Scenery work

Over the Easter weekend, I decided to tackle some of my scenery. In particular, the covered helix between East Glacier Park and Browning. T put the hard shell down quite some time ago, possibly a year or two, however, no greenery or anything :-(.

Before starting, I needed to complete the colouring of the rock-work that I have put there, as well as in other areas of the layout. This involved the leopard spotting technique show on the Woodland Scenic's web site. I used "Yellow Ochre", "Burnt Umber" and plain old "India Ink". I am very happy with the outcome which can be seen below.

It was then over to adding some greenery. As per a YouTube video from Model Railroader, I bought some cheap brown paint, putting it down on the shell, then a coating of white glue and then Woodland scenic's fine "Burnt Grass". I also added some medium grass of various colours. Our local store currently does not have various clump foliage or foliage clusters, so I can not put down any bushes yet, so the scene is not complete yet. However, below are some photos.

The end of a very productive weekend!

Track plan alterations

I had a dilemma at the tunnel where trains heading West from Browning enter or trains heading east exit a tunnel from one of my helix's. As a train was exiting the tunnel, there is a set of cross over switches which will one day be signalled. The problem is firstly, the signal would be very close to the tunnel entrance, making it difficult for operators to see the indication, and more prototypically, if I have a 2 or more lash up of diesels and the lead unit stopped short of the signal, almost all the locos, including the lead would be sitting in the tunnel. I.e. choking themselves and overheating. Not very prototypical at all.

Looking at the very right track as it exits the tunnel, it can be
seen that there is no room for the train to stop without most
of the locos sitting in the tunnel.

My solution was to move the crossovers down the line, giving enough room for a 3 unit loco lash-up to exit the tunnel before stopping short of the signal.

Below, the crossover can be seen now moved further down the line with sufficient space for at least 3 locomotives to be out the tunnel. What can also be seen now compared to the photo above is a cutting I have added to the left. This will now be my new Eurika branch line. Looking down the bottom at the visible staging, Stryker will be on the left side with trains entering from the other side and terminating there. The branch-line to Eureka is at the end of that visible staging on the same side. Before, it used to be on the other side and can be seen in the above photo where there are 3 wagons parked. There were two issues for me. Firstly I did not like it crossing the staging of the other end of the layout (Browning) and secondly, it occupied my return loop, which I want to use for a future operations scenario I will talk about in a future post. So, I ended up with a win win situation.

Below is the track work complete. Just needs scenery now.