Back On Track!

After reading Jerry Quinn's post on Quintopia about what prompted him to tear down his layout I took a long introspective look at my own hiatus.   Why had I stopped?  What was frustrating me, and most importantly what was I going to do next?  We're the issues blocking me so fundamental that they too required a tear down?  Short answer: no, but without a willingness to make some big changes I was not about to turn things around either.  So I went back to the layout with a new willingness to rip things up, to add or remove track, to make things better.

I considered removing most of my yard, as I was unhappy with the ratio of track to green space and I have found that all yards really afford me is a place to park trains.   N Scale does not shine brightest trying to do fiddily switching operations.  Sorry, but that's really the domain of HO.   On the other hand, I do want to convert a section of my yard into a programming track, and I do have a double stall maintenance shop I still want to use, so in the end I elected to finish some of the terrain in that section and then re evaluate what needs to go or change.   It could well be that with less blue and pink foam and a bit more grass and hill I'll find myself feeling quite differently.

I built up a new ridge structure, I've ordered new backdrops and today I'm working on grass and rocks...some progress photos:

Here I have constructed a base of insulation foam and coated it in plaster cloth, and then applied a bit of hydrocal on top to smooth things out.

On a whim I mixed some pigment into my hydrocal, I wish I had started doing this sooner!

The ridge line is taking shape, and more importantly doing a great job hiding the inclined double track behind it.

Most of the town has been relocated during construction, as it's become my supply depot.

The first ground cover is applied.

Starting to look pretty good...

I am going to need a lot of rocks.  Below is one 'load'.  Over this weekend I've made six of these, and counting.