Evolution of the Scene
This post will give the overall evolution of the Elsmere Jct scene. Its really not finished yet, the tower is a stand in and the B&O crossing has to be made, plus interlocking signals at some point. But he's how I got to where I am.
Here is the scene back in June 2017 with the cardboard mock up of the bridge and raw scenery.
Decided to scratch build the bridge. The tracks are laid with extra space between B&O #1 and #2 to accommodate the bent. Originally it was two equal spans but I found that that created too close a clearance on the curve of the B&O connection track and would have possibly fouled the switchstand for the connection switch. So I cut the bridge apart and added about an inch to the right span and rebuilt the bridge. The right abutment is on a foam block and the left is on a piece of plastic angle glued to the backdrop.
I mocked up the landforms and used brown paper to give me an idea of what it whould look like. 1/2 inch blue foam was used for terrain forms. I had thought about putting two small commercial structures (non-rail served) in the scene but may only do one.
The foam was covered with newspaper strips soaked in runny plaster. It was painted with "dirt" color latex paint and then the roads and any "dirt" areas had sanded grout sprinkled into the wet paint. The road in particular received a couple coats of paint and grout.
I also modified the stock Walthers tower with a taller roof so it would more closely resemble the actual EJ tower and it got a quicky coat of P&R "chocolate and vanilla" paint.
The scenery start moving north, with thinned white glue painted on the landforms in about half a square foot areas, then a little ground foam and a mix of Woodland Scenics, Noch and Peco grass fibers in several different length, all in golden yellow and muted green, fall type colors. On the backdrop I brush painted some weeds sticking up at the edge of the right of way. I have a small straw wisk broom that I cut small groups of ibers out of and then stick in a spot of white glue to make taller stands of weeds.
The North side of the B&O was next, with the scenic material being placed in patches over a period of several days. Clumps of ground foam foliage in fall colors and muted greens were applied plus the straw weeds. I also added Woodland Scenics fibers to make finer stands of weeds.
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The bridge abutments were made from Chooch flexible retaining wall material. Not the easiest stuff to work with. I made a plastic core for the abutment and then tried a couple different methods of attaching the Chooch material. The "self stick" didn't work at all. Finally used adhesive caulk and clamped the Chooch material to the plastic while it set. I painted and weathered the abutment and the leftover piece of Chooch material. Since the abutment on the wall had to be very low relief, I scanned the leftover Chooch wall and cut out a paper abutment, rubber cementing it to the backdrop. I ended up with a wall that is literally paper thin and matches the other abutment perfectly.
I also broke down and scratch built some railings for the bridge, it just looked odd without them.
The bridge was painted with TruColor Acrylic paint (I wanted to test the paint, worked well, but not sure about the acetone thinner and base).
The bridge was weathered with some airbrushed craft paints.
I still have to fix the backdrop tree line near the left abutment and then continue the backdrop painting to the right of the road. But for now I think its a nice scene.
