Building the Base

The plywood base was 4′ x 5′ with detachable galvanized pipe screw-in legs making it easier to transport. Some of the initial buildings were rough placed to see how it would all fit together.

Everything had to be very lightweight for easy transport, so rather than build the hills out of the standard chicken wire and plaster, 2″ thick house insulation styrofoam was glued to the plywood.

Once the foam base was built, additional realistic geographic features were added, including grassy hills, a stream and waterfall. Prior to finalizing these details, rough assemblage of some buildings was done to check placements:

Then to apply the concrete (grey cardboard) pavements and grassy hills and make the stream and waterfall.

Stay tuned for Part 4 where we discuss the model buildings.

An important part of the original Mr. Rogers’ show was the opening shot of zooming into his miniature neighborhood set. Pee Wee’s Playhouse used a similar device in its opening shots as well. There is nothing quite as charming and engaging as a miniature world of make believe and the Green Room is determined to follow in the steps of the greats!

Designing a Layout to Accommodate the Monorail

The scale chosen was standard HO scale due to the availability of a wide variety of building, trees, accessories, and other “set” pieces. A layout was designed that would include places where alternative energy could be demonstrated: solar, wind, hydro-electric, as well as a gardening and recycling centers, etc. The initial layouts looked like this:

About the Monorail

Like Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood Trolley, a moving monorail is essential to the script and story development. It serves as a transition device between real world events and imaginary world events. The Australian Darling Harbor Harbourlink toy was chosen as the best for scale and design.

Tests were done with various transformers to make sure the vintage HO monorail purchased through ebay worked.

Background movement was provided by a Matchbox Motor Speedway which would allow matchbox and hot wheels cars to move around the city. We had a 3 car pileup at the Giant Donut shop while testing out the track! Luckily, since it was a donut shop, the police were nearby!