In one of the many Kalmbach How to books they said something about making a tunnel of trees from wire screen and what ever tree top material you want to use.
I am very interested in this idea because I am modeling central Iowa and there are no mountains or large enough hills to justify putting in any kind of other tunnel. I want to hide the entrance area for my hiden staging and also a return loop.
What I would like to know is if anybody has seen this done or if they have tried it and how did it turn out for them? I thought about some sort of industry that the train could enter, however I am not planning on using any that I think I could pass this off as prototypical.
[censored][|(][banghead] server!! I anwered and then it all stalled.
It should work, although I have never seen it done. Cut a square of chicken wire and shape it into the “tunnel”. Spray it black or very dark green. Then place it where you want it and insert/place tree armatures or something resembling trunks along each side of the base of the tunnel. Add foliage clusters, ensuring that many protrude through the tunnel roof to look natural and to hide the mesh. Good luck.
Last time I was in central Iowa, It was certainly more Hilly than the Detroit Michigan area… How about a simple cut with a tunnel entrance?? This photo is of the tunnel entrance going from Detroit to Windsor ON, Canada, probably circa 1930 or so… The entrance is still there but I don’t know if it’s actually used anymore… I think the trains nowadays are too tall for it.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t help staring at those old photographs and soaking in the scene. I look for human forms and wonder what they were thinking when the photo was taken, whether they knew it was being taken or not. Nostalgia…sigh.
I will take astab and say it was taken for the same reason we take pictures today, trains just capture our imagination and wonder. Since the first rail was laid, someone watched. [8D]
What maybe a nice grain silo complex? It wouldnt have to be served by rail, or you could make it looklike it was served on the side. You could easlit make it tall enough and make it long enough to have hide the back side of the entrance. Just a thought.
There are plenty of ways to hide the track leaving the scene. Entrance to my staging yards will be hidden by trees, and an interlocking tower. The spur that leaves that end of the layout farther back, will be going through ta building. That same building will also hide the lack of any modeled unloading for the covered hoppers that get spotted there. On the other end, the tracks pass behind the unloading shed for the steel fabricators. More trees will help close up that end of the tiny world.
Overpasses work well, too. (as has been previously mentioned) It should be pretty easy to have the ground built up, for the road that goes over the tracks. That type of road overpass, looks a lot like a tunnel opening.
While I have seen the “Tree Tunnel” idea employed once or twice, as well as in the magazines. I think a far better choice is to run the staging lead behind a structure of significant size where it disappears (the structure need not be served by the railway).
Tree Tunnels work better in magazine photos than in real life, since most of us have layouts set too low to allow a tree line to fully obscure a set of tracks going through the backdrop or into hidden staging. Unless the layout is near eye level, the illusion will be far from perfect.
My advice is to create cardboad mockups for both the tree line and structure ideas, place them on the layout, and see which suits your particular situation best.
Thanks for all of the ideas. I do like the suggestion about the building that may not be serviced by the RR. I am planning on having the layout at least 48" high. That should help with the illusion and the loss of the train.
I am also wanting to put a turn around loop under the staging tracks, but I need to work on the elevation difference for the two to coexist in the same area. Because the loop will be under the staging it won’t need to have as much clearance as it would if it were the other way around.
What do you think of that idea? Do you think it would work?
Rollieman - the Detroit tunnel is still in use today but overheight cars like double-stacks don’t run through it. If that photo is on the Detroit side then the bridge above is no longer there. My office is about a 3/4 mile from the tunnel. And in the middle of the parking lot of another of our facilities is the ventilation system tower for the Detroit side because the tunnel runs right under our parking lot.
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