Bragdon vs Scenic Express for Retaining Wall

Hello Steve G,

I’m curious to know if you ever decided to purchase a retaining wall mold and if you did use it to build your walls - how did it end up looking? Are you pleased with the results? What’s your critique of the Bragdon product?

Thanks,

W

Hey there,

no I didn’t buy a mold for retaining walls.

i bought paper wallpaper that looks like a stone wall for areas farther away from the eye.  I will paste that onto foam board  (inexpensive at Dolllar Stores).

For close up walls I will probably order from Scenic Express.  They have good quality, realistic foam walls.

Another option is to do what I did: buy one of each Scenic Express wall type that you want (in rigid foam), make your own latex mold of it, and cast as many as you need in cheap plaster of Paris (molding plaster).

I enjoy looking at and building retaining walls and portals (as did the PRR in my neck of the woods), and so this topic piqued my interest. I have used lots of Scenic Express walls - both rigid and flexible. Some people think they're expensive, however considering what a new scale piece of rolling stock costs, I don't think they are, and if you buy multiples from Scenic Express, they give a discount - plus I think they give a OGR forum discount, or at least they did when I last ordered some.

This is one of my longer retaining walls (made from both rigid and flexible PRR block walls), made for about the cost of the latest Lionel Hobo caboose . FWIW: I just cut them to size and spray paint a gray primer gray and then alternate with black primer (I do spend considerable time filing the dovetail joints to get them to fit as tight as possible). I use various lumber to support them vertically ~ every 6" or so, and in this shelf portion there's a top deck that the structures fit on; and hot glue to hold them in place. I'd love to see how others have painted/weathered theirs because other than primer I haven't been successful. BTW: the foreground facia walls are HO walls that I had left over from a previous layout.

I've used Scenic Express wall sections with satisfactory results. The wall sections have edges that go together tightly upon installation. In one or two cases I've had the underlying structure shift (I suspect through long term drying of lumber) and the joints pull apart a bit and become visible. Putty and paint touch-up fixes that.

The effectiveness of these panels really depends on how well you prime and paint them. In real walls individual stone blocks age in subtly different ways; the mortar rarely matches the color of aging blocks. Careful painting really helps, as does a well applied vine or two...

Jan