What do u model along side you track?
Hot Boxes and other equipment, animals scenes,
road crossing ,brigdes, viaducts
and what is your main reference
I’ve been adding some (fairly tidy) yard clutter - an old container used for parts storage (many preserved lines over here do this with old containers), a crew hut made from the body of an old Model Power work caboose (this was a flatcar with a small crane and a crew compartment on it, I repainted and lettered the flatcar using the “Turtle Creek” decals from MR a while ago and used the crew compartment as a hut). There are a couple of train crew figures “chatting” outside the hut - swapping a few stories before taking the next train up the line.
I usually model small piles of ties, extra rail, trash, buckets, telophone/telegraph poles, electrical boxes, etc… These are the things I usually see when walking the line. These items are the standard scenery items, I also do small scenes with vehicles, older rail cars, grade crossing, etc, but these are more rare.
DRAINAGE! I’ve been spending a lot of time recently carving away at the foam next to my tracks to create a realistic profile. There’s nothing I dislike more than a scenery profile that’s parallel with the track. Since I’m modeling the midwest, it’s actually harder to realistically blend the scenery into the grade profile.
Everything else is a piece of cake: roads, bridges, grass, streams, squirrels…