Scenery base done at Rifle

So today I finished the scenery base at Rifle, where the lumber mill is located.  I do have to mix up some more sculpta-mold as I got carried away digging the log pond.  What I carved would take a lot of epoxy to fill. The base scenery layer is just earth, then a light layer of fine stone, and a few boulders - and all glued with dilute Elmers glue.  No shrubs or weeds as yet - those to come this week perhaps.  And no trees as yet.

I did get out some structures from the old layout to see how they might be positioned.  The little post office and general store were made by my sis-in-law Aquamarine.  Great job.  Even a flag pole with flag to be erected.  The buildings are on one side of the gravel road and I have a couple of kits to build for the other side.  Another store and a church.  The flat platforms are for a smelter (small one) and the lumber mill (large one).  Once I decide on placement, the small buildings will get earth around them etc to make them look like they have foundations.

The little extra is a speeder house with equipment from the old layout.  These little details are maybe the most fun.  

The main line is almost all ballasted with Union Pacific correct n scale ballast from Arizona Stone and Mineral.  This guy grinds up big rocks into scale pieces.  Great product.   A time consuming task but I promised myself that I would get things ballasted and the track cleaned before I ran a train.  So tomorrow is track cleaning day - glue residue, mis-laid ballast, etc.