Experiments

Tried a couple or three ideas on scenery shell. The first was paper towels soaked in drywall compound. This works well enough provided the cardboard matrix is constructed properly. There really shouldn't be a lot of space between the cardboard strips or the towels will sag. The effect is far from realistic... 

Saggy Scenery

With the proper support the shell looks pretty good..,.

Tighter Matrix

Which brings us to another experiment. To the right side of the roadbed in the image above I used paper towels. On the left the shell was created using strips of burlap. The paper towels won out for several reasons. First was price. Secondly, cutting burlap results in "fuzzy edges" that have to be covered with additional drywall compound. Third, while the burlap is stronger it makes no difference in the finished shell. Either material works.

Of course I couldn't stop there. My son-in-law is a contractor and suggested that concrete might create a harder shell. I dismissed the idea until I ran low on drywall compund. While procuring more I realized that concrete mix is five times cheaper than the premixed compound. Needless to say the next section of shell was done with the cheap stuff. Unfortunately a shortfall became evident real quick. Concrete doesn't soak into paper towels as readily as drywall mud. I ended up brushing a very thin mixture onto areas where paper towels had already been applied. The result is a rough textured terrain with a lot of character...

Alpha and "Hospital Hill"

We had mixed way too much concrete so I had to cover all the previously created shell. I like the appearance but I'm pretty sure I need to refine the process...

Hospital Hill, Owertown side

Owertown Road over  the Tacannee

Takannee Meets West Lanearch Creek

Llanearch Creek Bridges

Alpha

Iriquois Creek

Lake Elsiniore

Split River Gorge

The last image shows what had been hastily named "Floinge". I really didn't like the name. Then it occured to me that the Average Eastern would follow the Split as far as it could. Suddenly the Split River originated from somewhere east of Carbon Point. It created this gorge on its way west.

I'm now working on the matrix west of the Split towards Hollow Mountain. The mountain actually stretches along the "west" end of the layout ending at Clark Summit above the river...

Clark Summit

During operations it was discovered that it was quite hard to access a train under the mountain. Hence the installation of the "Gateway" arch...

Hollow Mountain and the "Gateway" Arch

The other end of the tunnel turned into a set of bridges. I gave into the temptaion of the triple crossing claiming it was because of access concerns...

Triple Crossing

Still not exactly sure how I'm going to pull it off, but it does mean more bridges.

Regards,

Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad