Backdrop is installed and painted on The Hills Line. The aluminum trim coil was cut and notched around the basement windows, as well as cut to follow the stairwell railing. The entire backdrop was then painted with Behr’s Nevada Sky, which works excellent in modeling a clear Midwest summer day with a slight haze. The feeling so far is definitely more open, more warm, and more welcoming than when the IAIS Grimes Line was in the same space.

Can anyone steer me to prototype and/or HO modeling tips on western railroad slide detectors, preferably transition era? 

Intro thing

       After sharing my other benchwork design while brainstorming I have come up with that should, in theory, allow me to store a 10' long layout in a very compact space excluding buildings which would have to be removable and stored elsewhere which is an issue I can accept. 

Design Theory

https://northcountrytrains.wordpress.com/2019/04/05/workin-on-the-railroad-scenery/

Joe Brugger's article goes right to the heart of a number of important subjects.

I was just a little too young to have any Varney die cast locomotives,  but I was just old enough to see  Athearn-, Model Die Casting/Roundhouse, Penn Line and other manufacturers' HO steam engine models. And I was just in time to see the importation of Rivarossi steam engines.

With 'Metro Exodus', there is now a computer game playing in a dystopian near-future railroad world.