Bench work for the Battle Mountain section

Work is progressing well on the Battle Mountain section bench work.  The design is similar to the bench work used on the Carlin section and the upper return loop as it has removable LED lighting panels mounted to the bottom.  I plan to have a model building work bench under part of this section and the LED's will provide general lighting for that.

Here is this section of bench work as it is now.  In this view it is sitting right side up.  The front edge is about 1-1/8 inch lower than the main deck and will carry the Western Pacific line.  The deck for that still needs to be added.

Yes, I've already been penciling in some track layout idea on the deck.

Here is another view with it sitting on the back edge and one of the LED lighting panels removed.  The 4 notches along the bottom are for the shelf brackets which will be attached to the bottom of the main deck.

Here is a close up of one of those notches.  The frame along the back also has sections cut out.  This will allow the shelf bracket to be mounted to the wall.

This photo taken under the Carlin section better illustrates the use of the shelf brackets.

With this section I have now used up all the 1/4 inch plywood that I had picked up cheap at a garage sale in 2014.

After this section of bench work is fully assembled, it will be given a quick test fit to the Gloconda section before getting painted.

Blending the scenery with the backdrop

This summer has been quite busy for me catching up on some projects around the house but when I have gotten out to the train room I've been going through and adding some scenery.  About 10 feet of the layout already had basic scenery done so it is mostly adding hundreds of small bits of Woodland Scenics clump foliage to give the layout a similar look to what is in the backdrop.

It is always a challenge to disguise the sharp horizontal line between the layout and the backdrop.  Buildings and fences are great in city areas but this layout is mostly open country with no large trees.  This line is quite noticeable in this photo.

Using the backdrop as a guide, I am placing bits of Woodland Scenics light green clump foliage along the edge in front of where brush in on the backdrop to help break up this line into shorter sections.

Here is another area near Winnemucca where the hills on the backdrop are closer and I used the same technique to help blend the hill on the layout to the hill on the backdrop.