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Okay, okay. Amidst the high anxiety of beginning to "permanently" lay, join, solder, and wire track... I decided to take the edge off things and have a little fun, if anything to remind myself that this supposed to be fun in the first place. The result is the little scene here. Scenery is my favorite part of modeling and I went all out to dress up this little hill between track and road. This let's me see things as they are going to be, sets the mood, and scale and volume; it opens a pathway to the beauty of the finished layout. As it is with staring at humdrum white Styrofoam; staring at a barren landscape of mud, foam-nails and unfinished track-bed can feel post-apocalyptically depressing. Thus, the mini scene.
I like my trees BIG. And that's how they are in nature, especially in an area lacking strip malls. People forget how HUGE trees actually are. They really put things in perspective when the correct scale is used. This is light-years more real than the plastic-trunk lichen lollipop trees we had in the early 70's. I decided to make my layout look like the beginning of Autumn... my favorite season. I love the dappled tree shadows on the asphalt road.
Here comes the ol' 32 around the bend, crossing a typical old country road: State Road 293, or County Road 29, or Route 92, or was it "Old Dutchman's Highway"? Maybe its all of the above... it will make a great sign!
I did a little research and in the early 1930's road pavement markings were still in their infancy and national guidelines were sketchy at best. It seems white, yellow, or black paint was acceptable (whichever gave the best contrast) and a single, solid "dividing line" was suggested at blind hills and curves, railroad crossings and other "dangerous areas" like bridges. Otherwise, narrow country roads were catch-as-catch-can as far as lane control goes. ROADHOG!
(A quick notation on the TRACK: I switched from ATLAS CODE 55 to PECO CODE 55 and I'm glad I did. The minute the PECO arrived via post and I pulled it from the box you could actually feel how much more robust the product is. The reason for the switch was simple: PECO makes a curved turnout. Atlas does not, and apparently, does not answer questions when emailed to them. Bad show Atlas. Fair play to you, PECO!)
Wiring and electrical work has begun in earnest. Lengths of track have been pre-wired and soldered before laying. Drop-holes for track wire planned. DC power bus wires have been run under the table (neatness counts). A separate power block was created for the coal mine spur.
I decided to forego the DCC (digital)in favor of good old fashioned DC for several reasons. The most obvious being simplicity of power. The Digitracks starter pack did not have an AC port for accessories such as lights, and I would have had to add an additional powerpack anyway. Also, I was to find out that locating period locos with DCC equipped decoders would be a headache at best. My layout is small and simple... a simple DC/AC equipped powerpack will do fine.
I wanted to start experimenting with the look of the river, so before I make the final pour of depth at the end of the project, I fooled around with texture and colors using a thin pour of acrylic glossy medium. Seeing the effect of your colors "under" a layer of sheen is the only way to understand the final look. The layer is thin enough to correct colors and textures on the final pour. Besides... a wet river is more fun to look at while you model than a matte mud bottom.
Also, note the country road on the right side of the layout (left side of picture) now has rolling topography. Much more interesting than the beloved "flat" layouts I had as a kid. Hey! Is that a farmer's freshly plowed field on that hill?
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