Making the Railroad Layout Come Alive

Here is a nice, serene country scene with a classic gambrel roofed barn and wooden fence next to an unpaved country road and watched over by an imposing rock outcropping. But notice how this rural picture, nice as it is on its own, has gained some interesting appeal with the two Holstein "ladies" chewing their cud near the barn. It's no longer a static scene with the added animal life which will catch many people's eyes as they tour our layout.


The picture below is of a loading ramp running from trackside to the second story of a meat packing plant. A stockyard is being built [hint! hint! Jim L.] that will be located on the left side of this ramp. Stock cars will bring cattle along the track in the foreground  and unload them into the stock yard. Then selected steers are directed over to the ramp and on to the packing plant. In this picture, you can see steers being herded up into the ramp which creates added interest to this scene. This track will also be used by refrigerated boxcars known as "reefers" picking up the meat products to be shipped to various markets.