By Jon C.A. DeKeles LSOL.com Editor in Chief

Author  Bio In Part One we showed you how to get a great base for your Christmas Tree Railroad. In Part Two we showed you how to lay roadbed and track. In this part we want to show you how to make a foreground and a background for your railroad.

In Part One we showed you how to get a great base for your Christmas Tree Railroad. In Part Two we showed you how to lay roadbed and track. In this part we want to show you how to make a foreground and a background for your railroad.

Several of you have emailed us telling about your Christmas Tree Railroad.

Things you will need for step three

• Wood from step one
• Jigsaw (For cutting wood.)
• Sandpaper (For sanding wood.)
• Paint. (We used some green we had around. Again the option is yours.)
• Fabric Material
• Printed Train Layout Background
• Foamcore
• Plastic Shipping Tape
• Sharp cutting blade

Quick Steps

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A great idea from one of our readers. Add a little something in front of the Christmas Tree Railroad to give it that 3D look. Here is what the finished idea looks like. Just follow the steps below.

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What we are going to do is add a 6" wide, curved strip in front of our railroad. We can use the left over wood that we used before. It already has the arc from the previous cuts, so we will only have to make one cut.

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I went ahead and made a mark on both ends of the wood. This way I could line up one of the other left over pieces of wood and use it to trace the arc. Not one hundred percent scientific, but we are not building a piano.

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Once I had my marks I took one of the other pieces we had cut earlier and laid it on top of the wood we are going to cut. I made sure to line up each of the edges with the two lines I had already marked.

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Simple enough. I had a nice curve about six inches out from the edge of the board. If you have more room you could make yours bigger. I think six inches is about as narrow as you would want to go.

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Just cut along the line with your jigsaw and you will have your new outside arc. Please always remember to wear safety glasses and treat your power tools with the respect they deserve.

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Once again you should sand the edges. Remember to sand the cuts on both sides as the old cut will be just as rough from your original cut.

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Next step is to paint the board with the same matching color as before. When you paint this board make sure to get the edges on all sides.

Quick Steps

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Here is an overhead shot of the finished piece in place. You can see that it will give our Christmas Tree Railroad a more 3-D look with action happening on both sides of the track.

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Check out this close up view. We found it easier just to place the wood under the current circle. As the wood is thin it does not cause a level problem as it sinks into the carpet padding. Plus, we did not have to worry about where the wood cuts did not match.

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Here is a look at the final placement with some of the buildings, people and trees in place.

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Here is a close up look of our railroad extension. It really gives the railroad that completed look.

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Making a Railroad Background

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One comment from a reader was how do you hide the Christmas tree stand? Simple. Let's try making a backdrop that will hide it and add some additional interest. We had purchased some HO scale backgrounds when our local train store went out of business.

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First we measured the height under the Christmas Tree Layout to the first branch. For us this was about 13 inches. So we cut down the pre-printed backdrop to that size. We also got a cardboard box and cut a strip that was 13 inches high and longer than we need. We used the folds of the box so we could wrap the backdrop in a curve.

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We used spray adhesive. Make sure to have lots of ventilation when using products like this. We sprayed the back of the background and then the cardboard. We waited a few minutes for both sides to get tacky.

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We then carefully started at one end of the cardboard and applied the background to the cardboard. You can, for a few seconds, adjust as you go. Just go slow and apply a small area at a time and it should line up just fine.

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Quick Steps

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Once we glued the background to the cardboard we trimmed all sides. You will get a nice clean edge if you use a new sharp xacto type knife. Please remember to be careful when cutting. Go slow, have a good straight edge to cut against and use even pressure.

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For the last 8 years we have used regular fabric on foamcore to act as a backdrop to my son's shelf layout in his room. Places like JoAnn Fabrics have dozens of choices for material. Some will look very realistic as a backdrop, other will have a more colorful or whimsical look. Here are two examples. One of the walls in his room has a city scene along the wall, the other has a wooded look. For the shelf layout we just put several foamcore boards end to end to cover the whole length of the wall.

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So just how do you get the fabric to stay on the foamcore? Well... nothing real hard. Just use some packing tape like you would use to seal a shipping box. We have had these backdrops in my son's room for 8 years and we have had no problem with the tape peeling off or the fabric getting loose.

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Before you apply the fabric make sure that you iron it well. Make sure that all the wrinkles are removed. Then just fold the ends over the foamcore. Make sure you pull tight, but do not pull so tight that you distort the fabric. As you do each corner make sure that you are keeping the fabric image level on the front of backdrop.

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Here are a few views of the tree without the backdrop and with the different backdrops in place. We used the branches laying on top of the backdrop to hold it in place. No need for stands or tape. Alone these backdrops look just like what they are. Either a printed piece of paper or a piece of fabric. The trick is to place lots of items in front of them. They are not meant to be the focal point. They are meant to be the background.

train plan for aroundthe tree

very nice idea ...Well planned out for people to take in steps.

Carl Kokes - 11/17/2010 - 04:31

Comments

Great article to see again and again. Thanks for sharing Jon. E.

Elaine Haggenbottom - 12/04/2012 - 07:55

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