What's your favourite repurposed item on your layout?

Hello Everybody!

Does this count, a CAB1 holder from the pinch point of a vodka bottle.

Your shut off..........  good one Paul

Took the metal bars from "wardrobe" moving boxes, painted them black, and made them into the supports for this girder bridge.  Additional detailing is still on the "to do" list.

-Dustin

Actual 1/4" scale raw cotton bales taken from souvenier key chains. 

I made my own ground foam - it's not nearly as fine as commercial product but it does the trick.  I think I read about it in MR or RMC - taking sponge material, ripping it up some, throwing some into a blender with water, color with RIT dye, drain and dry.

I made about 6 gallon containers worth for the price of 1 box of RIT and all junk sponges (the cheaper the sponge the better and finer you can make it). 

like I said, not the best, but very usable on my Christmas layouts:

Cupcake toppers I use on my Halloween scene:

Some Giant type pine cones I picked up on a Florida trip.  Painted and 'fancied' up:

Beer bottle labels and 1 beer can:

Film cartridges painted with stickers.  Glued on a washer.  Crane 'load':

I recently read of a survey that claims 85% of vodka drinkers can't tell the difference between the "good" stuff and the rotgut swill. 

Pete

"fast draw" Cab 1 Holsters, pockets removed from a child's old vinyl book bag.

You failed to mention the Construx!  I would never of thought of using them to build a bridge.  I'd be too worried that they wouldn't hold.  But then I was always kinda rough on mine as a kid.  I got some more used for my son to play with but they have been rather brittle.  Probably from heat.

Art,

Solido 1950 Chevy

If you know a racer, they will have a tool to cut the end off of the filter so they may remove and examine the filter material for unusual wear. 

As with any can, watch out for the edge and clean.

One of my toy train favorites…

two fluorescent lamp starters, two pieces of wood, four “eyes” of twisted wire, a few popsicle sticks, etc…I need to add a “high voltage” warning to the sides…

Might also make another and paint it yellow with a red “radio active” warning…

Howard…

Thanks, Brian.  I will have to keep my eyes out for one of those.

Art

It was strong enough to support TWO parked trains.  This is the only picture I have that shows 2 trains on it.  It held up the heavy RK engines when I pulled the trains in engine first.

That was the only year I used the CONSTRUX.  That year was supposed to take on an all-toylike appearance and the CONSTRUX helped with that.

- walt

This has been a fascinating thread. Lots of great ideas presented. 

Toy train theme?  All I'm seeing is beer train theme. 

Yeah, I had a LOT of beer related cars - and 2 engines too.

My neighbor and his son worked at the iron city brewery before it moved to Latrobe, so I actually started drinking the stuff as a show of local support and that sort of led to me buying everything that MTH made that was Iron City.  Had two full trains with Iron City cars, each led with an Iron City engine - including the one that you see in the picture.

I also was buying Rolling Rock stuff before they were bought out and moved to jersey.

- walt

Oh boy, what a useful topic!  I have a number of 1/4 in. wooden dowels and some

thin galvanized wire.  I plan to drill each dowel through with a tiny fine bit, two

holes, one above the other.  The wire will be passed through the holes after I paint

the dowels white.  Make a row of them here and there on a two-lane road and

bingo!  Old-fashioned guard-rails.

     Hoppy

Good Heavens!  As I recall Iron City is the Northeast's equivalent of Lone Star.  Each brand needs a label like the ones on cigarette packages: "WARNING:  Do not drink this product!"  Not only do they taste like carbonated defrost, the ad slogans could read "If you like headaches you'll love this beer."

I'll stick with Sam Adams or Ballantine Ale, thank you.

Pete 

Ballentine! Wow. You probably also liked Natty Bo and - Hey Mabel.....Black Label.

And I know you drank Hamms!

All great brands.

Greg

This is one of the best threads I've ever read.  OGR Forum is lucky to have so many creative and talented contributors.

Keep on showcasing the resourceful ingenuity! 

i have used ceiling tile backside to make concrete walls ,sidewalks and roads didn't even paint it. Tubes from worn out pens for pipes. the little springs are also useful. the handles of gillette razors can be cut down for street drains. 

There is real talent here...I am motivated now...

Interesting ideas!  Can you explain this in more detail or provide some pictures?  I'm interested in the ceiling tile, spring from a pen and totally confused about the Gillette razor as a street drain.  

It's a Lionel Crane Car with the trucks removed sitting upon two Lionel trestle pieces.

If you all don't mind,  I would like to sketch up some of your clever re-purposing items so we can all have a record of them.

This is one of the all time great post topics on the OGR Forum! Lets keep it going.

While nowhere near as clever, resourceful, and cool as so many of the ideas presented here are, I re-purposed a couple building kits as something other than what they were advertised to be used for:

A. A DowntownDeco kit for a factory (if I recall correctly) is reinterpreted as an old parochial elementary school:

B. The office from a lumber co.kit is an old abandoned store:

This sketch depicts some of the great ideas above. More to follow.

Nice ideas Bobby. Thanks.

Bobby - A lot of great ideas!  Thanks.

Art

The insulators are beads with an upside down Atlas HO track nail holding them together.

...clippings from backyard schrubs (not exactly breaking-news) modeled as harvested logs and stumps...

Great scenes Frank---mountain logging.

Thanks, Dewey. I always enjoy hearing your approval. "Logging blocks" are something I really enjoyed crafting.

Aluminum foil (shiny side out) as a ceiling reflector for LED lights.

Very cool thread!

I printed a Philadelphia Eagles flag from the internet which now proudly flies downtown.

Here's another idea. I re-purposed 3M adhesvie stair-tread product as rural, tertiary road ways/surfaces to satisfying effect (to me, at least):

Thanks to everyone for all of your awesome ideas! I thought I would share another....

My daughter was frustrated that she couldn't put O Scale people in our passenger cars so I used a gondola and some benches to make some sightseeing cars for her.

Keep those responses coming.

Jay in Ottawa

The Fu Dog in front of my O gauge Chinese Restaurant!   

Had a Lionel SP style caboose, (#6017 I think) with a broken roof corner on one end.  Usually scrap, right?  I cut the rest of the roof corners off even with the end walls of the caboose, leaving about 1/4" of the roof walk in place.  Made a snow plow out of sheet brass and mounted it on the end closest to the cupola.  Made "wings" for the sides also out of brass and  I installed a flanger blade between the trucks plus a headlight above the plow, cut doors into one of the windows on each side and fitted in plastic doors from some building kit. 

Painted it up in C&NW yellow and I've got a credible representation of a Russell snow plow.  Looked an awful like the one the RR used to keep in Butler, WI.

Paul Fischer