Mountains out of cloth??

Actually, the Lionel postwar tunnel kits used to contain a material called Celastic. This is felt fabric impregnated with some kind of synthetic resin. It is used by soaking it in acetone, which activates it.  You then drape it over a form such as crumpled-up newspapers and let it dry. The process is described in the 1958 Lionel "Model Railroading" book.

Celastic is no longer very popular because it requires nasty solvents.  You can still get it, though:

http://atlasortho.com/Celastic-LT_p_1476.html

I suspect you could accomplish much the same thing by soaking fabric in one of any number of stiffening agents (starch, shellac, thin plaster...).

Here's where I'm at.  I used the green felt for the mountain.  Foam for tunnel portals overplayed with printed brick sheets.  Along the edge of my uppertrack, I used expanding foam lightly covered with plaster sheets.  Nobody's going to invite me to do this professionally, but considering I don't think any layout is permanent, this will work.  I just put my pond base down   Hodgepodge is

next 

Looks good.also try aluminium foil. I built a good looking mountain tunnel using styrofoam forms and over lying it with foil. Takes paint ok.

You can paint aluminum foil?   I think I now have an idea to fill space under track in other areas. Thanks!!

Avanti posted:

Actually, the Lionel postwar tunnel kits used to contain a material called Celastic. This is felt fabric impregnated with some kind of synthetic resin. It is used by soaking it in acetone, which activates it.  You then drape it over a form such as crumpled-up newspapers and let it dry. The process is described in the 1958 Lionel "Model Railroading" book.

Celastic is no longer very popular because it requires nasty solvents.  You can still get it, though:

http://atlasortho.com/Celastic-LT_p_1476.html

I suspect you could accomplish much the same thing by soaking fabric in one of any number of stiffening agents (starch, shellac, thin plaster...).

This isn't wholly correct. The Lionel kit 920 you're referencing came with very thin felt and fish glue (I have multiple of these). The dealer displays also used the fish glue and felt (see some of Jagrick's posts, he restores and reconstructs dealer displays using this method). The Celastic was used on the 1949 Showroom layout, however, and it was apparently recommended in some Lionel publications as well.

Andrew B. posted:

Avanti posted:

Actually, the Lionel postwar tunnel kits used to contain a material called Celastic. This is felt fabric impregnated with some kind of synthetic resin. It is used by soaking it in acetone, which activates it.  You then drape it over a form such as crumpled-up newspapers and let it dry. The process is described in the 1958 Lionel "Model Railroading" book.

Celastic is no longer very popular because it requires nasty solvents.  You can still get it, though:

http://atlasortho.com/Celastic-LT_p_1476.html

I suspect you could accomplish much the same thing by soaking fabric in one of any number of stiffening agents (starch, shellac, thin plaster...).

This isn't wholly correct. The Lionel kit 920 you're referencing came with very thin felt and fish glue (I have multiple of these). The dealer displays also used the fish glue and felt (see some of Jagrick's posts, he restores and reconstructs dealer displays using this method). The Celastic was used on the 1949 Showroom layout, however, and it was apparently recommended in some Lionel publications as well.

Thanks for the correction. I was misremembering my childhood reading of Lionel propaganda. There is a long section on Celastic in the 6th edition of Lionel's book "Model Railroading". The same section mentions the #920 kit. But you are correct that it does not say that the #920 comes with Celastic.

Celastic was once very popular among theatre set designers. Although it is still available, it has mostly been supplanted by more modern materials.

Avanti posted:

Andrew B. posted:

Avanti posted:

Actually, the Lionel postwar tunnel kits used to contain a material called Celastic. This is felt fabric impregnated with some kind of synthetic resin. It is used by soaking it in acetone, which activates it.  You then drape it over a form such as crumpled-up newspapers and let it dry. The process is described in the 1958 Lionel "Model Railroading" book.

Celastic is no longer very popular because it requires nasty solvents.  You can still get it, though:

http://atlasortho.com/Celastic-LT_p_1476.html

I suspect you could accomplish much the same thing by soaking fabric in one of any number of stiffening agents (starch, shellac, thin plaster...).

This isn't wholly correct. The Lionel kit 920 you're referencing came with very thin felt and fish glue (I have multiple of these). The dealer displays also used the fish glue and felt (see some of Jagrick's posts, he restores and reconstructs dealer displays using this method). The Celastic was used on the 1949 Showroom layout, however, and it was apparently recommended in some Lionel publications as well.

Thanks for the correction. I was misremembering my childhood reading of Lionel propaganda. There is a long section on Celastic in the 6th edition of Lionel's book "Model Railroading". The same section mentions the #920 kit. But you are correct that it does not say that the #920 comes with Celastic.

Celastic was once very popular among theatre set designers. Although it is still available, it has mostly been supplanted by more modern materials.

True that it's really not used much anymore, it takes some really nasty stuff to make workable. My uncle owns a sewing manufacturing firm in Baltimore, and they share a building with a theatre set design studio. He asked about the Celastic and they said they have some, but haven't really used it in years.

I'd like to try working with it, just for the experience. 

The felt and hide glue works well. I use a crock pot from goodwill to heat (mix with water and heat to 140 degrees F). I immerse the felt in the glue working the liquid in well (latex gloves for sure) and then squwwze out excess but leave the felt well saturated. I have seen tunnels made over a form covered in kraft paper and allowed to set before placed on layout and also applied over a wirescreen form in place on the layout already. My last one was on the D27 I reproduced and I even applied extra glue with a brush and although it took a little longer to set (about a week) it turned rigid and actually gave some strength to the area. The casein paints, which are a naturally flat/muted color made it pop and replicated the original look lionel had. I even used same wiring color code and have the toggle switch to turn of small section of track so that other throttle controls are left untouched. There is a little bit of finesse as 3 out of the 4 train controls are used to control the speed of the train on the descent, ascent and straight away loop. Last circuit runs the lighting

D-27 in operation