Basic Scenery for Model Railroaders

This book covers simple techniques needed to make realistic scenery for a layout of any size or scale. Each chapter includes step-by-step color photos, illustrations, and diagrams that demonstrate the basic steps to adding prototypical scenery elements to a layout. It includes one-evening projects!

Author: Lou Sassi
Perfect-bound softcover; 8 1/4 x 10 3/4; 96 pages; 200 color photos; ISBN: 9780890244227

Lou Sassi has been a model railroader since his pre-teen years in Saratoga Springs, New York. He started building his HO scale Boston & Maine West Hoosic Division Railroad, which was featured in July 1988 Model Railroader, 1999 Great Model Railroads, and Allen Keller’s Great Model Railroad video #23. In 2008, Lou dismantled the West Hoosic Division, and he and his wife, Cheryl, moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, to be nearer their oldest son, Adam, his wife, Lynne, and their two children, Heather and Joshua. Lou is working on an On-30 layout based on Maine’s two-foot gauge Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad. The initial 2-foot by 6-foot module built for this endeavor is featured in the last three chapters of this book. Lou’s previous projects for Kalmbach Books include A Realistic HO Layout for Beginners, now out of print, Basic Scenery for Model Railroads, and How To Build and Detail Model Railroad Scenes, Vol. 1.

In the beginning 4

Groundwork
Foaming at the base 8
Covering some ground 14
Woodlands
Concocting a conifer 18
Handling hardwoods 22
Super-duper trees and more 26
Leaf me be 28
Finishing the forest scene 32
Rocks, Rivers & Ponds
Light rock for your easy lifting pleasure 36
Swamp thing 38
Down by the old mill stream, part 1 48
Down by the old mill stream, part 2 54
Rural Landscape
Fence me in 60
Tilling the soil 64
Roads
Do it in dirt 70
Rocky road adventure 74
Concrete streets from styrene sheets 78
Details
Flanger lift flags 82
Lay it on the line 84
Making the grade 88
Details make a difference 92

Suppliers and manufacturers 96