PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR Building an auto junkyard Where old vehicles go to die/Bob Johnson P
rior to starting my Butte Line HO scale model railroad, which is based on Union Pacific’s branch
running from Pocatello, Idaho to Butte, Montana, my wife and I drove its length to document scenic elements for possi- ble use on the layout. One appealing scene was an auto junk yard that was located along the tracks and filled with an array of old vehicles. As an auto en- thusiast, it was an easy decision for me to include this feature on my layout, and it’s probably something many other model railroaders would enjoy incorpo- rating on their own layouts. I designated a layout space for the junk yard per my prototype. I located it just north of Pocatello and duplicated the yard’s uneven terrain. It was scenicked with dirt I had collected from the area. Then I added a board fence and a kitbashed shop at one end. For the latter, I detailed both its open garage and office interior. After this I
The author created a junk yard next to the tracks (top) on his HO scale Butte Line. The inspiration for the junk yard was a large prototype car salvage yard that was located north of Pocatello, Idaho (right).
64 JULY 2013
added trees, foliage and weeds. Finally, I was ready to start filling up the yard with old vehicles and equipment. As I model the mid-1950’s, I selected
my junked vehicles to predate this pe- riod by at least 15 years. Fortunately, HO scale models from this time frame are readily available in both pre-built
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100