A Tree is a Tree, for all That

 When I built Rails around the Rectory, I was relatively happy with the stand of trees, which represented the odd mix of overgrown trees that characterised the real garden at Cadeby and added much to the illusion that the Cadeby Light Railway was bigger than it was.

If I had a regret, it was that I knew I was making them to about half their real height, but somehow, the illusion worked in the context. They still towered over the stock.

Early days of forestry using Woodland Scenic armatures

Building RatR, I could at least look out and see the trees around our small holding for inspiration. I never got around to counting them all, and as on our models, there were a few hero trees, like the ashes, and others, like many of the hawthorns, that were just generic trees.

                                                                "Again, you know

There are three kinds of tree, three only, the fir and the poplar,

And those which have bushy tops to; and lastly

          That things only seem to be things."

Henry Reed, "Judging Distances." New Statesman and Nation 25, no. 628 (6 March 1943): 155

I think that when we look at a model tree, there are certain criteria we notice, if perhaps unconsciously, that either convinces us it is right or not, that they seem to be the things they are not. Some of those criteria are based on our expectation of a model, not our experience of the natural world. It is the one area where many of us end up inadvertently "modelling other models" rather than looking outside the window.

You and I, of course, have read those wonderful books by Gordon Gravett. From an early age you might have been inspired by the Bowden Cable creations of Iliffe and Doris Stokes, with their vital advice to model an actual tree. But that doesn't make us immune. We accept that it is the mature oak tree we are looking at because, well, it would be silly to model one half a metre tall.

A couple of things have brought this to mind recently.

On one of the model railway Facebook groups someone posted a photo of a photographic backscene they'd been sold as "N gauge large trees."

They could see it looked wrong but had latched on to the trees being too tall. That wasn't really the issue. Yes, they probably were too tall, but more to the point, it was clearly a picture of relatively small trees blown up rather than a photo of large mature trees.

The other thing that brought it to mind was a weekend of travel during which woods and trees were never far away. This reminded me that sometimes things are bigger than you think.

This brings us back to those trees on RatR.Model trees don't travel well and they now look much the worse for wear,so I will revisit them soon for a major refresh. .