I spent a couple of hours cutting and mounting masonite hardboard for my backdrop today. This generated a lovely pile of brown sawdust. I could not resist bagging it up for possible use on the layout. I would love to hear about any imaginative use for this stuff.
Sounds like good material for a vaccuum cleaner test.[(-D][(-D][(-D] Well, you did say you wanted an imaginative suggestion !!! Maybe you could use it to simulate a yet to be planted field if your modeling any farm scenes.
Forest litter!
Sprinkle a bunch where you want to plant a forest, add some “dead” branches, and spray with scenic cement. Plant a gazillion trees on it and it should look like the dead leaves that coat the forest floor!
Piles of leaves in a residential yard.
Dirt roads? I’ve been using spare ballast to make some gravel roads on my layout recently, but I suspect sawdust would make a great muddy track.
Back before Woodland Scenics etc, a common way to make grass was to take sawdust, dye it greenish brown, let it dry, and scatter it over wet tan paint. Depending on how fine the masonite dust it you could try the same thing.
Dave Nelson
Mix with plaster and use for scenery. I have done that with sawdust from cutting sound board and masonite, as well as regular wood sawdust. it makes a good filler for plaster on mountains, etc.
Thanks guys. I had thought of using it as dirt, but I really like the forest litter idea. Anyway, got to get the back drops completed before I get too detailed.
Simon
You could sprinkle a little between and around the rails of a grain terminal and say it was spilled and rotting wheat.
If you have a grain terminal. And if it ships wheat.
Put lots of birds around it.