Price: $74.99
Manufacturer
Woodland Scenics
P.O. Box 98
Linn Creek, MO 65052
www.woodlandscenics.com
Versions: Sunny Days, Grillin’ & Chillin’, and Double Decker trailers
Era: 1950s to present
Comments: Modelers looking for downscale housing for their trackside towns should check out this Landmark Structures offering from Woodland Scenics. The company is selling three compact trailer homes, each factory-wired for light-emitting-diode (LED) illumination using Woodland’s proprietary Just Plug system.
Travel trailers have been around for longer than there have been automobiles to pull them, but it wasn’t until housing demand skyrocketed in post-World-War-II America that manufacturers started building larger, boxier trailer homes intended for more permanent installation on a home site. Initially, trailer homes were 8 feet wide and could be towed behind a typical car; in 1956, manufacturers started selling 10-foot-wide trailers. All three of Woodland’s trailers are 9 scale feet wide, but unless your visitors tend to take scale rules to your layout, you could use them any time from 1950 on.
The styrene models come with numerous details, both attached and separate, such as awnings, stairs, picnic tables, TV antennas, and propane tanks. The windows have printed paper curtains or blinds, but some are clear, giving a view of the printed paper interiors. Since the there are limited viewing angles inside, this is effective.
The trailers are each wired with two LEDs for interior illumination. Though in some cases the LEDs are glued to the trailer floor, they do a good job shining through the printed paper window treatments. In one model, the Double Decker Trailer (above), instead of illuminating the living room, the second LED is attached to a flicker circuit and installed behind a simulated TV screen. This effect is hard to see unless the layout room is dark.
Woodland’s trailer homes would make interesting scenes on a transition-era or later model railroad, either singly or grouped in a small trailer park. The boxy Sunny Days trailer, with its awnings removed, would also make a good prefab office for a freight yard or construction site.
