What's your favourite repurposed item on your layout?

The white milk bottles are salt and pepper shakers.

 

Art

The blue Sunoco Oil tanks in the rear were Slim Fast cans.

Not finished yet.This retaining wall is leftover kitchen backsplash sheet mosaic.

This is a good topic, I have nothing to provide as of yet but the back splash idea is great.....so more Gentlemen.....more.

 

Rick.

The log cabin is a bird feeder that I bought @ Michael's on sale for $5.00, then painted it & installed lights.

This is very good subject matter. I also notice that our thread starter is from our neighbors up north, ayyyy.

 

The two materials that immediately come to mind for me is using black asphalt roofing shingles for roadway (this color hides the seams, and a good grade of carpet (not indoor/outdoor) for grass material.

 

 

Art.....When I was a young boy growing up in the Bronx,my mother would put me on the trolley and send me uptown to visit my grandfather.I knew to get off as I approached my landmark,a Sheffield Farms Dairy Plant.On the roof was a huge white milk bottle water tower which stood like a beacon to me.Thank you so much for the memory.

P.S. Where did you get the shaker? I already purchased two Sheffield Farm milk cars.

 

rustyrail,

 

I remember that plant very well - on Webster Ave just north of where Melrose Ave. begins. Whenever delivery men would go on strike back in the 50s, we'd walk down there from 170th to buy milk.

 

As seen on Google Street View, the building still has the Sheffield name on it, but the big milk bottle is gone.

 

I agree - a great memory.

 

Jim

Jim...You nailed it.The milk bottle has long been gone and the building has been abandoned and gone to pot the last time that I saw it,which was quite a few years ago.

Asphalt roofing paper for roads

 

 

Drawer pull knobs for roof vents.

 

Hedge clippings with ground foam for trees.

I agree that this is a great topic.  I can't help but think of Alan Arnold's jello mold that he used on top of one of his latest buildings.  A friend of mine uses plastic push pins to make fancy railing posts. 

 

Brian - Love that taxi, do you remember who makes it?  What is it a 1950 Chey?

 

Art  

Someone should write a book with all these ideas in it!

Drawer pulls for roof vents!  Matt that is a great idea!  And they will make it extra easy to remove a roof that isn't glued down to access the interior. 

 

This thread is going to be a gold mine of ideas.

 

Art

Art:

 

Don't remember who makes it off the top of my head. I will check it out and get back to you.

Matt.....I love your roads. How dis you do your road markings, especially the RR crossings?

Thanks for sharing guys! Hopefully we can keep this one going for awhile!

Loving this thread!  Paper Towel and Toilet Paper Card Board Rolls make great cylindrical pieces.

The utility cabinet on the side of this building is actually a model of the UN Building taken from one of those little New York City Souvenir pieces!

 

 

Jim

A great one for me has been using PVC sewer pipes for silos on modern concrete grain elevators.

I have three.

 

1  Used an old Barbeque rotisserie motor to rotate a plywood disc with flat magnets to

    be mounted under a piece of painted glass to power my magnet footed ice skaters.

2  Used a 12 inch dia lazy Susan bearing to support the plywood pulley that drives my

    scratch built turn table.

3  Used a spare clothes dryer belt to drive the turn table pulley via a hand crank on the

    control panel.

Charlie

Great minds think alike.  I am using tarpaper for roads, towel and other cardboard

cylinders for horizontal tanks, and PVC pipe sections for a coal silo, and, when

wrapped with paper and thread "cables", for locomotive and industry rooftop water

tanks.

Followed prototype practice -- masks and spray paint.

Wow those are some excellent responses and some great imaginative ideas! Please keep them coming!!

 

Thanks as always,

 

Jay in Ottawa

The horse tank is a fish pill lid.  We also have a lot of car tires from our puppy a few years back, when she chewed on my sons car beyond playability we would add the car and tires to the layout.  Here is a monster truck at one time, now just sitting out in the pasture.   

Great thread !!

Pull knobs huh Matt, great idea!

 

empty tubes of caulking storage tanks

 

 

 

 

Plastic milk jugs make great frosted windows for cars and buildings etc.

 

Steve

The headlight on my "modified for the heck of it" MTH 4-6-0 is cut from the roll from plastic doggy-doo bags, and the headlight lense is the end of a plastic ball-point pen.

 

Frank53, Even though smoking is scorned upon, I think your use of empty cigarette packs for mini light boxes is KOOL. I suppose those windows are glazed with smoked glass.

Great topic!  It's been mentioned in other threads but... Oil Filters as storage tanks.  

 

Off the top of my head I can't think of an ecologically responsible way to clean them out and not wind up with a pool of dirty motor oil on the layout.  I'm interested to hear others' solutions.

I thought the same thing.  I'm betting they are using new filters.

That's a good one.

 

A friend wanted some glazing for a Lionel 6017 caboose and I tipped him off that he could use the plastic from the clear plastic container that strawberries and pre-packed salads are packed in in supermarkets. I have a couple in the garage just in case.

I've used those circles of plastic that seal milk jugs to keep them from being tampered with.  When the jug is opened, the ring comes off and I've turned them inside out so the "teeth" are exposed, painted them aluminum and they look like used band saw blades from an industrial operation.  Also, both the milk cartons and smaller cartons have a plug with a pull ring inside to seal the carton before sale.  When you take those plugs and paint them aluminum, they make a convincing out side vent cover of the type that has been used for many years. 

 

Also have used broken ceiling tiles to build a rock cliff facing.  After some latex paint it looks pretty convincing.

 

Paul Fischer

sorry no pics but once used the top half of a tic tac box for a window planter

 

Off the top of my head I can't think of an ecologically responsible way to clean them out and not wind up with a pool of dirty motor oil on the layout.  I'm interested to hear others' solutions.

 

At $3 to $6 Each for generic ones @ Walmart, I just buy new ones. Don't bother cleaning out an old one.

Habitat/Restore outlets and thrift stores often have oddball oil filters for about a dollar.

Two half trigger pulls of simple green, wait 24 hours and rinse with lemon juice then air dry.

Restore is a great idea, I'm going there tomorrow to browse for ideas.

Santa rode a 1:43 scale Honda RC-51 Sport Bike on the Christmas layout - everyone got a kick out of it since the time period of the village is late 19th/early 20th century.   The 'Back to The Future' DeLorean time machine also made an appearance, as did one of my kids 1:43 UPS truck.