Help with Farm scene...

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I would like to develop a farm scene, but seem to have creator’s-block. If anyone could give me some suggestions, it would help a lot. I have a barn, a farmhouse and a truck. I also have a white pickett fence that I would like to include, perhaps around a lawn? Anyway, here is the basic scene. I want a dirt road (driveway) coming in from the edge of the module, near the field. I am not sure where to place the structures (and proximity), and scenery, or what else to include in the scene (i.e. animals, pertinent detail objects, etc.) I also thought of maybe including a windmill or grain bins. Thanks in advance.

Jeremy

2

Put the house closest to the road. Put the barn at the other eend of the farm yard. The garden should be handy to the house. Keep th eyard small, farmers have other things to do than mow lawns. Use lots of fences to guide the criters to the proper places. Have grass and small trees along the fence lines, farmers did not keep fences clean, and the pheasents used them for nesting. Ad animals and a famer chopping wood, with a wood pile.

Add trees to the hillside, farmers needed a wood lot. Your hillside still looks mowed.

You have a great start. The beauty will be in the details. Looking forward to the pic of progress.

3

Yep Art is right on with House and Barn position . I’d add lots of small buildings for Chickens etc

alot of barns where i grew up had fenced areas next to the barn for hogs and/or keeping some cows from the herd

4

Since you have a dairy barn (indicated by the silo) I’d put some cows on the hill and make it a pasture. Barbed wire fences would do fine, posts and fine thread, around the fields and a lane leading to the barn. Use the picket fence sparingly, maybe along the driveway, they aren’t much for holding livestock. Woodlot could be across the main road (off stage). A rather small operation to have a grain bin. If you are modeling the modern era you could say the dairy is out of busisness and put up board fences and have horses.

5

A couple of additional notes:

Silos (vertical cylindrical animal feed storage tanks) go right alongside the barn. Farm machinery is usually sheltered in structures that look like rough carports, open on a couple of sides in mild climate areas. (If your farm is in Minnesota, the shelters will be reasonably weatherproof, frequently with wood or oil heaters.) If there’s enough room, the shelters are laid out to minimize maneuvering - trick driving is a time-waster, and no farmer has ever had enough time.

A configuration that was (and still is) popular in New England had the house close to the public road, the barn in the back and a connecting line of vehicle and equipment sheds, workshops and storage sheds. That way, the farmer could reach the barn to care for the “critters” even in the heart of a full-blown blizzard. Of course, the down side is the marginal fire safety. With everything connected, usually built of wood, if a fire gets a start, everything burns.

If the ground is rocky, a lot of the fences will be rubblestone walls - just mounds, nothing fancy.

Areas used by motor vehicles may be stabilized by applications of gravel. If the path’s primary users are four-legged, the surface will be dirt (mud.)

Chuck

6

I think the tractor needs some sort of implement like a cultivator since it appears to be in a row-crop field, and from the looks of the tractor in that era maybe a grainary type storage or wooden corn-crib would be more appropriate than say a grain bin and that would depend on what crops are growing. With the windmill don’t forget the stocktank and pumpjack. For other details maybe include a post pile, and a junk pile, wow there’s so many things to include on a farm scene if you really think about it, i could go on and on about all the buildings and stuff on our farm.

The fence in the field doesn’t look right because there should be end rows along it or a grassy place to turn tractors/combines around.

And the barn doesn’t seem quite to scale, on our farm we have an old dariy barn just like that without the silo and i would think it should be just as big as the house, maybe the picture has a bad perspective to it though. Oh and that red tractor needs 2 be tossed for a pretty looking green johnny-popper [:D]

7

…dung heap near the barn, feed trough, water trough, chickens, dog(s), kids teeter totter beside the house, a big oak with roap swing, power line, Fuller Brush salesman in a van coming up the drive, wife with shotgun awaitin’, clothesline with diapers…lots and lots of diapers…, somebody working in the fields…hoeing maybe…, windmill and a dugout nearly full of water,…

8

Paint, that’s the first thing it needs, both barn and house, and the silo should look like wood. Next measure the area between hill and plowed field, get a ceiling tile and make the farm diorama on your work bench. Every thing’s to level, by using a tile it raises the farm up from right of way, then you could add fence row with brush and small trees between the two. The house should be a little higher than the barn. You need some sheds or leantos for equipment. Plows, balers, manure spreader, another tractor, a pick up, mini van or station wagon, depending on era, that’s a big house=large family. Dog house, picnic table, a couple of big oaks or maples near house, a tire swing, and if it’s a dairy, even that small, you need a milk house, and maybe a garage. Add some dense shrubs at foot of hills, then large trees going up the hill. Add a brush row between plowed field and right of way, also a small pile of talous or stones, from when they cleared field after first plowing.

9

I have to agree with the others on this one, house closer to the road,barn and outbuildings in the back ground. Might think about making you field a little smaller, (model a part of a big field) to gain some more room. Also you will need some old worn out tractors and plows maybe along the fence row.
Here are some pics of my farm scene, although it maybe not at all what you want, maybe you can get some ideas for your own.

Hope this helps you some, Keep us posted with pics as you go. Mike

10

I can’t disagree with what’s been written so far, but let me add on…

Definitely a SMALL yard. For most small family farms, land is a premium and would be used to hold livestock (for grazing), a garden (veggies and such), or cultivation.

A Windmill would most likely be right on top of or right next to a well. Here in northern Maryland, these are usually hand-dug pits that are stone lined (fieldstones) and covered with a wood platform-- usually about 8’ x 8’.

Most dairy farms around here though-- the barn would be closest to the road, so that the dairy trucks don’t rumble by the house. You’ll also find that the barns are placed in a way that is typically downwind from the house.

The type of livestock and the era will dictate your fencing-- most modern cattle ops (dairy or beef) would choose what is called “five wire New Zealand fencing”. It’s litterally five wires that run across vertical (usually cedar posts) about 4.5’ high. If you want to follow the traditional New Zealand pattern-- which is becoming popular here in Maryland – you segment the pastures in 1 acre lots with gates and gated “paths” between. This helps with graze rotating (and makes the soil conservation folks real happy).

Some cattle farmers will use the same posts, but run “box wire”, with a strand or two of barb wire (1 in the middle, 1 on the top). For temporary pasture, farmers will sometimes run two strands of electrified barb wire using steel stakes.

Sheep farmers also use the same arrangement…

With horses, you will tpically see four or five board fencing. One little detail touch-- each post will have a vertical board nailed to the face of the fence boards as “extra protection”.

With hogs-- they just live in a pit. Barb wire all the way. Hogs don’t like pain. It will also be muddy, sloppy, and crappy.

If you are using hogs or cattle, don’t forget corn cribs. These can be slatted wooden structures OR cylind

11

Wow! This is a lot to consider!! Unfortunately, this being on a club layout, and not everyone (including myself) having thought out realistic details (such as the place to turn around in the field and an implement behind the tractor), and the fact that most of the stuff we have to use on the layout was donated, or sold for dirt cheap. The barn is a Bachman “Plasticville” structure, and is most likely too small! Of course, the structures will recieve some paint and weathering…

Having said the above, I must thank everyone deeply for their contribution to this subject, and I will be referring to it many times as the scene progresses. I even took a drive today to try and get a real life perspective on farms, and the type of farms they are, plus the other chores the farmers may tend.

Below is a pic of the basic placement of things as of today, and an imposed illustration of the basic scene (all of the details of course will fall into place… I hope!) The red “X” is an alternate place for the windmill, and otherwise an area which I (and other club members) can’t figure out what could be modeled in this area. By the way, there are 3 of us working on this scene, all of us knowing jack, about farms in general. Having read the recent posts tonite, I can bring several suggestions for this area to the other members and see what we decide on. Maybe someone on the forum could favor a specific scene to realisticaly put this scene together?[#welcome]

Thanks again everyone!

Jeremy

12

In order to give you more suggestions on putting the scene together a specific time period would be helpful. By the looks of the tractor which appears to be a Farmall H or M or maybe a 300 or something looks like you could be modeling the 40’s, 50’s or 60’s

Oh and i don’t mean to be nit picky but i personally have never scene hogs kept in by means of barbed wire. Most generally hog wire or steel panel fencing attatched to T or wooden post would be more prototypical with a single electrified wire low to ground in front of it.

13

I am not familiar with New England farms so take this in that context but in Kansas there are always old rusty unused implements, trucks, and tractors sitting about often overgrown with weeds. Lots of dirt, mud and weeds everywhere but in the fields. Gravel driveway to the house & main entrance to the barn. Silage cribs or at least hay bail stacks sitting about. Frequently used imlements lined along the fence. Lots more sheds, fences, and junk of all types. Fuel rack (barrels on an overhead rack). And as someone else said the barn is way too small compared to the house. I think I would hunt for a smaller house or a larger barn.

The soil in the field looks grey rather than brown or a good rich black like a farmer would like.

The “crops” look really good. What are they made of?

Kiowa Kansas Station (RIP 07/27/2006). Note the weed overgrown rusty implements sitting lower right, and this is IN TOWN! There are actually a whole line of them there.

569×352 45 KB

Farm just outside of Garden City Kansas. Note the windmill (without blades) on the far right. Junk trucks just to left of center, piles of junk all over, weeds all over, old reefer cars used for storage units (why I took the picture). The ubiquitous quansit hut on the far left.

as usual click the pictures to enlarge

14

Hi Jeremy,

Maybe you can borrow some ideas from my partially completed version:

http://www.stremy.net/SRA/Kaufmann/Kaufmann.html

I still need to put windows in the house (there will be a work crew installing them), manure piles, chicken pen, and a second tractor with a disk harrow etc etc, but the basics are all there.

Your barn is a bit small in relation to the house (and the verhicles). Place the barn to create some forced perspective. Also you might want to add some crows around the farm, pidgeons on the barn roof and, of course, weather stains and bird droppings. Aluminum craft paint will color the metal roof. Then weather with a weak india ink solution.

Definitely add animals, kids, a tire swing, mutt dog, junk piles, tool sheds, a pickup truck and whatever else strikes your fancy. Trees will make a large visual difference. A bunch on the hill and a large one or two near the house. Don’t run the plowed rows right up to the fence. The tractor needs room to turn around between passes. Alternately, make one pass parallel to the fence. BTW that is a good looking farm house.

Happy creating!

Karl

15

I’m going to try and respond to the quotes above…

There is a problem when it comes to time period. Since the layout is freelanced, and is open to all time periods, and railroads (unfortunately), one module could have scenes of modern (2000 era), and another, old time (1900-1950), so the idea when assembling a scene on the layout is to make it realistic looking, but try to appeal to all era’s. I know this isn’t always possible, and in some cases certain details crash the scene, but I’m just a member, trying to excercise relative modeling! So in this case, it’s okay to have an out-of-date tractor working the fields, and perhaps an out of porportion barn. Come on guys, cut me just a little bit of slack! [:)] This club is a low-key, anything goes type of club, and I/we are still realatively new to MR-ing so I just wanted you all to know.

Hogs? I didn’t know Hogs were being included? I thought I had a dairy barn, and cows were to appear in the scene! And how could you tell those pencil lines are barbed wire?

By the way, the layout isn’t in New England, it’s in Montana. (or did I miss something?) But I guess that point doesn’t really matter.

Karl, thanks for sharing your pics of your scene! Very nice.

Once again, thank you everyone, this forum is wonderful.

Jeremy

16

Your best bet? Take a little drive out in the country and introduce yourself to a few farmers and tell them what you’re doing. Don’t forget to take your digital cam with you. Make an offer to the farmer to come see your layout sometime. Most farmers have computers nowadays, so ask him for his email address so you can send him pictures now and then to keep him apprised of your progress. He’ll no doubt download them and brag to his farmer buddies that HIS farm has been save for posterity.

17

I take it you’re in HO? Get the Plasticville farm buildings set that goes with the barn, it gives you a small equipment shed, chicken coop, dog house, corn crib and some assorted animals. When you paint them up they look pretty good. Put the big truck on another part of layout and get Model Power’s Ford pick-up and a Classic Miniatures sedan. Woodland Scenics make a great windmill and some older farm equipment to add to scene. Don’t add too many trees behind house, a couple of big ones between house and barn will take away from smaller barn size. Even for Montana! When you add fence line around from field to barn and surrounding farm, use some poly fiber covered with ground foam to give the look of a brush line between right of way and farm. Put a fence line along base of hill to rock outcropping, then straight along your brush and add some brush and thicker grass for pasture, then put some denser trees up on side hill.

18

If you’re looking for more tractors, Springside Models [UK] have some nice white metal kits - in 4mm scale though. Mine is a Case Model S, c1942, which is a U.S. brand. Bought on ebay.

Mike

19

Hi Jeremy,

I have come in too late to add much of use. The other guys have give you good suggestions.

Something I would suggest is that your barn is far too close to the house. I know you would hate me for it, but I question whether you have room for both. How about having just the barn? I can’t see what is along past the crop field. Maybe the house could go there.

That rock outcrop on the side of the hill looks great. I would not hide it behind trees. Put some trees around it by all means, but don’t hide it. Sheep or goats could graze on your hill. Too steep for cows or horses.

The windmill? You will really hate me, but there is one practical problem. No one in his right mind would tuck a windmill in under such a steep hill. The wind would be too restricted. Take your windmill down past the end of the crop field at least.

For my money put in a few run down looking sheds like the other guys described for farm machinery. Make a stock yard for loading livestock on to trucks where you have the red X. Then at one of your sidings make a stock yard where they get loaded on to train