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Adding Details to Your Model Train

locomotiveThere are many small details that can be added to model railroads to improve the design. The following ones are ideas for any layout for it to depict a real railroad system.

  1. Decorate your locomotive with graffiti.
  2. Using Sobo glue for windows makes them look real.
  3. Make handrails for F units out of brass wire.
  4. Spray the windshield with a dull coat to render it the frosted look.
  5. Weathering is essential for all trains.
  6. Use rubber from old tires to make wheels.
  7. Add lights and sound effects.
  8. Give carriages a dusty and old look.

2 Responses to Adding Details to Your Model Train

  • Tom Roe says:

    #1 says to decorate a locomotive with “graffiti” That may be ok at certain times, but I model the 40’s thru the early 50’s and it was a time when the spray can was little used. If you model a later era, and you want to, do it. Myself and many “early era” modelers want clean engines.

  • Nihat says:

    Track nails or RR Track nails or RR spikes, you have to get them at a hobby shop. Any small nail or brad will do but they pralbboy won’t be black so you will have to paint them. It is best not to put track on plywood. The trains run noisy and it’s hard to put the nails in. I put a fiber board over the plywood. The best is called HOMOSOTE but is hard to find. I just used ceiling tiles. It is not as dense and the nails will work loose in time.

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