Model Railroading on the Cheap

   Patching the pavement was a fun project with a few tricks I had never tried before.  I opened the tailgate on the dump truck after carefully removing the bed and cutting the tailgate open by using a fine tooth stiff back saw and knife and then gluing it back on. That activity required painting – I chose aluminum color instead of trying to match the color of the truck.  I used a small carefully shaped piece of Styrofoam (open cell foam) painted with Elmer’s glue, dipped into a packet of N scale coal to serve as a small load of blacktop for the patching material. Then I found workers with picks and shovels, jack-hammers, traffic barricades etc.  I made the newly applied patch by spreading a drop of Elmer’s glue on a piece of plastic bag, covering it with the coal granules material, allowed it time to set, trimmed around it with scissors and simply laid it in the street (printed paper) and got the camera. This probably won’t be a permanent display.

 Here I tried to show two views of my project, one from overhead showing the action of closing a hole in the pavement, perhaps there was need to repair an underground water line.

   It is easy to use a lot of people in small scenes like this, so you had better get comfortable painting them.  However lately I admit to using more good quality store bought folks like those by Woodland Scenics or LifeLike.

   In the background a railroad car repairman can be seen checking the brake shoes or some such on the Pittsburg & West Virginia boxcar spotted on the car repair shop track.  I used a small piece of heavy clear plastic (window glazing material) trimmed with scissors as a base upon which to glue my people with Walthers Goo. Sometimes it is barely visible as the photos show. I get a lot of enjoyment from setting up a scene like this for the camera, that way the hobby can remain challenging for several years.