Into the West

I have finally begun the construction of the western end of the layout in order to create a backscene to hide the fiddle yard. I had been putting this part of the layout off for some time, owing to me not being able to make my mind up on how I should disguise the portal to the yard.

Originally, I envisaged a simple portal in a board which could be hidden with a simple footbridge over the cutting.

I couldn't figure out a way to make this look convincing especially due to all efforts to build a footbridge resulting in wobbly and misshapen disasters. Inspiration struck me when I found a suitable portal on a well known auction site. This resin fascia looked very similar to the ones on the Moelwyn tunnel on the Ffestiniog railway and, given the reasonable price, would be perfect for the entrance/ exit on the line. 

I mounted the board to the layout and attached the fascia to see how it would look with the cutting.

I added some cardboard over the gaps between the hill and the backscene and began the process of building up layers of plaster to form a hill on the western end and around the portal so that it looked like an actual hillside and not just a tunnel mouth stuck on a piece of wood. 

I need to give this all time to set before I coat it with the usual pva and tea layer and paint it to complete this side of the layout. 

I am aiming to have this completed before the end of March then all that will be required scenery-wise will be the addition of scatter and the finer details before the layout's first exhibition in May. 

The plan, once the scenery is sorted is to focus on the small faults that have appeared on the line and to make sure that I can run trains reliably before the exhibition. I must say the nerves are beginning to show.