Posted by "FrankG" on the OGR Forum on November 21, 2007

Ted,
When Lionel made these layouts they started with a bare sheet of plywood (or masonite). They then gave the board a coat of tan paint. After this dried, they used a huge silk screen that had the pattern of the track paths and roads on it and squeegied a thick oil-based slow drying green paint on. The screen was lifted and the grassy areas were painted green leaving tan areas for the track paths and roads (the accessory areas and the mountain locations were also left tan). Then they threw on 919 grass. The next day the track and wiring was done (upside down). If there was a mountain, this was prepared next. Prior to 1958, the portals were cut from 1/2" or 3/4" plywood or 3/4" pine. The portal shapes and sizes varied from year to year and layout to layout. Beginning in 1958, they started to use the 920 portals for single track tunnel entrances. Double track portals, like the "rear" portal on the D-264 were again made from wood. These were toe-nailed to the board. Various sizes of 1" X 1" wooden sticks were toe-nailed as supports for the mountain. In 1959, this was covered with a brown craft paper. Layouts before about 1955 used hardware cloth (wire screen). Wadded up pieces of newspaper were place over the brown wrapping paper and a large piece of mottled gray wool felt that had been dipped into hot "fish glue" was then place over the supports, paper and newspaper wads. The felt was prodded and shaped to create valleys and ridges. The excess was trimmed and the edges were stapled to the board using short 1/4" hardware staples. This was allowed to dry overnight before painting. This was the "usual" method of making mountains. However, Lionel always seemed to vary things just to throw off us historians. It seems that they also made mountains on displays using cloth that had been dipped in a thin mixture of spackle and plaster, although I've only seen one made like this from 1954. They also used "celastic" which is a muslin cloth that is impregnated with colloidal plastic that must be softened in acetone or similar solvent. BTW, this is how the mountain on the 1957 Super-O showroom layout was constructed (as well as the mountains on the famous Rochester PAL - now Edgarton Park layouts). Celastic mountains had the advantage of drying much more quickly (within 30 minutes) and being much stronger than the glue dipped felt. They must have been an environmental nightmare, with all that flammable solvent slopping around in an era when most everyone smoked!! After the mountain dried, it was painted, using theatrical casein based paints that had "fish glue" added for durability. Prior to 1955, the mountain painting followed the pre-war practice of fanciful colorful designs with blue and pink highlighted snow caps initiated by the senior Donato. To reproduce these, get your hands on a pre-war tunnel and study how they were painted. Beginning in 1955, Lionel began giving the mountains a more realistic treatment. Earth tones of raw sienna, burnt sienna and yellow ochre were dappled on with the end of a brush, letting the gray felt show through here and there. Grass areas were painted on and 919 grass was added while wet. Bits of lichen were glued here and there. BTW, on PRODUCTION layouts, Lionel never used model trees of any kind. Just lichen, glued on the mountains and stapled on the boards. On "specials", large department store displays and others, they did use small bottle brush fir trees on both the mountain and boards. When stapling the lichen on, Lionel used to gather several nice clumps together and then staple them "standing up". This gave teh impression of the bush or shrub growing and also provide some height. Lionel generally did not paint the track paths separately, leaving the tan showing through the green paint as the roadbed as well as the roads. However, some layouts have been authenticated with gray painted roadbeds as well as some that used cork roadbed! More inconsistencies for those looking back 50+ years! After the mountain was finished and the lichen stapled to the boards, the accessories were installed and tested and the layouts were crated and shipped. They were crated upside down in crates made of wood and cardboard scraps. Nothing was wasted at Lionel! If you know how to make a silk screen, it is not hard to make the large screens for the roads. I would not contract one out unless you are willing to shell out a large sum of money as commercial screen makers work using a photo-resist process, and you will need to pay for them to make the artwork, the negative AND the screen. Alternately, you can do a credible job with just masking tape, although that is not "authentic". Oil based flat finish paints are hard to come by, so you can use latex paint that has a retarder added to slow the drying time - necessary for adhering the grass. Or you can do what Skip did - paint the grass areas green and then use a diluted white glue to afix the 919 grass. The most authentic felt is that found in the 920 scenic sets, but you will need at least three sets to make the mountain on the D-264! If you go this way, sew the three pieces of felt together to make one large piece. There is no exact equivalent available today. You can get a similar acrylic felt from Kunan Felt, but it is not really the same thing, and being acrylic, it will not shrink the same way the original wool product will. Then build your frame and portals and cover with the brown paper. Use an old bedsheet or similar and cover the brown wrapping paper and temporarily tack it down. Add your crumpled newspaper wads to simulate rock outcroppings. Then trim the bedsheet and use it as a PATTERN to pre-cut the felt. This is much easier an neater than trying to wrestle with a huge uncut piece. The "fish glue" is used in the construction and repair of pipe organs. You can get it and the required hot pots from Organ Supply in Erie, PA. Heat a large batch of glue and then transfer to a bucket. Dip the felt and squeeze it out lightly. Working VERY QUICKLY with an assistant, cover the brown paper with the felt, tuck in your newspaper and mold and shape the mountain. Celastic is available from theatre supply houses such as Schenz and Freeman Supply. It is very expensive and hard to work with (you need resperators skin protection etc.) but it will produce a very authentic result. Hope this helps. The theatre supply houses also have the casein based earth tone paints in gallon cans. Good luck!