I’ve been working on the buildings and scenery in the area of the paper plant where the branchline comes into the scene at the back, and where the staging tracks go under the crawl space. Like nearly every layout I’ve seen, mine has places where the tracks disappear into a black hole. I’m making those places less obvious with the careful placement of structures.
The newest structure on my layout is a plain metal building in the area where the various chemicals are unloaded from tank cars. Think of it as a building flat at the front of the layout. I’ll be painting it tomorrow, then adding a roof.

Here’s the newest structure. The tracks in front of it lead to hidden staging of woodchip cars and tank cars. This is actually the reverse angle of what an operator will see. I sat the camera on the layout to get this shot.

This shot puts the new structure in perspective. The track on the right is where trains enter the scene and the two tracks on the left are staging. Again, this angle is not visible for the layout operator. The aisle is on the left.

This shot shows the evolving scene as viewed from the aisle. Many elements are still missing and incomplete, but the scene is starting to come together.
I’ll post more when I get the building painting and weathered. Thanks for looking!
Hi,
Great looking structures.
Regards,Christian
Thanks Christian!
It looks like you are starting to get that industrial canyon effect happening. It’s looking good.
Dealing with mouse holes is one of those things that requires a lot of planning and/or ingenuity, or ends up looking like crap. Many an otherwise fine model railroad is marred by poor efforts to deal with track penetrating backdrops.
I can’t completely hide the mouse hole but I’m trying to obscure them as much as I can.
That looks terrific, Hunter! I’m really looking forward to seeing it in person. You’re really capturing the look of heavy industry that dominates the railroad.
Cheers!
We’ll have to make that happen soon.
Hi Hunter,
You can almost feel the grit in your teeth! Looking good.
Best, Scott
Growing up in Hamilton must have given me a heightened awareness of the grit.