Crafting with Kids

Part of the fun of toy model trains is being able to build the scenery around them. Once you have gotten tired of setting up the toy model train set around the Christmas tree and putting it away after Christmas every year, you might be ready to build yourself something more permanent.

The benchwork is the foundation of your railroad. Model Train enthusiasts have the choice of buying a ready-made benchwork or constructing one from scratch for themselves. Buying a benchwork kit has several advantages. Benchwork kits are precut and predrilled. Plus they are sturdier than a piece of plywood on two sawhorses. Also, with a kit, you can take it apart to move it to a different location in the house or to bring it to shows.

Of course constructing your own benchwork is more complex and takes more time to build but, you have the chance to bring about your perfect vision for your trains. The first thing you will need to do is to plan the design for your layout. You’ll have to figure out how large you want your benchwork to be. Consider if you will be adding on to it later on down the road. How much room in your house do you have to place a train layout? What shape are you devising for the top or your benchwork? It can be square, rectangle, oval, or circular. Generally, the legs of the table are 28 inches but they can be altered to meet your designs specifications. The most important thing in benchworking is making sure that your benchwork is solid and can withstand a certain amount of weight. A good platform is a 3/8 inch or ½ inch thick piece of plywood. If you want to make your benchwork to stay portable, you should cut the plywood into several pieces before piecing your benchwork together.

Keep perspective in mind when you are building the actual model railroad scenery. The goal is to make your layout appear larger than it is. You can try using different levels of scenery to help with this. Placing bigger trees in the foreground and smaller trees in the background will help with this illusion as well. Your scenery should also reflect the theme your have chosen for your landscape. For example, if you are running a logging train on your line, it should be running through a rugged mountainous area filled with lots of trees. You can also place a sawmill or lumberyard close by.

Other aspects that you can have in your landscape are rock formations, grassy meadows, tunnels, bridges, roads and fields. You may also include towns (or villages) filled with nice houses and buildings. Plus, you should also add fine detail to your scenery. Fine detail includes signs, telephone poles, fences, underbrush, bushes, flowers, hedges, people, and animals. A really nice touch is including bodies of water like ponds, rivers, streams or even waterfalls.

After all, isn’t one of the reasons we get into model trains is to be able to show off our artistic talent by building dramatic and lifelike landscapes? So get to work and amaze your friends with your amazing talent.

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