Physically Challenged - HO Scale

The figures layouts usually lack

The crowds of passengers on model platforms are almost always made up of healthy adults walking fast. A real station looks different, though: somebody leans on a cane, somebody waits longer because he moves with difficulty, and somebody is accompanying a relative. Adding this part of life is one of the surest ways of giving scenery a credibility no further building will add.

Six figures with aids

The content is laid out in six pieces: two older men and one woman lean on canes, a young man moves on crutches and a small boy pushes a grandmother in a wheelchair. Altogether that is six figures and each of them has a mobility aid of its own, so the set cannot be confused with an ordinary set of pedestrians. The finish is complete in color, so the model is built by setting the figures into the scene.

Where to place the set

It comes off most strongly on a platform, in an underpass, at the entrance to a health center or in a park with benches. It pays to place the pair with the wheelchair where there is step-free access, that is at a ramp or an elevator; a figure in a wheelchair in the middle of a staircase would, on the other hand, ruin the scene. The other figures can be spread over the whole module individually, because each one works on its own as well. If the layout shows an earlier period, canes and crutches suit just as well as they do today, because their shape has barely changed over the decades. The pair at a ticket window comes off especially well, where a longer wait makes sense in itself.