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From day-to-day, I look at consumable and scrap stuff as things I can repurpose on my railroad. For example, I use desiccant packs from my drugs as sacks of goods on loading docks. A couple of piers and a Lionel crane car made a Stationary crane in the scrape yard.

Please show some pictures of things you repurposed on your railroad.

Cabooses 424kb

Scrap Yard [8)

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  • Scrap Yard  (8)
Last edited by Bobby Ogage
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This is one of the fun things with trains, being able to reuse things on the layout, or being clever. I used to use cat litter sprayed with this gloss black spray paint to use as coal with the coal loader I had, it ended up looking like real coal, irregular pieces where the litter clumped together, and it worked fine in the feeder itself.

We had old car parts lying around, and for example the condensers from old car distributors made for pretty good industrial transformers, other bits and pieces came in handy, either as junk yard pieces, or for other things (a thing, I will add, gratefully of the past unless someone is running contact points for nostalgia sake in an old car). An old boxcar and caboose was turned into a unique MOW vehicle. An old smoke unit from a steam engine made for an interesting focus point on a tall smokestack I had made, looked like a scrubber or some sort.

I love doing this stuff.

Most all of this hot dog stand is repurposed stuff.

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Trailer frame -  One of my Son's old 1/64 John Deere trailers.

Trash can - valve stem air cap.

Soda cups - old model sprue.

Hot dogs - wire insulation and shrink wrap.

Propane tanks - old model sprue.

Awning - Old dress shirt.

Frame of awning - RC model airplane pushrods.

Counter - Cemetery sign from K-line fence.  If you turn it over it says cemetery.

Roof vent fan - spare plastic piece from toilet tank repair kit.

Decals - Home made.  Named after my Father in law who loves trains and Italian Hot Dogs.

Trailer window - Left over from an MTH bank kitbash.

Even had to modify the Police Officer.  Had to cut his arm off and reposition to hold hot dog.  Also cut his head off to reposition to look at the mustard he just got on his shirt.

Good thread.

Ron

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  • IMG_20200504_142042640
  • IMG_20200504_142103450
  • IMG_20200504_140224563
  • IMG_20200504_140148455
  • IMG_20200504_140116724

Great stuff so far. I love scratch building stuff as well. Here is one of my latest -



A8BCE62A-64C5-424A-AB20-7623067EC672

Awning is made from repurposed plastic facial cleanser bottle with copper wire and fishing line for the frame, all heavily over sprayed with white primer.

Fire hydrant, other plumbing, and security siren made from leftover model sprues.

window security gate and front panels below window made from leftover balsa wood, speckled and painted

All decals and signage copied from internet and printed on decal paper.

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  • A8BCE62A-64C5-424A-AB20-7623067EC672
Last edited by Strap Hanger
@Sean007 posted:

Wasn't there a fellow from MR magazine named Art Curran that was pretty good at repurposing various materials?

I see to recall that he showed something in every issue that made you say "Why didn't I think of that?"

He was a master kit-basher and repurposed lots of kits in other ways....I was a big fan. Sadly, he passed in the early 2000s at a relatively young age.

Peter

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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