 Hi, this is Marty McGurk and welcome to a Model Railroad hobbyist getting real video extra. Mockups are a great way to plan a scene on a model railroad layout. I'm using mockups rather extensively to plan the White River Junction Vermont scene on my home layout. On this HO scale layout, the center change point between the Central Vermont Railway and the Boston and Maine is a key scene and one that I wanted to make sure I modeled as accurately as I possibly could. I started by identifying several key areas of the prototype that I knew I wanted to represent on my model railroad. First of them was the station itself, obviously. For this, I used plans that appeared in Model Railroad magazine to create the mockup. The track is simply flex track that's been pinned in place with ordinary map pins. It makes it easy to move things around. One of the things I find when I'm working with the mockups is sometimes I make them a little too large. If I do that, it's a simple matter to adjust a much easier than adjusting the finished model. Twin State Fruit Company is another key signature scene I wanted to include on the layout. As you can see, that billboard sign on the front of the building is certainly a recognizable element. But when I created my mockup for this building, I found that the mockup itself wouldn't fit on the layout. The solution was to add a small shelf to the front of the layout to add room for the building. The gates block is another element I wanted to include on the layout, although I didn't want to devote a lot of space to a block of commercial buildings. I did want to capture the basic look of the structure. I created the mockup and then trimmed it to fit. Ultimately, it'll be a sort of a three-dimensional relief backdrop element on the layout. Leaving the gates block behind, we arrive at the Bridge Street overpass scene. On this scene, I didn't build a 3D mockup. I made a simple poster board footprint mockup. We discussed these in the article and these are a great way to measure a building and cut and trim it to fit without actually building a three-dimensional mockup. You can see the folded pieces of paper there. Those represent the street itself. Remember, mockups don't have to be elaborate or complicated to be effective planning tools. In this case, I've simply taken a couple pieces of Styrofoam, stacked them up, and used it to see where to locate the overpass itself. That way, I can make this decision now in a mockup form, rather than cut it into the plywood and realize the bridge should be six inches to the left or foot to the right. Moving on, we reach the freight yard. Behind the freight yard is the Ward Baking Company. The front of Ward Baking isn't too much to look at. That actually faces the backdrop on my layout. But the rear wall of Ward Baking faces the central Vermont freight yard and has this recognizable billboard sign that's still there today and is certainly a recognizable signature element. The small red mockup you see there in the middle represents the Ward Baking building. Moving to the right, we reach the freight yard itself. And you can see the engine terminal and turntable in the distance. The locomotive servicing area at White River Junction was a key division point on the railroad. It had several key signature elements, the turntable roundhouse and this concrete coiling tower that was built in 1928 with the central Vermont logo emblazoned in the concrete. White River was the one place where the CV dispatched its largest engines in both north and south directions. And so it was important that I had captured on the layout. I wanted to make sure that I had room for the turntable and roundhouse. Wolther's actually includes a paper template for their turntables, so in a way they're encouraged and use mockups as well. That's all for now. I've hope you picked up some tips on using mockups on your layout and be sure to read Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine for more great tips every month. Online forever free.