What is this scenery tool?

[lvrr325]

I went to an auction today, couple selling their house and all the contents to move to Belize of all things, because buried in the contents listing was "HO Trains".  No pictures posted. You never know, it was close by, if it had been junk it would be no big deal.

I did pretty well, bought nine steam engines in the boxes for $25 a shot with two being BLI, one MTH, one Rivarossi with sound, one Mantua with sound, one Bachmann with sound, pretty much all bring $150-$300.   One junk box had a couple hot wheels redlines in the bottom and another I found half a dozen older slot cars in an AFX plastic box, so now I don't feel so bad paying $50 for it.  And a $70 box with a Tichy six pack of outside braced boxcars visible (with a $75 price on it) had six Tortoises buried in the bottom in addition to a bunch of other stuff.  

Anyhow, one box of scenery stuff had some kind of strainer on a fat handle with two D batteries inside, with a wire and clip on the end, and a label in black and yellow like most Woodland Scenics stuff warning not to touch the mesh when it was working.  But I can't find anything like it, so maybe it's a discontinued tool.   Does anyone remember something like this?   Maybe 3-4 inch basket with white plastic rim, black handle about 10-12 inches long with the battery compartment inside.   No brand name or markings on it at all beyond the warning label.  

Guy had a lot of fishing stuff and some was mixed into the trains, so maybe it's not even train related.  

[alexandrianick]

Static grass applicator. Based on the design and colors, it sounds homemade.

[lvrr325]

No, it's not home made. Not with a printed warning label telling you not to touch the grid, not to drop it, and so forth.

[alexandrianick]

I can't find a commercially produced one that had a basket like that. The electric source, which would have been an electric fly swatter, would have had a warning not to touch the grid too.

[lvrr325]

Searching eBay for "static Grass applicator" turns up a lot of very similar ones however they have a container on the end. Given this one is ~10 years old I expect it's an obsolete version. The batteries in it have a date stamp but I need to look at them with glasses to see just how old they are.

This was a very strange mix of things - some early 60s era Lionel and Tyco, some 70s Tyco, some 80s Bachmann, and then a whole batch of 2010-ish mid and high end stuff, newer Woodland scenery stuff but yet also boxes of Life-Like lichen. No sign there was ever a layout here either. But clearly a lot of the pieces have been out of the boxes and run somewhere. I ended up with an Atlas turntable that came in a box new enough to have a plastic bubble on the top, but someone had modified it to look like a wood braced table for a logging road. These high end engines, but log cars made from Model Power (Marx tooling) flat cars with logs glued on. A batch of Tyco/Bachman/etc 4 bay hoppers painted black. And so on.

[valenciajim]

I have a static grass applicator that is about fifteen years old and is very similar to what you describe. I do not remember where I got it, but it was much cheaper than the one made by Noch and others at the time.

[lvrr325]

I found the directions for it in another box but no branding on that either.

I finally went through the scenery stuff Wednesday night and there's a good $100 in what looks like never used materials there, grass, foam, a box of Super Trees, glue, etc. Five large shaker bottles and a couple smaller ones. I don't think I paid more than $25 for all of it.

[kentuckysouthernrwy]

You did well.

[lvrr325]

I will probably come close to tripling my money between the engines and the slot cars and still have some slower moving stuff to sell.