The east staging yard is located in the unfinished furnace room of our basement. In addition to the staging yard, the area also contains over 10 feet of mainline and represents Nelson, IL which is about 40 miles west of Rochelle and is this junction point of the Geneva Sub and the Peoria Sub of the Union Pacific Railroad. Even though this area of the layout is in the unfinished funrace room, I decided not to leave the area unfinished. I put up a backdrop, painted the benchwork, applied ground foam, painted the track and added signals. Eventually I will also ballast the track, add trees and put in a few Nelson structures. One cool feature will be a photo of the still standing coaling tower in Nelson that will disguise the mainline passage from the furnace room into the train room and the Rock River crossing.
Its very difficult if not impossible to get your head to the otherside of the signal bridge to see the signal aspects. So, I hung a mirror on the back of the stairs that operators can use to see the west facing signals.
On a different topic, we will begin the Atlas loco giveaway this weekend, so check back often so that you don't miss out on the fun.
Neat!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to put up the picture of the coaling tower!
ReplyDeleteThat mirror is a neat idea. and out of the ordinary, at leats in terms of how we see murrors used these days on layouts!
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to make the staging yard look like part of the layout instead of just leaving unfinished! It doesn't take much to make it look very good! Count me in on the GP40-2 give away Daryl, I'm slowly getting more and more UP engines on my layout!
ReplyDeleteMike H