Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

On to.... foreground construction.

There's a portion of my layout where I'm trying to convince the viewer that we're on the near side of the river and the track is fairly high above the water level.  As a matter of fact, I didn't even attempt to build the river down there - I just put enough green stuff in the way that the viewer just gets the hint that there's something down there.  I always wanted a portion of my layout to show both sides of the gorge and give the viewer just a little snippet of how it feels to be down inside the gorge riding the rails.

   

So, because we're on the near side of the river inside the gorge, the terrain must ascend up and away from the track toward the viewing aisle (toward the right of the picture above).  Before tonight, there was no way to build that terrain away from the track.  There's also the issue of hiding my storage level.  Because the viewing level is at eye height, the storage level is at about shoulder height.  Although less than ideal, I can duck under the layout frame and reach most areas of the storage level from under the viewing level.

   

It was time to do something about both issues.  Bought a sheet of 1/8" Masonite (very strong and flexible, easy to cut, and one side has a very smooth texture that can easily be painted) at HD this afternoon and rough cut it to run along the bottom of the space frame that supports the layout with a section near the right side that rises up over the existing track deck and then declines as you head to the left.  It will allow me to build terrain between the Masonite and the track as well as hide the storage level in that section.  

   

I tacked it in place with several screws and then measured up for the sheet to integrate into the left side layout banding that was already in place.

   

Lastly, I cut a removable piece of Masonite to cover the extreme left which runs right under my coal breaker and hides a turnout just inside the storage level.  As such, if I have a derailment, it's often right there at the switch and I need to have a way to quickly access that portion of the storage level.  I plan on securing the Masonite with some magnets placed on the backside of the Masonite.

       

Although it'll be a while until I get to scenic this section of the layout, I thought it was a good time to knock out some of the last major framing-type construction before I did a lot of foreground scenery.  Mission accomplished.