Open Spot on Layout...what to do with it? Suggestions Needed/Appreciated

If it were mine, I would make a road over to it and turn it into a park with a playground.

How about a nice water scene, with a dock a few small boats with people fishing, boating and swimming .

 

 

Alex

I am with Alex on this one. I believe a water feature would make perfect use of this limited space.

Hmmmm....well, having a realistic open space of countryside is kind of unique in a world of layouts "paved with Plasticville", and if you don't have room to put in a switch and serve a siding, nothing may be gained by "covering it up".  On another posting they are discussing modeling abandoned track, so  if that is an itch you have to scratch, with no switch now in place you could put a stretch of abandoned track or a line of ties on a roadbed to an abandoned building, say, a crumbling grain elevator.

A small farm and buildings is another possibility.

Park. 

I would also extend the road but I would put a fenced in junk yard there

I'm with Frank and Ben.

A structure, small, with lots of character like a broken down repair shop/junkyard.

Junk yards have lots of character !!

Or a small caboose shed next to a piece of extended track into that area.

 

I like the open area! Great place for a kid to fly a kite.....run, jump, etc.

 

Sometimes "less is more.."

 

Says one who tends to lay track on every available square inch, and then wonders why his table looks cluttered............

 

 

I like the thought of a gravel or dirt road going to this area. I've long thought about water but am a bit nervous doing such a task. Perhaps I'll just go for water as a "test" pond. Should I want to do something differently down the road, it would be pretty easy to remove. 

 

THose are lumberjacks in the bottom of the photos around the trees. They can be moved easily. 

Looks like a good place for a drive in theater.

A Korber radio station and tower- gravel road to it-perhaps abandoned rail behind it.

You could put in a couple of Lionel wind turbines.

Bill...

 

I like your idea and can empathize with your last comment!

 

THIS is the accessory that comes to mind...

http://www.legacykline.com/apps/kl/catalog.html?useraction=item&p_item_type=Accessories&p_oem_sku=K-42438

 

BTW, there's currently one offered on the auction-we-can't-mention...but not by the K-Line stock number.

 

Actually, this sort of animated accessory would not be that difficult to make.  There are lots of slow-rotation mechanisms to which a figure could be pegged and a small airplane attached with very fine wire.  I'll even bet that George at ITTProducts, the sound module folks, could put together a quick R/C airplane droning chip to add a bit of audio pizazz to the scene....if for no other reason than to drown out the motor/gear noise!!

 

Something more static?   Change the gizmo at the end of the 'string' to a kite, as Bill suggested, and call it good.  Hey, if you have a small fan in proximity, it might even make the kite 'dance' a bit!

 

Whatever....   BUT HAVE FUN WITH IT!!

 

KD

 

If you want to get creative, you could put in a ruined or abandoned building with traces of that abandoned rail line.  I find these types of places to be visually very interesting.

 

Andy

  A war memorial site with a flag and maybe a tank or gun,or a spot for an old caboose with the local railroad herald on it.

Lots of splendid ideas here.  How about an abandoned mine shaft at the end of the extended gravel/dirt road?

 

Another thought.  At a similar site on a previous layout I had a den with a bear poking its head out.  Not very prototypical maybe, but fun on a 3 rail traditional layout.  It got lots of comments.

That looks like prime coal country.  How about a strip mine or maybe a limestone quarry.  Maybe some fracking equipment. 

Pave paradise. Put up a parking lot.
Actually, I think some people with a tent and campsite might be neat.

I like the abandoned mineshaft idea, along some remnants of an old tipple maybe?

Or maybe a small bulk station tank farm with a truck loading platform?

 

Rod