Paul Bunyon could cut down an entire swath of trees with one swipe of his mighty axe, but I’ve been working to PLANT an entire swath of trees to provide a forest for the log-loading area of my Winneshiek & Western Rail Road. This is a 2’ deep shelf layout, set in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, so I needed plenty of trees. Here’s a view of Climax #9 at the Piney Flats water tank:
I’ve ridden the Cass Scenic Railroad several times, and have always been struck by the trees making a canopy by overhanging the track. The exhaust from the locomotive really shakes the branches. I know that this is second-growth timber at Cass and during the actual logging time most of the trees near the track may have been cut, but I still wanted to re-create that image. The big cut through the forested hill creates a scenic divider between the log-loading site of Piney Flats and the coal mining town of Darwin.
Finally, here is a bird’s-eye view of the log-loading area. The trees are goldenrod tops that I harvested late last fall, spray-painted green and then sprinkled with Woodland Scenics blended green turf after a spray of contact adhesive.
I still have some detailing to do, but for me that is one of the most enjoyable portions of the hobby. I need to add more scrub and brush, as well as a mule dragging a log towards the loading site. There is just enough room at the front of the layout for the addition of two “foreground trees” being “addressed” by my HO loggers and axe men.
Bill