your plywood at several points prior to your final assembly.
Consider perspective as you construct the model train scenery around your railroad. The aim is to create the illusion that the layout is much larger than it actually is. This can be aided by varying levels of scenery. By moving the bigger trees to the front of your scenery, and keeping smaller trees to the rear or atop mountains, the illusion is maintained. Your landscape’s theme should also be reflected by your choice in model train scenery. For example, if your theme is ‘logging trains’, it helps to create terrain that is rugged and replete with trees. Lumberyards and sawmills are other bits of helpful scenery.
Expanding on your model train scenery, you might also choose to incorporate roads, bridges, fields, rock formations, tunnels and meadows into your landscape. Villages and towns full of tiny buildings are also an exciting aspect of a landscape. Model train scenery should also use very fine details. These can include street signs, telephone and power poles, bushes, underbrush, hedges, fences, flowers, animals, and even people. One really excellent touch is to add scenery with water, such as waterfalls, streams, rivers and ponds.
Building model railway trains can be an excellent expression of your creative talents when you build realistic and dramatic landscapes for your trains to venture through. Model train scenery adds realism and drama to your layout. Get started now with model trains and impress your friends with your great talent!
