Making the Scene...

Been cobbling together some more scenery.

Here's some highlights:

Wills Creek, west of Cumberland. That would be US 40 there. This runs along the back edge of the layout, and will be difficult to access once I construct the main line through Cumberland, so I'm trying to tease out as complete a scene as I can before I close up the hole in the bench work.

Looking the other way. Once the scenery is closed up, the state highway department assures me that this will be a less dangerous curve...

High bridge over the Casselman River. This scene might seem confusing if you consider that the high bridge is on the Thomas Sub in West Virginia, while the low line is somewhere between Deal and Meyersdale in Pennsylvania. Ah the joys of selective compression!

Another view. The scene remains incomplete, I need to add the walkway on the near side of the bridge. The engine is a Walther's 0-8-0 into which I recently installed a decoder. It currently resides in Minnesota. I like this photo angle... More trees will do just the right trick.

Thomas, West Virginia. I've been working on the company town housing along the ridge.  I'm happy with the way the town is coming together. I'm working my way from the skyboard out to the fascia, gradually filling in the peninsula. You can see the Wills Creek scene just above the Cool Whip tub I use to mix up my Sculptamold. The big factory in the back is Kingsford Charcoal.

Detail of a "Company House" duplex, abandoned, and gradually returning to nature. That was kind of fun to do!

As you may have guessed, building out the scenery is my favorite part of the hobby. I regard tracklaying and wiring as necessary evils, but once they're done, I'm slinging mud and planting trees and other details. I'll try to keep you updated on progress as it happens. I'm going to try to finish out the Thomas scene in the next week or so, then I'll be making the push to get the business district along US 40 done. After that, I can get back to the dull stuff to get Cumberland operational.