O Scale Model Trains – Scenery

I want to talk about model railroad scenery and some issues I’ve seen at a recently visitd layout.

I recently visited a local O scale model train club who has opened their doors on New Year’s Eve to the general public. Having never visited this club I wasn’t sure if I was going to see an amazing collection of antique toy trains running or a fully modeled detail oriented O scale train layout. Either way I thought I was going to get some great photos for this blog. I could not have been more disappointed.

Let me first say that I’m not sure what the intent of this O scale Railroad club is. Maybe they just like to run the trains and the model railroad scenery is an afterthought. I’m not here to judge their layout as much as I want to use their layout to illustrate some common mistakes that model railroaders make.

One of the problems that comes from working in O scale model trains is that it is fairly large scale and we have to realize that in the real world, even though locomotives and box cars seem huge to us, compared to trees and buildings they’re not that big.

O Scale Model Railroad Scenery

Take look at this picture for example. Click on it and it will open full size. You will notice that none of these trees are more than eight inches tall. Most are not six inches high. Given that O scale equates into 1 foot equals .250 inches and that an average full size tree is about 40 to 60 ft these trees should be 10 to 15 inches tall at minimum. Certainly as tall as the 3 story buildings. Walk outside and compare the trees in your yard to your house.

O Scale Model Railroad Scenery

Model Railroad Scenery -Issues

Another problem I found with this O scale layout is unrealistic positioning of structures. In this photo you will notice that the train platform is nowhere near the main living areas. While this may be common in a rural location we would not have this in an urban setting.

You will also notice in this picture that a daring young family has set up their children’s playset between two sets of tracks. Would that happen? Notice also the street light in this photo. I’m guessing the base of that thing would have to be about three feet in diameter in real scale, and you’d need a pickup truck bed to haul the lamp that must go in there.

O Scale Train Structures

The last thing that I found in this layout of O scale model trains was a total lack of weathering and realistic patinas on any structures or the model railroad scenery. Considering this layout belonged to a model train club I could attribute the lack of weathering to not wanting to ruin collectible model trains and buildings but I still feel it’s good learning tool for those wishing to have a realistic layout.

An example of lack of any weathering would be this bridge structure. First thing I noticed was a lack of any rivets on what appears to be an iron structure. But going beyond that; unless the railroad maintenance crew just painted this, this would definitely have major rust and weathering as well as the other iron bridge that you see in the background.

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