Stoned Again
Since my original stone wall master comprised over 300 stones, the wall around the back of the branchline switch must have about 1,000, as it's made up of two full castings and most of two more. Of much greater significance, the wall marks a departure from what John Allen did on his original Gorre & Daphetid: he built a rustic stone arch.
Note, however, that this view is dated well after Version II was under way, and the front of the original layout had been expanded substantially. In particular, this view is essentially the back of the control panel; I've been unable to find any images of this part of the layout that predate Version II, so John may have built most anything there, and we may never know what it was.
Edit: Looks as though John simply didn't build anything in that space until Version II was under way and the stone arch was installed. (Thanks, Mike.)
I chose to make a solid stone wall for a number of reasons. One, it faces away from the front of the layout, so it's not all that important. Also, if I'd made a stone arch, it would have had to be filled in, since it backs the control panel. And finally, it was a lot less work to make!
Construction was quite straightforward: four castings were joined together to exactly fit the shape of the space, sprayed with primer, detail painted, weathered, and glued in position. It marks the last roadbed-related work to be done, which means I can officially move on to the scenery phase of layout-building—my favorite by far!