So, you have your tracks laid down. You have run and/or operated your railroad for a while. Now it is time to add more realism. Let’s work on the background: Decide if you want a country setting, a city landscape, or mountains and valleys. Check the dimensions of the space you have and then decide if you are an artist who can actually paint the background you envision. If so, go for it.
I am not an artist, but that did not stop me. My wife Lisa loves to paint, so we got a couple of canvases the same size and let her go wild. I loved it – and the variety and colour it added to the layout was wonderful.
If you are not an artist, stay with me, you have a couple of choices: If you have access to a colour printer, you can print the background in sections and put them together. Then just use trees, towers or railroad signals to hide the seams; or you can go online to a site like Pinterest and download free backgrounds.
If you have a few dollars and want to be fancy, you can purchase rolls of background. You can go online and order pre-printed backgrounds. Railroadbackdrops.com is a company that makes a variety of sizes, starting at 18 inches tall x 72 inches long and increasing in size to 36 inches tall x 144 inches long. Be aware that O scale backdrop starts at $120.
You can also be creative. I painted my train room blue then added buildings. Some I printed on cardstock, glued it to a piece of Styrofoam to add a bit of depth and just placed them on the layout. I have seen layouts where cotton is pulled apart and glued to the wall to act like 3D clouds.
I also purchased a few half buildings. Yes, modelers are so clever that you can buy stores, factories or house fronts to place up against the wall. They do not take up much space but add a lot of realism and depth that you just cannot get from a paper printout.
Best of all, as your railroad depicts a vast area, you can put a city by one section, mountains by another, and a rural farm community by yet a third section – and the variety will give the feel of real vastness of the layout. It is up to you.
Until next time, I hope to see you and your background around the tracks.
