Thing I’ve never seen in a model train layout…


F

flaja

New Member
But would like to:

A cat walking the ridgeline of a roof on a house.

A squirrel running along a powerline.

A political rally in a layout depicting some time in the past.

Slot cars that match the model train’s scale so both cars and train are moving. (I have seen normal size slot cars used in a Leemax Christmas village; they were out of scale for the Leemax).

Holiday decorations of any kind in the layout’s scale.

A bird in mid-air.
 
I have a cat on the ridge of a house on my layout. It is based on a neighbor's cat that we always saw on the roof. I have no idea how he kept getting up there.

My layout has a total of seven cats on it. One came with a kit; the others were in a Preiser packet. The sitting cats are "looking" into an area where there isn't anything - a specialty of cats.

I like the idea of a squirrel on a line.
 
Fazby said:
I have a cat on the ridge of a house on my layout. It is based on a neighbor's cat that we always saw on the roof. I have no idea how he kept getting up there.

My layout has a total of seven cats on it. One came with a kit; the others were in a Preiser packet. The sitting cats are "looking" into an area where there isn't anything - a specialty of cats.

I like the idea of a squirrel on a line.
Click to expand...

My neighborhood used to have quite a few cats that liked to climb onto the flat roof of my house. They usualy climbed a nearby cedar tree and then jumped, but I saw one climb a ladder one day when I was doing some work on the roof. After I did some repairs part of my roof had a pitch and I heard a cat slide off down it a time or two. It was only about 8 feet to the ground so nobody was hurt.

Right after I started grade school my babysitter had a Siamese that fell off of her roof and broke his leg. The vet put a plaster of Paris cast on the animal. People autographed the cast just like it was for a human. Could you put a cast on a model train cat?

I don't think you could find a model train squirrel; I've never seen one in the hobby shops. Using N or HO scale may make a squirrel too hard to see.
 
Guilford Guy9887 said:
Fish in a pond or river

A school

Airport
Click to expand...

What abot fish jumping out of a pond?

I've never seen a school either- or for that matter just about any other civic building.

I've also never seen anything for an airport- probablly too hard to get it past the TSA.
 
Airport - Model Railroader had a layout with one a year or two ago. He just had a taxiway and I think a hanger. The rest was by suggestion.
They also had Harry Truman campaigning from the back of the train on a layout recently.
I did an airport as a kid with 1/72 scale light aircraft on my HO scale layout.
Bachmann's always had a way too small school in it's HO Plasticville line.
Someone makes a pack of snakes and rats and critters in HO. I think I would lose them!
A friend of mine wants to see me do a sports stadium. That would be unique but I don't have the real estate.
 
You'll see a lot more of this stuff if you go to train shows. I've seen it all except for the working slot cars.
 
I had a mouse living in the foam in one of my mountains on the last layout. Dug himself a little hole and hung out for who knows how long. He was finally evicted when the layout came down.
 
On the layout before this one I had a large airport on top of a mountain. I had a 6ft. long runway, 2 hangars, a rest. & the tower. Had planes hanging up that were landing & taking off. This layout doesn't have the space.
I would like to see a Nascar track, Motorcycle dirt track, Airplane race track(pilon to Pilon), moving mountain climbers, outside elevator on a skyscraper(motoized).
 
Isn't there a guy on here doing a slot car/HO scale layout?

I got a package of N scale cats and dogs a while back. One's on top of a dead car, the other's in a window. Didn't think to put one on a roof, not a bad idea.

Sparrows and such are probably out for N scale, but something like a crow or a hawk might work. Low tech: put it on a thin wire, hook the wire to a gearmotor, sink the gear motor in a pile of garbage. There you have it: animated seagull. :D
 
402drvr said:
I had a mouse living in the foam in one of my mountains on the last layout. Dug himself a little hole and hung out for who knows how long. He was finally evicted when the layout came down.
Click to expand...

Next time set up a video camera; it'd make a good horror movie.
 
Can you get a sky-ride gondola like you’d see taking people from one mountain to another? For things like Leemax and Department 56 you can get a Santa Claus and sleigh that hangs on a wire and moves in a circle. But if you had a gondola set up you could have him go from one end of your layout to another then have him go behind something to turn around- if you could get a train scale sleigh.

You could do the same thing with an airplane.
 
One of the things I've been wanting to do is build a replica of Union Station in Houston as it existed when the RR operated out of it. It's owned now by the Astros and their ball park was built behind it. Because of this thread I now think it would be cooler to build it as is presently with the ball park. The left outfield wall has a train that runs up and down a short section of track every time the Astros hit a HR. Might be difficult to replicate the train and find ballplayers for the field but it would be an interesting challenge.

I also like all the suggestions in the original post and will probably incorporate them into a new layout. I never thought about any of the suggestions you guys came up with. They're all great. Really like the cat on the roof (I have one who does that) and the fish jumping out of the water.

Thanks for posting all the cool ideas!
 
Larry said:
On the layout before this one I had a large airport on top of a mountain. I had a 6ft. long runway, 2 hangars, a rest. & the tower. Had planes hanging up that were landing & taking off. This layout doesn't have the space.
I would like to see a Nascar track, Motorcycle dirt track, Airplane race track(pilon to Pilon), moving mountain climbers, outside elevator on a skyscraper(motoized).
Click to expand...

JL Innovative has a speedway grandstand kit. They also offer 30's - 40's era type Indy car kits and motorcycles kits. I'd love to do even just a 1/4 mile dirt oval with their kits but just don't have the space. :( On the otherhand I could do a diorama.... yeah, like I need something else to do! :rolleyes:
 
I have seagulls in the water on my layout and a few with monofilament wire right above the water.
 
I made a heron out of fine strands of wire and put in the edge of my pond.

So far only a few have noticed it.

A hawk on a power line would be a good idea.
 
I never see a siding or a branch line either being built or torn away. Nor a new water tower being constructed.
 
Someone throwing a rock into a pond with ripples on the water.

A train that casts a shadow in the water as it goes over a bridge.
 
I know there are some out there but I have never seen a paper mill, what a project that would be, especially if you could have smoke betching from the stacks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top