Alpine Heights

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This box was built after a lot of suggesting from my wife and daughter. I'd never attempted a snow scene before so was a little reluctant to try at first, but gave in and had a go.

The setting for Alpine Heights is a small ski resort somewhere.... anywhere... in Europe.

An all white scene of two hills needed a little thought to break it up a bit. Whilst a train ride through the snow is very thrilling, a box with just white is not so spectacular!

The oval railway line passes through two tunnels, one a little longer than the other.

The area in front of the two hills/mountains has two main buildings; an Alpine chalet/guest house complete with balconies and window shutters, and a Ski Lodge which also houses the winding gear for the ski lift. The ski lift runs up the mountain to the top winding house. The ski lift is static and is made with silver thread running between the buildings and over a catenary pylon mid-way. The lift seats are made from bent garden wire.

Between the two main buildings is a Christmas tree with working lights. Children are having a snowball fight, whilst the postman has his sled full of presents.

Skiers make their way down the mountainside, whilst high on the other hill the deer look on.

At the front of the scene is a small snow covered station, whilst to the rear is a barrier crossing. Alpine trees cover the less populated parts of the scene.

All the buildings were built from scratch using Metcalfe brick card. The timber work is printed sample papers (reduced in size) from the web. The designs were created from various photos found on the internet.

The postman's sled is made with card, the presents are painted balsa wood.

The ski rack and skies are also made from card. The skies being strips of card coloured with felt tip pens!

The snow effect is from snow powder/scatter fixed with watered down PVA.

A Kato Pocketline loco and two four wheel coaches are used to run around the line.