The Scenery
Once I had ballasted the track (and made sure that everything runs properly), I set about with the exciting bit. Running trains I hear you ask? Nope, making those bare baseboards look like a real railroad.
To bring areas up to the same level as the track I used 5mm foam core board, as this matched the height of the foam underlay. Once these areas were glued into position, a mix of plaster, glue and earth brown paint was made up to blend all these areas in. The rest of the layout base was also painted earth brown.
Areas to be scrubland or grass were then covered in earth brown flock. Weeds have been added using old toothbrush bristles painted green or brown. Bushes are rubberised hair covered in flock. The 4 trees were made by my father using Woodland Scenics armatures, and various grass mats for the foliage.
Now As you would have guessed with a city based freight yard, buildings are most prominent. To create the small factory at the front left of the layout (Jim's Printing), I used a DPM Drywell Inks kit. I am impressed with the amount of detail that DPM put into their kits, and with the amount of detail parts included, which have been used elsewhere on the layout.
The Virginia Western Meat Co. building is essentially a plasticard shell, with a facade made from various Walthers Cornerstone Modular building sets. However, it was the facade that was made first, then the shell made to support it, as I found it easier to create the openings for the rail tracks working with the individual building pieces.
The small yard office was completely scratchbuilt, using planked plasticard, loosely based upon Chesapeake and Ohio prototypes that I have seen in photo's. Whilst perhaps it might have been easier to copy an actual prototype, I found it difficult to find one to fit the space available, so I just set to make it appear as prototypical as possible. Inside the building I have place wall dividers with the hope in the future to make a full interior with lights.
With only a short timescale to build the layout before it's first appearance, my father has helped with building several of the other structures on the layout, including the imposing Power Station Buildings and the huge Mason's Manufacturing factory which covers the sector plate. Both of these buildings again use the Walthers Modular system, plus a lot of plain brickwork sheets.
Details on the layout come for various sources, the railroad crossbucks are from JL Innovative Designs and the telegraph poles (which if life were long enough, I would string with wire) are Rix Products. People are from the excellent Scenic Accents range from Woodland Scenics, plus a handful of handpainted Dapol figures.