Richard’s model railroad pine trees

Richard got in touch with this super quick ‘how to’:

“My pine trees are even quicker – I use the “needles” off an artificial Christmas tree. Drill a hole in the baseboard to take a matchstick, paint the “trunk” of the needle brown and slip it over the match. Hey presto! I did an entire forest of 60+ trees in an hour!

Not a terribly good picture (PICT1043) I’m afraid, and some of the trees had come adrift at the time, but you get the general idea…

Richard”


And some more tips sent in:


“I am new to model railroading and it took me awhile to decide on a layout plan. When I decided I found that I needed some material to raise the track. I found the ready made material but it cost to much. I bought some styrafoam, ripped it to the proper width on a table saw and cut notches in it to make it flexible for curves. I made about 50 feet of it for only a few dollars. By the way I used a layout plan from one of your contributers.

Thanks, Larry”


“my tip would be to make sure that there is access to all of your wiring and the inside’s of any tunnels in case of any type of issue, such as a derailment or exposed freight falling off a car..

Daryl”


“Jeff (with his motorized crane) has a great idea I would like to suggest may be adding more weight to his hook would make it operate easier..

Just add a brass weight may be 1/16th ounce or more above the hook,Real cranes have them .
They make the movement up and done better. We use to call them headache balls.
I Got the knots on my head to prove it. Lol

Thanks Al. Best to Jeff, keep it going.”


That’s all folks.

Don’t forget the ‘model house bundle deal‘ is you want to add some houses to your layout.

And if you’re running of to ebay anytime soon – have a look at the ‘ebay cheat sheet‘ here.

Best

Al

PS If you have any trouble with the links, just copy and paste these:

http://modelrailroadlayoutsandscenery.com/g_house.html

http://modelrailroadlayoutsandscenery.com/ebay_links.html

21 Responses to Richard’s model railroad pine trees

  1. Rob.Billing says:

    I would have liked to see a few more photo’s regarding Richards pine trees. Not sure of the matchstick approach. Otherwise it think it would be quicker. thanks. Rob

  2. Bob says:

    This sounds interesting but needs to be explained further.

    Thanks

  3. Bonny aka Granny Toot says:

    Sorry, but I couldn’t tell what Richard meant by his tree making method. Does he insert each needle of the Christmas tree in the match stick and what does he “slip” over the matchstick? However, the trees do look very nice.
    Bonny aka Grannytoot

  4. Thomas Meleck says:

    The pine tree suggestion looks great in the photos, but could you go into some more detail? It wasn’t clear to me how you obtained such great results. A close up photo of an individual tree would be terrific.

  5. Dave Robbo says:

    Hi there, I have just installed a Peco Double Slip Insulfrog crossing. When I try to cross it at low speed the loco will stop(no current). How do i over come this. I have asked a Peco Rep and he stated that they are not designed to be accessed slow, is this correct. If you have the time please reply to me email address.

    Dave

  6. paul Otway says:

    Nice pine trees

  7. Joe Vacha says:

    As far as weight for a crane hook you could use a round fishing sinker, it’s already split and all you have to do is squeeze it onto the line above the hook. I have my knots too.

  8. bryan says:

    want to try to build atlas layout #12 in dcc and was wondering how many amps the power supply has to be thanks bryan

  9. chris says:

    nice fir trees

  10. Andy says:

    A 5 amp system will do you fine. Either an NCE or Digitrax system can manage the load for that Atlas layout

  11. The very first model train set that I had was
    made by Marx Toys. My old man bought it
    for me for the Christmas of 1957 or 1958.
    Yep, I am a 62 year old baby boomer, LOL.
    Anyway, although Marx Toys was not in the
    same class as Lionel or the other popular
    brands of the day, if I still owed it, I bet
    that it would be worth money in the vast
    Antique market of today ! But when my
    dad died in 1979 my older sister and her
    husband bought the 2 story home which
    my father had built, they probably let one
    of their 7 kids have it to play with. Now,
    if any of you Hill kids ever read this, I hope
    that you are well, and happy with you
    lives and families. But anyway, I may
    continue this later, as I have other things
    which I must attend to right now.

  12. Terry Westcott says:

    Really nice looking trees but I don’t understand how they were made. A closer picture surely would help.

  13. leon angelo says:

    are there any o gauge friends out there?

  14. jim morris says:

    Like both tips.

  15. Mike says:

    Yea, Leon, I am one (0 gauge that is).

  16. Mike says:

    We need some 0 gauge help specifically!

  17. Dan Fitzpatrick says:

    I am also o gauge

  18. Garry Keffert says:

    Hi Guy’s and Dolls,

    Am I the only Z scale guy in Thailand ? Would like to hear from other Zetters. Keep up the good tips!

  19. john andrew says:

    dave @ 8:27pm , I too have a double slip and find that at slow speeds it sometimes stops the engine or other engines cause a short I still use the double slip by peco for the main line straight through and the other two lines for facing points to sidings so far it works well and causes no trouble best regards johnA

  20. Bumper says:

    Al, I am all ” 0″ gauge, I like your sons house package. What I am looking for is fire house, police station, post office, hospital, library, school. Does you son have a package of them all in 0 gauge?

    Bumper

  21. Jerry says:

    About the Pine Trees : I also did not understand about the match stick and how the trees were made. Sure would like to know.

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