Tropical Trees For Tropical Pizza

Tropical palm and fern trees and some people add more life to a verdant tropical island HO scale micro layout.

Since the last blog post about my Tropical Pizza layout, I have received and added tropical trees to the layout. I also found some HO size people to add to the layout, adding some much need human population to the layout.

As a point of reference, here is the layout scenery before the trees and people were added.

And here are the same views after the trees were added.

The addition of the trees has made a marked difference in the over all effect. I guess that’s what happens when around 20 trees are added to such a small layout. But adding people has also added interest to the layout, providing glimpses of life on the island. From the old lady waiting for the next passenger train, to a cleaner trying in vain to keep the harbour area clean, to the man trying to convince a friend of the size of the fish that ‘got away’.

To finish off this post, here are some photos of the island’s palm and fern forests.

The $18 spent on the trees in the above photos was money well spent! A few of the left over palm trees were also used on my Brazilian HO scale micro switchback layout as well.

In the time since the trees were added, I have also worked out a train sheet, with a few freight trains and some passenger trains depending on the day of the week being operated. Operating the layout is quite complicated, as siding space is limited and freight cars all have to be loaded or unloaded at the harbour, which means a lot of shunting is involved. I am quite happy with this little layout. It has been a joy to build, and it is fun to operate.