Hillside scenery & ballasting

February 7th, 2015

Today I ballasted the track at the Intermodal yard entrance to the tunnel, and added some basic ground cover.  I also added an interior to the tunnel, so when looking into the tunnel you can see the tunnel interior wall instead of just bare plaster cloth.

A lot more scenery to go, but I’ll finish the hilltop track first, then I can start on the staging yard.

Tunnel scenery work begins

February 2nd, 2015

I’ve started on the tunnel scenery by colouring & weathering the tunnel mouth & retaining walls, and also adding & colouring some small rock outcrops on the hill.  I’ve coloured some tunnel interiors & will be adding those later this week to the visible interiors of the tunnel mouths.

Work progresses on tunnel

January 25th, 2015

I’ve been doing some work on the tunnel.  Started off with a wooden framework, then covered that with cardboard webbing and finally Woodland Scenics plaster cloth.

I’ve added retaining walls to the tunnel mouth near the rear of the intermodal yard and a culvert under the track at the front of the yard.

This week I will add some rock faces for interest and the tunnel interior where it can be seen through the tunnel mouths.  I have added the trackbed above the tunnel for the track that leads to the new staging yard behind & above the intermodal yard and will be adding that track once I have coloured the plaster & rock faces with Woodland Scenics colour pigments.

I have also purchased a new toy for the layout…a CMX Track Cleaner!  I’ve given it a few runs around the layout on both main tracks and I am very impressed so far. It does need two locos to pull it though…pretty hefty piece of equipment!