I was recently in Florida and had set up an appointment in advance with Michael Rose to again visit his excellent (and expansive!) N scale Georgetown & Allen Mountain Railroad.  If you've seen the previous posts this is one massive N scale layout with Michael constructing an entire building to house his layout.  I had promised Michael that I'd share my little knowledge on water as he is nearing the time when he will be doing water features on this layout - which took me all of about 5 minutes.  What I wasn't expecting is that Michael would teach me his unique method for doing concrete roads.

With Michael's layouts it's easy to get fixated on the shear size; however, it wasn't the size that caught my attention this time - it was his roads.  I really like the way they looked and when he told me how easy they were to do I was hooked.  I asked him the details and he gave me a personalized clinic on the process.  He obliged me and I was amazed on how easy and quick the process is to make some really nice roads!  I'm not going to outline the process here as I've encouraged Michael to do a "how to" with pictures here on the MRH forums.  If your interested in the detailed process perhaps a little encouragement will get Michael to share?

Here you can see an example of his concrete roads including the cracks and various colors.

I love this crossing!  Michael said the concrete road went fast, but the timbers were hand plained to the correct thickness and took some time.

This closeup shows the fine details of the road.  Very nice!

Michael used the same basic process for the tunnel portal.  You can even see the lines in the concrete where the wooden forms were during the pour!

The concrete top of his terminal building shows that you can use the same technique to make expansive concrete surfaces.

I really like the scratch build stone work of the terminal building which he carved out of foam.

And these very nice hand carved foam stone walls look great!  The "G&AM" letters are stick on, and since only one ampersand comes in a pack of letters it takes one pack to do each side.

We couldn't resist running trains while I was there even if it was on a short piece of track.  This sound equipped steam engine looks just right coming out of the tunnel.  Notice the very nice rock work. 

Got passenger trains?  N scale makes it easy to have some nice L O N G trains! 

What I can't convey here is what a great host and interesting guy Michael is - not just on trains, but on life in general.  I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and already look forward to the time that I can return to Florida and visit Michael.  If you're ever in the Orlando, Florida area try and get to visit him!  Thanks, Michael!

Rick