I’ve used small twigs to make a pulpwood load for an Athearn bulk-end flat. Took forever to cut all the twigs to the right length. Some twigs/branches have side branches that are way out of proportion. These should be discarded. I think natural is best, but be prepared to look around for a while, then spend some time cutting and gluing.
lothar, I believe the spelling is “Crepe Myrtle”, sometimes seen as “Crape Myrtle”. As a kid in Cub Scouts, I had to give a 5-minute presentation on the plant and could not pronounce the name - until after the meeting was over. I have a bunch of them in the yard, so I am reminded daily about my embarrassment.
How patient are you? If you want oak… find an acorn…
This works! I had an exhibition layout but couldn’t get there on the day… my stand-ins were inundated with questions about how I made the logs… they didn’t like the answer when I got there…
Living trees… it occured to me that when you stand in (broadleaf) woodland a lot of what you see isn’t tree but the light coming through the leaves… I tried lambs wool to get the fine effect… but the natural fibres tend to clog together when colouring… then I stumbled on acoustic wadding… the stuff they put in the speakers of PA systems… this is synthetic… you can spray paint it… it doesn’t clog without having to be too careful. It sticks to branches of tree skeletons with spray glue. It stays “fluffed out”. Don’t recall specific makes but they’re probably different names her anyway… have fun…experiment.
Don’t know how flamable some mixes may be… try a test run and warn us what flares up PLEASE!
If you live in an area where filberts(hazelnuts)grow, the suckers make beautiful logs. They are straight ,have a very fine grained bark, no knots with a light taper and come in all scales. I built a little flat car size rack and loaded it with logs, hot gluing them together as i went. Being careful not to let the glue show. Then I removed them from the little rack,which when you make one will be the appropriate size for your scale, and glue a chain around each end, Making a nice little load that can be added or removed as your operations require.
Use the real thing, of course. I have a 7 car log train tha uses small (N) size twigs cut to car length. When trees are cut they are not all car length. So, you cut some tht look like the bottom of the tree and some that look like the top-with the limbs trimmed off. My log cars were made from tank car frames trimmed and with wooden floors on each end. The logs are glued together and glued to the cars, the scale chain is glued on each end and to the car frames. Can’t get any more realistic tha that. BTW, logging operations used any type of car that would haul logs. Very few of them had ta string of identical cars.
I thought log loads grew on trees. I wandered around the yard and found a whole batch of candidates, then culled down to ones not too bent outta shape.
For pulpwood, I used some reed/broomstraw from the floral shop.
What has always worked for me is using real trees. I have also heard of saving Sprue from plastic kits, and painting it brown for straight logs. I havent tried this though. I model the Cass Scenic in Mower days, Im on the Leatherbark Railroad " the Old and rusty."
As far as pulp wood loads go, At the Elk Valley Railroad Club We use saw dust for pulp loads, hoiwever I highly reccommend what I do. That is to get fome stick out of your yard ( these are best when harvested after a wind storm.) and a Knife and wittle off the bark. This is realistic, and creates as much as you want depending on the size of the log.
I was at the Clarion Jamboree back in April ( this is an event presented by the I-80 group of the NMRA) and they used a foam block, and pasted the pulpwood as siding.
What is it about you guys tonight. this isnt an art gallery. And thats what most of these photos are, art.
I have “Red Tips” in my yard that worked out well. The bark is thin/flakey and debarks easily. Ceder can also look good. I also cut branches close to trunk where it flares out to make stumps. Gotta have stumps in the forest. [2c]
I’m using liquorice sticks I can find at supermarket.
They are about 10 cm long and about 1 cm diameter. They have to be selcted, because not all of them are straight. In any case bark texture is really great
Romano
in MR December 1993 you’ll find the article "Christmas trees make great pulpwood loads "; wait until a few days after Christmas…and you’ll have all the “pulpwood” you’ll ever need .“The tree variety with good bark detail that’s suitable for HO scale is the noble fir. …Collect as many limbs as you can - you’ll need more than you think! …
. I suggest letting the pulpwood dry out before cutting the loads as the logs shrink as they dry.”
I have been cutting Mountain Laurel, which has a smooth bark, looking for straight pieces. They are right in the woods around our house so they don’t cost anything. If you are doing an early era, you might try cutting the ends with a champher and a little roughness on the cut adds to the look. Also cutting some of the bark off the sides will make it look as if it had been pulled on the ground. I am working in HO
Russ russhayes@cox.net
My grandfather used to model pulpwood in HO back in the 1950’s, here are two photos of the only remaining piece of his original layout:
Angle View - Pulpwood Car
Front View - Pulpwood Car
I remember asking him how he made the pulpwood loads and he told me they were made from matchsticks, he just cut the ends off and glued them into place.
He operated the Pioneer Timber Company in Pineville, LA and actually sold pulpwood to the local paper mills. So he had hands on experience with creating the model loads.
I remember hearing the stories about when they would drive through the paper mill towns that the process of making paper would create a distinct smell…it really stunk. Everyone would complain about how bad the smell was, and then he would tell everyone not to complain because that smell meant that here was bread on the table.
The next time I am up in Humboldt County I plan on grabbing a few fallen redwood twigs to use as redwood logs for my mini logging layout project–maybe get some chunks of fallen branch around 1-1.5" in diameter to represent big redwoods with 8-12’ wide trunks, and a few smaller sticks.
I might have to look into the crepe myrtle as a landscaping solution…I can see how a presentation on them would be embarassing if one neglected to pronounce the “e” at the end!
Hey guys. I just realized that I have a huge Crepe Myrtle tree in the yard on the north side of my house, and three other saplings in 5-gallon planters ready for planting. I will have to cut a few branches this weekend to play with on the logging portion of my soon-to-be-layout.
[:-^]All of the above are great suggestions. I like natural stuff. On Bill Henderson’s Coal Belt Railroad he uses all natural stuff[;)]. Scotch scouring pads for bushes and brambles, buffing pads for pine trees and hedges. Natural twigs out of the back yard for logs and trees.
Hobby Lobby, in the flower arrangement department, or artifical flower dept, they have bags of stuff for a couple of bucks, a lot cheaper the Woodland Scenics. You can make all kinds of trees and ground cover, as well as cut trees with the bag of dried twigs.
Save all of your sawdust when you cut your wood for your bench work. [:D] You take a one or two inch piece of foam rubber cut to fit you gondola’s, spray paint the foam rubber with a saw dust matching color, bevel the sides to round the top then press some sawdust on the fresh painted surface of the foam rubber and place it in the car. You can do all kinds of loads this way, coal, gravel, rocks, etc.
You want a corn field, find one of these door mats, with the green plastic surface, look at it closely it looks like HO corn stalks. [dinner]Cut it to fit, voila a corn field. Sprinkle the dirt over it and there you have it.
[bow] That’s enough for now.
Robert
WTRR
Hub City Division
The logs in the picture appear to be licorice root. I remember learning years ago that it made
excellent logs, but it was darned hard to find. As I recall, Alexander Models used it for the loads
on its log buggies. And the only place that I ever saw it for sale was at Knott’s Berry Farm in
California.
Sometiimes you can cut around the branches and forks and get some decent looking logs.
I also recall that some resin logs were sold years ago, but those are not longer made. Perhaps
there is a new market for this.
Bob Hainstock