A sheet of Masonite secured to 3/4" plywood forms the base for the stream bed Once that was in place, I began shaping the terrain with pink extruded foam secured with a hot glue gun. No trees will be on the foreground slope, so the pink foam will work out rather well. On the back slope I plan to use green florist foam which will work better for "planting" trees.
Most of my scenery ideas come from Mike Confalone's articles and videos featured in
Model Railroad Hobbyist's series on Mike's Allagash Railway set in Northern Maine. His scenery methods are also compiled in a series of books he has written about building the Allagash, a proto-freelanced HO model railroad. His railroad is set in early Spring and I plan to model late Fall so his scenery concepts will work well for me.
The north abutment and fill slopes are taking shape in this view. The flat bench area to the right of the fill slope is where Kendall Tower will sit. The void area to the left of the fill slope is where the green florist foam will be placed and will be shaped to the profile of the the adjacent pink foam. I also need to create a curved fillet in the corner to eliminate the the sharp edges of the inside corner.
On the wall in the distance is a sample of a photo backdrop that I've been experimenting with. I plan to use photo backdrops throughout the layout and will need to photograph late Fall scenes in the coming weeks.
This photo shows a stand-in bridge structure used to span the gap until I can complete the truss bridge. This will allow me to operate the yard and beyond in the interim. The bridge is from a left over display shelf that I made years ago from hardwood shelf material once sold at Ikea. The display shelf track was already ballasted and if you look closely, you notice an extra rail at 3-ft gauge from when I used to model in Sn3 as well as S.
