4.22. The Cut
Some of the features of the Mountain Vista Railroad were created in order to be more faithful to the setting, that being the White Mountains. As it happens, despite the rugged terrain, there are no railroad tunnels in New Hampshire that I can find, so I changed what originally was a tunnel into a fairly long, deep cut. I came to like the appearance of the cut, so I found a spot on the new layout where I could model one.
Reference
Here's a good example in Newbury, NH, along the Concord and Claremont Railroad (abandoned circa 1977):
The cut is roughly 300 feet long and a maximum of 50 feet deep; today it's a popular rock climbing area.
Here's another substantial cut in the Green Mountains of Vermont:
