Don't call the standard set "crap." You can form all of that from the default set, except for, maybe, the lamp. For the crane, you could use stretched smallcrates or barrels or sandbags, and for its claw, colored thinropes or ropes, or other line-shaped scenery. For the railroad, you could use bridges with some rubble and perhaps barrels as well. The mine wagon could also be done using barrels and/or fences, with small columns or other similarly line-shaped objects on either side; its wheels could be barrels.
That's why I loved Chakapoko maker so much! You could just study his works for hours on end. It's as if he doesn't even read the names of the scenery, and just twists and recolors whatever there is available and merges it in completely unorthodox ways to achieve brilliant mixes... like his Bigfalls and inf_Meatball waterfalls. Daaaang, hardcore. If you can follow that method, I'll be thoroughly impressed