How to Make Trees Cheaply
for Your Model Railroad

contributed by Doug Anderson

If you have a model railroad, then you have undoubtedly discovered that model trees are quite expensive. Here are three techniques for making trees inexpensively.

If you live in Canada or the northern United States, you are familiar with the common weed called "Golden Rod". There are several species of Golden Rod, but the one known as "Canadian Golden Rod" (Solidago canadensis) is very suitable for making into model trees because it dries hard with many stems that look like branches.

Common Golden Rod is found in open uncultivated fields, and is considered a weed. It is easily found in late summer and early autumn because of its golden flowers.

If you live in a city, or if it's the wrong season, look in any garden for dried or dead plants that have a wooden branch-like structure.

Snip clumps of a size appropriate for trees on your train layout. Air drying or hanging is the easiest and best method for preserving your plants. Remove any leaves or branches that detract from the appearance of a miniature tree, then hang them upside down in a warm, dry, dark place until the moisture content is greatly reduced. An attic, closet, or pantry is often an ideal place; avoid basements, porches, crawl spaces, or garages, where dampness may ruin specimens. It can take two or three weeks to dry the plant sufficiently.

When the plant is dry, you can spray paint the leafy area; use a matte paint, not glossy. The stems can be painted with a small brush and a tin of brown paint.

Drill a small hole in your table top, squirt a small dab of white wood glue in the hole, and push the stem of the tree into the hole. It's done. One tree for minimal cost.

Another method of making a tree is to find twigs and small woody plants that could look like a tree, pull off all the leaves, and glue bits of lichen to the ends of the woody stems.

If you want to have a forest on your mountain, first tack some bunched up window screening (Australians call it "fly screen") where you want the forest, then glue bunches of lichen all over the screen. These are the tree tops. Make many trees using the lichen method above and plant them directly in front of the screen. Your trees should have the same kind of lichen as you glued to the screen.

This works best if you first make sure the screen has a 90 degree bend so that it presents a straight face to the front. You can cover this face with black or dark grey paper or paper sprayed black or grey. Using a fine brush, draw many tree trunks on the black paper.

About the Author:

Doug Anderson has been playing with trains for more than 50 years. He is the author of this web site and teaches English as a Second Language.