I used to do HO. My son mentioned the other day that he’d like to have one of my locomotives to have at his place (he’s not at all into the modeling side but enjoys what I do).
Rather than just giving him a locomotive by itself, I decided to get out some of my saved HO stuff and build a small diorama for him to display the loco and a few cars. The plan is a Shay, a wooden gondola, a couple of log cars, and a caboose. The base is about 8 inches wide and a bit over 2 feet long. I hope he has enough room to show it off!
Sssshhhhh, don’t tell him please!
Here’s the diorama so far. The water tank is from a kit that I made a couple of decades ago (and is a bit worse for wear, I’ll admit).
I’ll post another picture when some glue dries and I get some loco + cars staged.
Cheers!