Trial & Error: Scenery Progress

As life settles in at home with the new baby starting to gain some regularity in his schedule, I have spent a few minutes each evening just before bed pondering the scenery on the Onondaga Cutoff.   As a civil engineer it is relatively straight forward to lay track according to a plan, and to make adjustments on the fly regarding alignment or configuration.  It is far less straight forward to build good-looking scenery!

Thanks to the discussion earlier this month about the actual location of the route the Onondaga Cutoff would follow, it was obvious that the scenery at Onondaga Yard and at CP282 would need to change.  While I had painted the backdrop to suggest far-off hilltops, in 'reality' the route passes through a narrow valley at this location.

The first step was to paint a dark green layer onto the backdrop to suggest a bluff several hundred feet high.  The green was a nice start, but the vertical backdrop took away from the profile view - it was obvious this wasn't a hill.  So, I used cardboard to add a slope to the backdrop.

I then painted that the same dark green to minimize any chance of it showing through once the tree 'puffs' were added.  I made the tree tops from polyfiber and course turf, following some good advice in Model Railroader magazine.  I made 6 trays of about 40 trees each, and I only finished about 7 linear feet!  More is needed but the effect is excellent:

I'm pleased with this treatment of backdrop and am excited to keep moving on that front!  The other current question is what ballast mix to use for the yard tracks in Onondaga Yard.  Here's a quick shot with the main tracks on the right, and the South Runner on the left with a darker mix.  I feel this is too speckled, and the base too black - appropriate for the 50's or 60's maybe, but not for a more modern facility.  My hunch is that a dark grey base is better for a yard in the 1990's.

Thoughts are always welcome!

The winter is lasting a long time this year, with more than a foot of snow on the ground for over a month at this point, and with another 4-8 inches expected this week.  It allows for more time modeling and for that, I am thankful!

~RGDave