So I’m planning a layout on a 4x8 piece of plywood (I have planned it out with SCARM). However, I want to change it during the christmas season. Does anyone here know how to create a dusting of snow like you would see in the stereotypical TV winter special?
My layout is going to be a short line based in Southern California, if that helps. I don’t need the snow to be prototypically accurate (since I live here, I can confirm we don’t have snow). I just need it to cover the layout and give it a christmas feel.
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Good Luck, I’ve wanted to do that for years. Forget the Woodland Scenics Snow Flocking, it will haunt your layout forever. You can’t get rid of the tiny white flakes. If someone wants a nice permanent snow the WS snow works great.
The only method I used that worked was to make up little mats and sections to overlay scenery and structures and carefully apply them. In theory you can make up different sets for different ‘snowfalls’, have drop ins to simulate unplowed, partially-plowed track, the effect of switch heaters etc.
Give a lot of thought to the scene. A desert would be easier than farm country.
A recent MRR article showed a superb NW layout full of mountains. You could realistically model quite a bit of permanent snow on such a layout, maybe enough to make it Christmassy enough for your purposes.
Another idea is to build interchangeable modular scenes, in fact that NW layout shows complete lift out scenery sections, for access, and if you have storage space you could make “winter” versions of lift out sections.
Another MRR issue shows a layout with removable mini diorama scenes because the modeller wanted to construct more scenes than his layout would accommodate. From time to time he swapped different scenes in and out of fixed size recesses in the layout benchwork. Unlike modular railroad sections the track always stays in the same place, just the industries or set areas of scenery are swapped in and out.
For snowy track remember the moving trains will be only after the ploughs have gone through. You might easily cast thin removable sections of dirty white flat topped “snow” to insert between the rails. The top of the ploughed snow will be basically flush with the railheads at 1/87 scale. Think of road crossings but dirty white and in long sections. For the windrows on each side of the track make the dirty snow wedge shaped with the cut side facing the rails cleaner than the top and far side to simulate the throwing action of the ploughs that must have been through just before your trains arrived. These would have to be notched to realistically fit over the ballast shoulders which would help to keep them in place.
Finally, maybe just set your season at early spring or late fall to begin with. After all you have to start with some season in mind (unless you’re modelling Southern California, it of course never changes season). Have just some permanent snow. Make trees and bushes removable with identical snow covered replacements.
I used the shaker bottle of W/S ‘snow’ for this scene. I dusted the scene, left it that way for a few weeks, and then vacuumed it all up. It came up quite cleanly:
They should work just fine, possibly better than at ‘room temperature’ although we could always check the designs in SPICE or a comparable design environment…
All the lube and materials testing was done back in the bad old days of BMEWS and some of that stuff, particularly gear lube, motor bearing lube (largely graphite and silicone-based oils) and plastic strength are known. Might look at spacex stuff too. Might need some strategic tracers and heat plates to keep equipment warm while running!
We know. That’s why we used our own sense of humor to play along. Especially since in the context you proposed it, the railway would be in HO scale, where after even an early snowfall you would be modeling the return of the glaciers and have to feature characters from Ice Age.
You need to give others the same respect for humor that you demand for yourself. You might have fun that way.
This topic has me really worked up, that snow looks better than GREAT Selector!! I want to try it.
I tried a small spot on my layout about 20 years ago and had a devil of a time getting it up. I was using a Sears ShopVAC. What vacuum do you use? What do you do about trees and bushes?
One of the scenic product companies makes a shaker bottle of snow. Its little balls that can be vacuumed up. I’ve used them for Christmas layouts before.
Thanks, Mel. When I look back on that first scene, I even got the lighting right…strong shadows, lengthened by the low altitude of the winter sun. I don’t remember attending to that important element, but…there she be.
If I had a Shop Vac, it would have been out in the garage by the time I attempted this temporary setting. So, the vacuum would have been a Kenmore canister type, perhaps using the crevice tool for good measure.
When I apply various types of scenery materials, I glue them pretty securely with wood glue. I would have had a fair bit of that material in the dust bin after vacuuming none-the-less. If I felt the need, I simply would have dusted the scene with more of two or three types of ground foam, flocking, the odd bush that got sucked away, glued it tight, and moved on to other experiments and maintenance.
Turns out I did the snow twice, first in 2008 and later in 2011, with the Q2 in the latter case, different places on the layout. Both came up so well that I couldn’t object to either the idea or its eventual results.
