My Railroad Empire and Cheap Trees

Last summer while installing some purchased Pine trees on my HO layout, I became more distressed by them the longer I worked. They looked as artificial as they were. I started looking for some another source that was more realistic. I purchased a large box of tree material from Scenic Express in Pennsylvania. While their materials have some good qualities, I found the finished trees lacked something. I really liked their leaves but the finished tree didn’t satisfy me. Now don't get me wrong, Scenic Express is a wonderful outlet for scenery material including their trees but they were too flimsy for my hammer hands.

I have one basement window from which I can see the outside. My grandsons take great pleasure in banging on it when they visit to get my attention as I spend the better part of my life in the basement working on my railroad. As I stood there looking out the window while drilling another hole for a purchased pine tree, I saw a bush in a neighbor’s yard. On this bush were flowers with a shape that reminded me of trees. Since this plant belonged to my next door neighbor, I asked permission to clip a few. She said that it was ok but to wait until fall before I did it. While waiting for fall, I continued installing the Heki Trees and the material from Scenic Express I had purchased. I also have been using Scale Trees purchased from a local hobbyist (http://www.scaletree.com) that is currently in hibernation (as the owner calls it) for a while.

After fall finally arrived, I waited for the first frost to occur. Then I picked up a box and headed outdoors, taking my small cutters. I came back with a box of end-of-season blooms with which to experiment for making trees for my layout. First, I let them dry thoroughly. Then I took the nippers and cut off all the petals of the blooms but leaving the stems to make a basic tree shape. I did several to see how they would look and how they would hold their shape. They looked just like trees without leaves. Next I took one of them and sprayed it with the cheapest hair spray that I could find. Finally I sprinkled some green ground foam on them and let them dry. Presto a replacement for the same-o same-o pine trees I had purchased.

I then pulled up several of the same-o pine trees and replaced them with my homemade trees. The pine trees will move to the background on my layout. From a distance they look fairly good. These trees are more realistic, more natural and now I have something I made on the layout, not something I bought. I even used the material that Scenic Express sent with their trees called Noch to make the leaves. I prefer their leaves to the ones that come from the Woodland Scenics bottle. I am thinking about having my forest judged for scratch building a scene. They look great and cost about a nickel or less per tree, depending on how much of the ground foam material you use.

I save the petal blossoms that I remove and use them to make ground cover. After they dry thoroughly, I find them in an old blender such as you can pick up at a yard sale. After grinding them, I microwave them for about 15 seconds to remove any critters. Then I glue them in place using a mixture of water, Elmer's White blue, and dish soap or alcohol.

Trimming a flower

Looks more like a tree

Hair spray used to make ground foliage stick

Since that time, I have located three more of these bushes in my neighborhood--another next door and two across the street. I get funny looks from folks walking their dogs and people passing by as I harvest the end of season blooms from my neighbor’s plants, with their permission of course. It will take me about two or three years of harvesting to fully replace the existing pine trees on my layout. I believe the finished product is well worth the wait.

So what is three years you ask? Meanwhile, I continue building replacement structures using techniques I’ve learned from fellow model railroaders, such as making a tar paper roof using masking tape (thank you, Charlie Keeling). These new buildings will take the place of existing structures that no longer satisfy my enhancing modeling standards. I am also adding lights to my layout, weathering structures and equipment, experimenting with a miniature video camera mounted on an engine (an inexpensive way to submit pictures for your AP Scenery award), operating my sound-equipped locomotives, and studying the mysteries and discovering the wonders of Digital Command Control (DCC). I am retired and sitting on my duff-- eating, sleeping, working on my railroad, answering the telephone and giving advice to a fellow model railroader on how to do something, and bugging my wife or someone else. One other thing I do is I chew the arms of NMRA members in our division to get them to finish the paperwork for their AP Awards. Just ask the Members in Division 8 MCR NMRA about it!