One More Little Thing...
As I've revealed a few times already, I'm not attempting to create an exact replica of the Gorre & Daphetid. I believe the only practical way to do this would be to build it in HO; conversion to any other scale almost certainly involves compromises. Even then, as I'd indicated at the outset of the project, the original G&D wasn't even finished before it was incorporated into Version II, and throughout its entire existence the layout saw countless revisions. So, I cannot fathom a means of recreating it with complete authenticity—all of which serves as justification for straying off course a little here and there.
In addition to the "missing culvert," there was one other little detail absent from the original G&D—not as significant as the culvert, but an anomaly all the same. Ever wonder how trucks and vehicles got to and from the industries along the siding?
While vehicles could just trudge across the landscape and reach a real road somewhere, there were no grade crossings to get them there; additionally, there wasn't enough room to squeeze past the culvert, so they'd have to cross the switch under the truss bridge. In a word, awkward! Perhaps I may be the only student of the G&D who was concerned about this; nevertheless, I'm prepared to do something about it.
As I went to work on the lake side of the culvert, I designed it such that I could include a road to the industries. I accomplished this by swinging the culvert opening around to parallel its counterpart (thus satisfying an admittedly anal retentive need to align them), and pulling it away from the tracks to leave just enough room for a new road that would tee into the existing road under the truss bridge.
I began the task by carving out a depression in the mill/lake outlet area of the layout base. This reduced the base sheet of Gatorfoam to one surface, which substantially weakened it and left it prone to damage from the slightest pressure. To restore some strength, I laminated a piece of 3/16-inch thick Gatorfoam into the opening. Then I added more Gatorfoam around the outside of the depressed area to create the road subsurface.
Next, I built the culvert and retaining wall, employing the same construction and finishing methods as I'd used for its counterpart. Finally, I glued it into a notch carved in the foam, and secured it in position with T-pins while it set.
Having finished the culvert so early in the game was rather ironic: it was one of the very last areas that John completed—long after Version II was under way, in fact. (Not that it's of any consequence; it's just a touch of trivia for the blog.) For comparison, here's what the corresponding area looked like when John finally got to work on it.
Original Gorre & Daphetid images courtesy of Peter T. Prunka.