Need a idea for a small space on my layout

How about a billboard or small building to fill the space until an inspiration comes along?  John in Lansing, ILL

How about an abandoned town or village with delapidated buildings, a boarded up station or tower, etc.

small lumber company with shop and storage of cut lumber? If you're into building kits, BarMills has a really good one, The Crown Crate Company, that doesn't take up much space but is loaded with details. 

I have a couple of odd corners that I had to fill up.  For one I used a Walthers (Atlas O) oil well.  I added a storage tank and some other junk.  The other one I made into a field with a farmer working on fixing the fence along the right-of-way.  Neither of these scenes require a siding .  The trains just pass along side.

Tom

Small power substation. 

How 'bout a small trailer park for tourists: trailers, campers, motor homes, etc.?

Is that a model, Ted? 

Max,  good one!  OP asked for ideas.

Hey Ted, how about a Beer tasting house?

Sounds great to me!  But, I'm not the OP here. HRSPLA(horse play?) is.  Some great ideas being thrown around. 

Oops. HRSPLA, how about a Beer tasting house? LOL

Ted, you could add a taste of nostalgic whimsy in a just 5"x6.5" footprint with this tiny but very detailed Harry Hieke created ice cream parlor. Available in kit form, built up, and built up with lighting and full interior. It's an exquisite little gem for any layout.

 I give up.  hrspla, you're on your own. 

Here's what I do...leave it empty until you get your own idea of what would be just right for the space. The inspiration will come when you least expect it to. Soliciting idea from others while occasionally productive will not equal what you will achieve on your own in time...be patient, work on other projects until something really right comes along. I do this all the time, and when you eventually hit upon the right idea it will be so rewarding because it was and is your Idea.

Bob

TedW posted:

 I give up.  hrspla, you're on your own. 

LOL

I had a small area and put a small radio station and tower in it.... you could also fillit in with a small power sub-station.

How about this:

I'm thinking a lumber yard since that's sort of an out of the way scene.

Looks like the area is locked in with the tracks and mountain.
I would do a bunch of pine trees and maybe a pond with people fishing as one could walk to hat fishing spot.Add a tent or two for camp grounds.
If you do not like that add a old abandon burnt out structure. 

hrspla posted:

I need a idea for this small spot in front of the rock wall.  A scene with a building that isn't a hobo camp   I'm just not into hobos  

You and me, both. I model the WW2 years, and from what I could tell from my research, there wasn’t a real hobo issue in this country at that time. I’m not 100% sure what the heck happened to them, as there surely must have been a population of people who could have served in the military or worked in defense plants, but simply didn’t want to in favor of the hobo lifestyle. But you just don’t see much about them until after WW2 was over.

Anyway, I envision a dirt/gravel grade crossing at the nearest point across the tracks in the bottom left corner of your photo, leading to a open gravel area with a fruit stand or small diner. Picknic benches between the open area and the tracks, so train fans have somewhere to eat while watching trains. You could have several people with cameras just sitting there, waiting for trains.

It’s be different and would be a realistic use of such a small space, way more than any industrial structure as you wouldn’t have parking for the employees that way…

I am with Ron. Any building or structure put there would seem a bit out of place. No road or access to it.  I would consider making a swampy area out of it with cattails and other types of grasses. The pine trees would also add to it. You could add beaver, raccoons, deer or a number of critters. It is one of those things where you want the scene to be believable. Kids love the idea of critters on the layout.

 Rick

 

 

Tom

Very clever. Your imagination can add the other 100 acres.

How about a small factory?

Since the area is relatively inaccessible, you might look at Plasticville's Log Cabin with fencing. It can be kit-bashed to look highly detailed and with some figures and scenery and maybe an out-building like one of the small Woodland Scenic sheds, would look right at home.

As others have suggested, you could also consider a camping scene. The tent and pieces from Woodland Scenics are very good and with some scenery - deadfall, leaves, trees, etc. should look right at home.  

You've gotten a lot of great ideas but I'll add another one. This is a corner from my old layout (I moved and I am now building a new layout). I thought of a hobo camp or a trailer park, or even just a wooded area but went with a trailer by a lake with folks canoeing and fishing. You've got more room than I had so the lake could go under the tracks with a bridge or you could put in a culvert so water could flow under. Hope this helps.

You could model a rock climbing wall, there is one about 20 miles from where I live next to an old railroad trestle.  Also, maybe a older railroad maintenance shack, you could put a model of an old hand truck and a more modern speeder on the tracks outside.  Ok, one last one, a few trees with one large one that has a tree  house for overlooking the trains as they go by, maybe a rope bridge to the upper portion.

I would stick with trackside equipment. A signal, a little MOW shed, a relay box, propane tanks, a pile of ties...

Sometimes Less really is More.

Richie C. posted:

Since the area is relatively inaccessible, you might look at Plasticville's Log Cabin with fencing. It can be kit-bashed to look highly detailed and with some figures and scenery and maybe an out-building like one of the small Woodland Scenic sheds, would look right at home.

Not a bad idea.

I had a corner on my layout where not much would work, so a hillbilly log cabin went in there...

So, have you made a decision, HRSPLA? What are you planning to do?

Thanks for all the great ideas. Yes hrspla stands for horseplay.  Its my plate on my car because I have always had mustang gt's  I think I'm going to use this when it comes out 

Lionel #6-83688 Trackside Railroad Details Pack

One of my earliest memories is of my mother handing a sandwich out the screen door to a hobo in WWll. Wonder if RR security was heightened then against sabotage, and hobos kind of laid low, especially since they were drafting anybody toward the end of the war. That looks like a good place to model John Willy's (last name reserved) accumulation of shacks and oddball tumbledown buildings, a hardscrabble "farm", long rumored to produce mostly moonshine. It was right under a bluff, but with a county road, creek, and then railroad right in front.  A church occupies that area now, no kidding.

How about some sort of mustang horse area? Horses, corral, building/stable of some sort, fences, water trough, windmill?

Pile up some junked rolling stock, rails, ties, ect. in the space and have it be the abandoned derailment site that time forgot......  A good place to store extra parts for the layout.....LOL

HUGZ

Moonman posted:

HUGZ

LMAO!!!!!!

Consider a borrow pit/quarry that has since filled with water.

I think it has been mentioned but I would just do a few trees bushes and some realistic ground cover with some stones.Let the area speak for itself.Nick