The Underground Railroad
List Price: 8.95
Price: 6.68

www.smarttinc.com presents . . . This layout depicts the popular Steam to Diesel transition era of the late 1940s to 1950s. The theme is the Pacific Northwest from Washington State to Minnesota, showcasing the Fallen Flags of the Great Northern, Western Pacific, and Northern Pacific Railroads. From a large central Railroad yard and locomotive servicing facility overlooked by a lengthy urban scene, to distant travel over several rivers up into the rugged mountains, this layout is a visual treat! With numerous tunnels, a great logging scene, and a rural harbor that brings back memories of days gone by, this feature-laden display has a complex and exciting feel, yet provides easy and enjoyable operation for one or more. See more at www.smarttinc.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Talley-ho-ho-ho!
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I want to start by looking at your model railways backdrop first of all, as this is one of the easiest places to use this method of creating a sense of extra depth to your model railroads scenery. As you are designing you model railroad backdrop, if you draw objects that you want to appear as if they are further in the distance smaller than those in the foreground, this will create a natural effect to deceive the eyes. Naturally, when you look into the distance, objects get smaller in size.

They also get more out of focus, so objects in the foreground should be well defined images and those in the distance should appear blurred to get the most realistic effect possible.

Forgetting to do this when trying to create the illusion of forced perspective will make it look unnatural and will in fact have the opposite effect to what you are actually trying to achieve, as the eyes will focus more on it.

Another neat little trick here is to dull the brightness of the colours used and also use less detail in the background images as these are how things naturally appear to the human eye as things disappear into the distance.

Forced perspective is a technique that can be applied within you model railway itself too and is not just relevant to your backdrop.

I have seen great examples of the forced perspective of a valley disappearing into the distance, complete with a river at the bottom.

This was done by shrinking the size the river as it got further away from the view point. It also included using a couple of bridges over this river, which again, got smaller as they got further away, giving the illusion of a greater distance between them. Another great way to achieve this look in you model railways scenery is by using different size and scale trees as you get further back in your layout. Micro machines mini cars used on roads winding of into the distance are also a nice little trick I have seen used.

The final technique I want to mention that can work particularly well is to use railway track of a smaller gauge than the one your model trains are running on, which you use in the distance to create an effect that the track is again further away than it really is.

Whichever method you decide upon, the main points to remember are the same. As objects get further away, to the natural eye they will appear small, become less in focus, contain less detail and appear duller in colour. Hopefully this will have given you some great ideas for your own model railways scenery. For more information on how to create realistic model train scenery, visit my website by clicking the link below.

The Train
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