Hub City Central Model Railroad Club

Tips for Building Your Layout Pt. 9: Adding People and Vehicles

     Welcome to the Scale World of  People, Vehicles and Small Scenes

          Populating your layout with the every-day to bring it to “life”

While this is Part 9, my bets are that by this point you’ll already have begun to acquire vehicles and people for your layout; if you’re a typical hobbyist, this is inevitable. You may even have been moving these little items about since your Benchwork went up. Its typical of any hobbyist to begin fiddling around with what is, at certain points in the construction of your layout, unnecessary items like vehicles and people, more because of an amusement value and allowing your imagination to take over, setting a vehicle on your basswood base for your road, maybe adding a few figures to “dress up” the scene and imagining what the scene will look like when you get it to a certain stage of completion (having been in this hobby for some time myself, I refuse to use the word “finished” when it comes to a model railroad). There is nothing wrong with envisioning what you want a scene to look like and using some “visual aids” to achieve this and help your planning along. In fact, I encourage it.

Welcome, then, to the Scale World of people, vehicles and small ready-to-add small scenes, although, by the time we go through this section you’ll begin to realize the every day in life is a small scene.

And, if it hasn’t dawned on you by this time, you should have begun to notice that each “step”, such as it is in this hobby, is actually a hobby unto itself, technically separate and stand-alone apart from model railroading in general. Such is the case with this month’s subject. In the end, it all conspires to come together and create a unique whole.

People, Animals, and the paradox of “mobile immobility”

Consider that at this point in our planet’s history, we in the Hobby of Model Railroading possibly have the best and most varied inventory of scale figures ever available at any time in the Hobby’s history. In the days when John Allen built the Gorre & Daphetid (the Third version of the G&D was begun in 1953) layout and Frank Ellison had his O Scale “Delta Lines”, there were very, very few ready-made figures available in any scale. In fact, John Allen made 70% of his own HO Scale figures himself, using crude wire forms bent to a basic shape and dipped in hot wax, then hand carved into the figure Allen wanted (this in HO Scale yet!) and then hand-painted. Such work even included a Stegosaurus dinosaur, made as a joke that was given a number (“13” as I recall) and given wire apertures to make it “useful” on the layout, from pulling logs to switching freight cars! (The long-running joke about the work Stego was that it never learned to use the ash pit) Allen even fashioned an O scale figure as a Joke and posed it pushing freight cars around on his HO Scale layout.

 

Allen turned out hundreds of his own figures, which went a long way to further the awesome impression of the G&D Layout. You must remember that when John Allen began building the Gorre & Daphetid in all of its phases, figures were non-existent or so few in number that Allen really had no other alternative but to fashion out his own figures from wire and wax. 

The problem with people and animal figures is that they are immobile, stuck in a set position and period of time forever, and real people and anything with life and animation does not stand still for more than a few seconds (unless you’re Lee Burt asleep in a chair). Even as I’m writing this, I have not been immobile for more than a second at any one time. Having trains that move and people in permanent poses is one of those paradoxes of the hobby. Static figures really do bring “life” to a scene and to the layout overall, just as having a few scale cows standing in a pasture in scale does. It represents “life.”

Keith’s “wisdom” about figures

Having gotten far enough along with the Hub City Central in that one has added (and continues to add) figures, I realized that figures and small, ready-to-add scenes are one in the same. A single, solitary figure doing nothing more than standing staring at something is a small scene. The more you add to the surroundings add more to the scene, such as the BLMA-produced “mooners” or the Busch-produced “Peeping Tom” at the trailer court on the Layout, the more you involve within the scene. By adding figures, you are actually creating a small scene. As was once said, by a now-forgotten sage, “Life is a Play and the entire World is a Stage”, is when you realize that each second of a day surrounding us all, “Life” in and of itself, for all of us, is a small scene, from the simple and mundane to the complicated and intricate. From two men sitting on a suspended plank painting a building, to two Hobos sitting at a campfire, to a child riding his/her bike by themselves, or some single person simply looking askance, or a detailed, empty interior of a building with no figures visible, these are all small scenes.

The use of figures

Depending on what you plan on doing, there are figure sets available for practically every situation imaginable. And with that, you can just about find small scene sets that depict many scenarios from the common to the uncommon to fill another void. Woodland Scenics has become a leader in producing small vignette scenes in Scale, followed by Merten, Busch, BLMA, Prieser, and a host of other manufacturers that border on the sublime to the pornographic, from the serious to the comedic, and from the “everyday” to the out-of-the-ordinary.

 

There are figure sets and singles to help you create a scene in an industry. You can get shoppers for your stores complete with shopping carts. Just about anything you can think of is available (Except, of all things, “Car-hop” waitresses for a Drive-in Restaurant).

You, not me, have to decide how and where to use them, and how many figures you want to “populate” a scene. One rule of thumb to remember: we as a people are still no better than the animals we purport to be so much smarter than, and if something of “interest” (that could be defined by anything from nothing to a fist-fight to an on-coming Tornado and everything in between) happens, it most likely draws curious on-lookers from several directions, seeming, at times, as though the on-lookers literally appeared from “Out Of The Woodwork” or, even, “Thin air”. In some cases, depending on what it is you’re modeling, more is better. In other examples, one could consider that “less is more.”

Keep in mind that figures---be they people or animals---are not cheap by any means nor will I try to convince you otherwise. This is another paradox of, “does the value exceed the price, or is the price higher than the value?” It’s a choice you will have to make.

Now then, vehicles

If you aren’t modeling a specific era, then read no farther. You obviously could care less about the next lines of drivel I’m going to punch out here.

Vehicles can be extremely era-specific in that few of us retain our vehicles longer than 10 years before trading it off on another new vehicle. Oh, sure, there are some (like myself) that hang on to what they own for a long time after what is considered the “useful life” of said vehicle is “over”, but the majority trend is to trade-in for new every five-to-ten years. This statement is especially true if you have open-sided Bi-and-Tri-level auto carrier freight cars, where your entire load is one year, one make, and one model from one manufacturer; sometimes a carload could be two or three different models of the same year from the same manufacturer. However, you’re not going to have 77’ Vegas riding on an Auto Rack with 79’ Pinto’s and Mavericks.

Unlike figures, vehicles are not completely hemmed in by the paradox of mobility/immobility. There is the nagging problem of vehicles standing at a crossing, waiting for a train to clear said crossing, and when the train has cleared it, the vehicles simply stay there, not rocketing off as though fired from the launch pad at Cape Kennedy as is typical in real life. Vehicles can sit motionless for llooonngg periods of time----from minutes to years-----and no one is the wiser---depending on the situation. However, if you’re trying to more-or-less accurately depict a specific era----some modelers of note (Jack Burgess and his date/year/DAY specific Yosemite Valley model RR based on the Real YV RR) have found this frustrating challenge to be of their taste---vehicles become a very accurate lightening rod to what era your model railroad is set in. On the Club layout, I have tried to contain the vehicles that I have added on it in an era no earlier than 1953 to no later than 1978. Keep in mind, this applies to the scale vehicles I have put on the layout, not what others are doing. Since our Club Layout has no standards, what we are or aren’t doing has no bearing to speak of.

Vehicles in general

By far, the most prolific manufacturer (importer, actually) is Classic Metal Works that has brought out a wide selection of period Chevy’s, Fords, Chryslers and Dodges in their Mini Metals Line. CMW has even brought out period tractor-trailer rigs from International Harvester and White Motors, and Heavy Delivery Trucks from Ford and Chevrolet (trucks over the 5-ton limit, like Fuel Oil Delivery and Dry Van/Refrigerated Van trucks). Every piece is nice, but none of it is made for a sustained inventory---i.e., it’s all “limited run” which means you’d better buy it at the soonest opportunity or you’ll pay through the nose later on. Trust me on that one; I wasn’t interested in one of CMW’s models---an International Harvester “Metro” Delivery Van in both Railway Express and United States Post Office----when they came out seven years ago, but now situations have changed and I ended up paying three times what they originally sold for MSRP. “Ouch!” indeed. “Ouch” works in very well here when I tell you that I have built several Tri-and Bi-level “open” (no fluted side protection like the cars we see today) Auto rack models from Accurail; you need at least 18 vehicles per Bi-level carload (27 vehicles if you are attempting to load a Tri-level car), and acquiring that many is extremely cost prohibitive, not to mention almost impossible to do if you need that many at one time to fill a carload. Consequently, my open Auto Rack models have remained very empty.

Such is life with these limited run models. When it is released initially, you may not be interested in it, but, later on, situations conspire to make you think differently. By that time, it may be too late.

In all fairness, it was Busch gmbH., that began the trend to marketing “American”-style automobiles and pick-up trucks, and Wiking, gmbH., that introduced passable American-style tractor-trailer rigs (the tractor models are great, but their trailers tend to suck). But for too many years, we in the hobby had a dearth of any scale vehicles in any scale. Varney had a toy-like “line” (two or three U.S.-type vehicles) that suddenly disappeared after Varney sold out to Life Like. Revell once dabbled in HO Scale and offered some vehicles in its line that resembled something American, and occasionally, Lesney of “Matchbox” fame would slip and bring out one of their die-cast toys in something close to HO Scale. Lindberg models had offered some slightly-under-HO Scale vehicles for some time, and Williams Bros. offered ready-to-paint, clear plastic kits of certain period vehicles in kit form, and then, there was Ulrich and their line of very period cast metal semi tractors and trailers. But for many years, the only available vehicles in any scale were foreign models like Fiats, Hanomag trucks, Renaults, Opel’s, Citroen’s, European Fords and such, but very, very few USA-type vehicles existed, save for Jordan Models, which still offers plastic, finely-detailed vehicle kits of pre-1929 Ford models in HO Scale. Today, Busch, Wiking, Eko, Classic Metal Works, Alloy Forms and Woodland Scenics offer lines of USA-type vehicles. The selection is far better than it ever has been. The thing about vehicles is that you want to have a wide selection of makes, models and years, which makes this a frustrating and picky thing. Not everyone drives a white 57’ Chevy Corvette, a black 53’ Ford F-150 pick-up truck, or a blue 57’ Chevy Bel Air. The same can be said for Semi Trucks. Not all firms used 59’ International model R-190 tractors with Fruehauf Aero Van 36’ trailers.

A-Line has brought out some very nicely-done semi-trailer models of 1960-1977 vintage Fruehauf “Z-Van” trailers and Wabash National manufacturing trailers which make the trailers from Athearn and Wiking look sick. They’re not terribly expensive, nor are they that complicated to assemble. Mate an A-Line Trailer with an Athearn or Wiking Tractor and you get a pretty nice looking combination. There still needs to be Great Dane, Dorsey and Stoughton trailer models. Intermountain has introduced Fruehauf Flatbed trailers and Cattle hauling trailers. Things are getting “better” in some respects, although, like all their offerings, Intermountain semi-trailers tend to be pricey. Because I work with Semis, I tend to notice certain things.

By complete accident, Lesney (of Matchbox Fame) released an HO Scale Semi-tractor many years ago (it is very close to 50 years ago---already!) of a “Hendrickson” Cab-over tractor with double 39’ trailers decorated for Cooper-Jarrett. Hendrickson was taken over by International Harvestor about 1958 and the Hendrickson Tractor became the basis for IH’s Transtar -model COE Tractors later on.

When it comes to vehicles of all sizes, makes and manufacturers, you need to have a mix of everything, and it gets to be tiresome, frustrating and expen$ive in the long run. This is not meant to put anyone off; it is a word of fair warning. Trident, Inc., markets 1977-1980 mostly Chevrolet vehicles (Vans, Pick-up Trucks and Blazers) but it is all imported, so the price is up there. Trident’s offerings are very nice---I have several examples on the Club layout----but you’ll notice the layout isn’t crammed with them, either.

In recent years, Athearn has brought out some very nice vehicle models, 1953 Ford Pick-up Trucks, Ford F-850 Stake bed and Dry Van 5-ton trucks, Ford Cab-over stake bed and dry van delivery trucks, 1959 Mack semi trucks---a whole array of scale vehicles (HO and N) which are very nice----but they cost an arm and a leg. Are these items worth the MSRP? Well, beauty---and value---- is in the eye of the beholder, that’s all I’m going to say.

Ready-to-add small scenes

Ready-to-add small scenes are another facet of trying to make detailing your layout a little easier by giving you just about everything you need to make a small vignette scene in a matter of minutes---you simply add it to your layout and do very little extra. Woodland Scenics is the pioneer in this area, beginning with white-metal small scene kits assembled---and painted---by the modeler. Of recent times, Woodland Scenics has branched into these same small vignette scenes but produced in plastic. Woodland Scenics still produces their cast white metal small scene kits, but everything they have brought out in the past ten years is now done in plastic. Busch, BLMA and Prieser have basically followed what Woodland Scenics has pioneered and continues to produce newer offerings each year.

Small ready-to-add scenes are actually cheaper to add to your layout than having to find and acquire all the elements of a scene you may have in mind for your layout, which is really what the idea behind this is. Most all have some sort of subtle humor embedded within the scene. After all, we modelers don’t take ourselves all that seriously!

                 “73”

 Keith