More Work at Altoona, More Houses and More Scenery

I spent a good portion of the day working on the railroad and got a few projects crossed off the "to do" list.

First and foremost, I got the tracks laid in the roundhouse. This project was somewhat complicated by the fact the the Atlas turntable has a tighter diameter than the roundhouse. As you can see, the outermost tracks have to curve a good bit to connect to the turntable.

I used some Atlas Code 80 track since I had a bunch of it laying around and it would be largely hidden. For the four outside tracks, I actually used sectional curves.  All told, I think this project turned out nicely.

I also knocked out another Model Power house kit. This time is was their "Haunted House." I had some fun with this one. Other than the fence, which I painted Floquil "grimy black," I left the rest of the kit in stock colors. Once assembled I hit it with coating of dark weather wash, Dulcote and chalks to really give it an abandoned look.

With the house kit done, I turned my attention to the base. Each of the house kits comes with a gray plastic base molded to look like concrete. Model Power also supplies a fairly unconvincing looking grass mat. Rather than use the grass mat, I masked out the areas I wanted to be concrete and kit the rest with some Elmer's spray adhesive. I then sprinkled on a coating of Woodland Scenics fine turf. The I scattered on some yellow turf and coarse turf on the lawn to further cement the look I was after.

I used a WS tree armature sans foliage to simulate a dead tree. I glued the fence on last. I may add a green LED for lighting. It definitely looks like haunted house. But hey, I ain't afraid of no ghost!

With the pop-up hatch in place, Scenery has been advancing westward towards Horseshoe Curve. I placed an Atlas station on the straightaway just before the curve. This will serve as Kitanning Point station. The real Kitanning Point Station was torn down in the 1930s, but I wanted to find a place for this particular structure and like the idea of including Kitanning Point.

When I desinged the track plan, I goofed and set the main line through Gallitzin too close to Horseshoe Curve (the line doubles back on itself). To separate the two scenes, I cut a 1' x 4' piece of Masonite and glues some cloud-pattern bulletin board paper to it to create a view block.

The mountains are in place as far as the right side of the curve. I painted them by diluting raw umber acrylic paint and spraying it on with a spray bottle.