9.4 Scenery: Roads
Scenery got under way on 12 April 2020, in a very subtle way. To look at the layout, one would not assume I'd done anything at all. But in fact I did a relatively challenging thing: I added undulations to the front of the layout so that Railroad Avenue isn't dead flat. Very few things in the real world are dead flat, at least in the Northeast, so I gave the road a gentle rolling effect.
Since it's impossible to perceive the effect from above, here's a telephoto shot of the front edge to clarify what I've done:
This took the better part of a day, since it meant very carefully carving the Gatorfoam edgewise, and laminating sheet styrene on top for a smooth, sturdy surface (above).
Road work continued on 10 November 2020 with the highway that runs from Weldon Mill to the opposite end of the layout. It began with layers of half-inch Foamcore. Roughly centered in the image above are the open deck pony truss and abandoned stone arch bridges.
Reference Images
Here's a good example showing how apparently flat things aren't really flat. This is the center of Wolfeboro, one of the towns that has served as inspiration for Augustine.
Country roads are often twisty and hilly, and some don't even have markings.
