Hi gang. I was just thinking about the various landscapes and scenery options out there from deserts to grass lands to hills, mountains, etc. I personally tried to copy Nevada which includes pine trees and brush clusters here and there with a sand base. I’ve built three other layouts over the years but I’ve put more work into this one than any of the others. My only complaint is that I wish the layout was twice the size that it is but I just don’t have the room…
Some pics would be nice. But I like mountains and area with a lot of expose rocks’ strata’ ect. I have done desert’ plains’ lakes ‘rivers’ but rocks cliffs are just fun to me.
Sure, most of us would like an aircraft hanger to build a layout in but then we wake up to reality.
In the area where I live most layouts are predominantly filled with green tree and shrub covered hills or low mountains (northeast), which to me is very boring. I grew up mostly in California which has a dry climate and a number of road trips acrossed Nevada, Utah and Colorado got me hooked on Rio Grande.
I’ve chosen the western half of the Rio Grande as a favorite area to model, specifically Grande Junction CO and west into Utah. That is a very pretty area with Ruby Canyon and lots of scrub brush and interesting sand stone formations, some scrub tree’s etc. One material which worked pretty well as a scenery base is Polyblend Sanded Grout which comes in a nice range of earth tone colors to choose from and is fine enough for HO scale.
Here is a photo with just the Sanded Grout down to give you an idea:
Here is an area with a bit of scrub brush going on:
Looks like the bookcliffs to me! [:)]
Thats the general area and look I was after, although Ruby Canyon as well. This is the first chance I’ve had to try my hand at scenery so it’s a bit generic. I’ve built 3 layout so far but like the OP, this is the furthest along I have gotten. I am planning on moving this fall so it was torn down during the past month. I’ll use the things I learned on this layout and improve on them on a future layout.
I followed Rob Spanglers method of making scrub brush from paint stripper pads:
Nice work.
I’m sure you’ve done the research, but two of the predominate shrubs in the bookcliffs, particularly where they parallel I-70 (the tracks run along the interstate for a long way) are big sagebrush and grease-wood. Those bottom ones are almost the exact color of big sage brush and the upper ones are the same color and form as grease-wood. The other one that’s missing is rabbitbrush which is pale yellow and at certain times of the year gets colorful yellow flowers on top.
I model urban industrial and that’s not as easy as it sounds if done properly and following applicable EPA and OSHA rules.
Lonnie,
Appreciate the feedback. I’ve driven that route a number of times on 70 along the Book Cliffs back in the 80’s; it’s been some time since I’ve been through the area. I followed suggestions of Rob Spangler who models the Western Pacific in Utah, so it makes sense that the materials and colors he chose would match the predominating vegetation. In addition to that, I have a number of Rio Grande color books like Rio Grande in Color Vol’s 1,2,3 & 5 and Zephyrs thru the Rockies have some noice photo’s of those area’s. There are also lots of photo’s on the web of the area along the tracks, biggest difference is the color of ballast has changed from cinders in the 1970’s to light stone ballast in recent years. Despite being desolate, it’s very pretty in it’s own way.
Nice work! And of particular interest to me - part of my future layout will focus on this area, but a number of decades earlier. Eventually I hope to lay rails for a freelanced narrow gauge line running from a connection with the Rio Grande mainline at White House, UT, down through the Colorado River canyon to Castle Valley and Moab, and then up into the La Sal Mountains. I’m modeling 1907, so the Utah side of General Palmer’s system is operated by the Rio Grande Western, which has merged with the Denver & Rio Grande but is still a few months away from consolidating into a single railroad in 1908. But I hope the RGW’s cameo on my layout will look much like your modeling, except with planished-iron-boilered steam engines and wood truss-rod cars.
Is there anywhere to see more of your layout?
Chris
I have modeled pretty much everything except deserts. They just are not my thing. I like my scenery green. Maybe with a bit of exposed rock.
.
I also enjoy crowded urban scenes.
.
-Kevin
.
Hills, rock cuts, bluffs, ridges, tunnels, bridges, water courses, snow-covered peaks, and soon I’ll have a layout with a glacier. The only flat layouts are on plywood, so I try for what I have encountered across three continents.
I always wanted to do like a forestry green scenery in the northeast around the time of Conrail and New York Central.
Although I live in desert which is very boring. I decided to model a small layout in Southern Pacific with a desert scenery before persuading a green scenery.
I prefer dense urban industry.
My kind of terrain! The setting, however, is not in the Rockies, but the Swiss Alps.
That’s absolutely lovely, Ulrich. [:P]
Having grown up in the Rockys before moving to beautiful Bakersfield [N] I model tall pines and lots of rock formations. I build almost everything for easy removal. Most of my trees are WS Tall Pines Kits (about 500). I use WS rock molds to make my rock cliffs and strata. Lots of dirt and gravel roads with small creeks and a small waterfall.
My mountainous layout helps take our minds off living in the California San Joaquin Valley[banghead].
This is a 2’ x 4’ removable section.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951