popcicle sticks and tongue depresser sticks

I’ve asked a few questions here before and got good results. Now I’ve got a real good question. A wonderful neighbor gave me a bunch of popcicle sticks and tongue depressers. She found her daughters collection in the garage (crafts projects) and gave them to me. I have 2 large boxes full of the things. Years ago, built a house HO scale and torched it to put on a hill to resemble a burnt out house. Looked good until the cat discovered it to be a good scratching area for the claws to derail the trains. Help! I’ve probably got about 2-3 thousand of them things. Hate to throw them away, Any body got any ideas? Thanks Choo choo

There have been some nice coal mining structures, and very large ones, published over the years with weathered popsicle sticks sans rounded ends.

IIRC, Spacemouse used popsicle sticks for fencing and plank sidewalks in his Old West village.

People who have used them for crossties have had mixed success. For me, they always split…

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

Thanks you good railroad workers! Does anyone know of a web site address that might help me here?

Try http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HOYARDSALE/

I use wood coffee stirrers for a lot of things, like this plank fence:

But, these are much thinner than popsicle sticks, and I sliced them in two to get boards that were more to scale with my HO layout.

If you build structure kits, I’d advise using them as inside bracing. If you’re going to illuminate the building, put a stick in each corner of the walls. This both adds strength (by providing a much larger gluing surface) and also covers the cracks between wall segments to keep the light from leaking out through the joints.

I keep a bunch of these around my workbench to stir paint and apply glue. To my eye, though, they are too thick to be used for visible construction parts.

When I was in O scale I found that popsicle sticks worked well for superelevating curves. I don’t know if you’d be able to do too much as far as making buildings or fences out of them, but for bracing as suggested or “under the scenery” stuff as shims etc. they could come in handy.

Thanks you all for your suggestions. As always you’ll always have good answers and suggestions.

i think if you cut them down to scale sized planks of lumber you’ll find mor uses for them

Good idea but a lot of sawing. Might on a cold winters night. Thanks!!