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[video=youtube;AX32nT4Jn-A] Thanks for the nice comments and information on crossing keepers cottages. In the meantime here is a short video tour following the Waterford Cork Bell liner showing the scenery progress to date.

Just a short addition to my previous post, before applying ground cover the scenery is painted with a tan colored paint. The color was chosen to match the soil in the area based on photos showing beet harvesting I found online.

The base board is built from half inch insulation foam board glued to a frame made from one by two inch pine with bracing about every foot. (sorry about the imperial measurements but that's what is still used here) This is supported around the walls on inexpensive shelf brackets screwed into the wood framing. The result is strong and lightweight. During construction realizing that having the trackbed elevated even half an inch above the surrounding scenery in many areas would greatly add to the realism of the layout sections of foam were cut out, dropped a half inch into the framing and secured with hot glue taking care to reinforce the foam under the track. If I were to do it again I would use two layers of foam making the job easier. The final contours are established using Woodland Scenics plaster gauze and Sculptamould. The stone walls are made from cat litter mixed with white glue and formed on the layout on top of the ground cover. Use just enough glue to get the cat litter to bond and don't over mix it which will cause the granules to disintegrate. When it dries there is often some shrinkage which causes gaps which can be filled with more cat lit glue mix or covered with foliage. I also apply a little ground foam where the bottom of the wall and scenery meet to hide any gaps and give the impression of tall grass and weeds at the foot of the wall. Start by building a few sections on some scrap foam or cardboard to get a feel for it before trying it on the layout. For grass I use Woodland Scenics light green coarse foam and for hedges and bushes Light green clump foliage and olive green bushes.

Thanks Gerry, unfortunately they don't seem to have a website and I'm finding very little information online. Are they still available?

Over the weekend the last of the ground cover and stone walls were done leaving the scenery basically complete although much detail work can still be done. The trees on the layout will also be redone at some point to improve them and better represent mid to late October. The time has also come to start on the Studio Scale Models semaphore signal kits, a task I'm not particularly looking forward to. I'm much more at home building scenery than soldering tiny parts together but I'm sure they will add immensely to the character of the layout. I'm also looking at options for the crossing keepers cottage at Keilys Cross. In the meantime here are a couple of photos taken today. Anything to avoid getting the soldering iron out!

Cork Waterford goods train at Keilys Cross.

All the track work is level. I have noticed the same thing in photos both at the east and west fiddle yard approaches where the layout is viewed from the inside of a curve and the scenery rises gradually to the level of the road over bridges. Here are a few more photos of the recent progress. The West side of Glen More road bridge. The fascia needs to be touched up following scenery work. Keilys Cross level crossing and the occupation crossing leading to the beet loading siding. Stone walls and hedges will be added next. The next major project will be installing a black curtain with velcro behind the fascia to the floor. The intended effect is hopefully like a museum exhibit or aquarium where only the subject matter, in this case the layout is illuminated. Thanks for all the positive feedback which has given me so much encouragement with this project.

Waterford Cork goods at Glen More. The basic scenery is now all done on the layout but much detail has yet to be added.

Scenic work is underway at Keilys Cross level crossing. A crossing keepers cottage is planned to the right of the crossing which will hide the transition of the road into the backscene.

Ground cover and bushes were put in around Grange road bridge and the fascia and valance painted black. The photos were taken with only the layout lighting on which is how the layout is intended to be viewed and operated.

There has been much progress in the last week due to a few days off before starting a new job. The new west end fiddle yard was built and the point and road over bridge on the west side of Grange put in.

The fascia is now in place between Waterford fiddle yard and Grange and the scenery roughed in around the new road bridge at Glen More.

[attach=config]13096[/attach At Keilys Cross level crossing the fascia was installed and the backdrop fixed. To the right of the crossing a keepers cottage is planned and an accommodation crossing to the right of the buffer stop. Today the new road bridge will be put in at Glen More. As soon as the scenery is done the valance and fascia will be painted matt black.

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/johnmightycat/sets/72157626386375365/ Nice set of photos here which I don't think anyone has posted a link to.

http://mrsvc.blogspot.com/search/label/Layout%20Design Here is that link again. I hope it works this time!

Here is an interesting site for all those into model railroad planning.

Beautifully atmospheric, after viewing the photos I almost felt that I needed to wipe the mud off of my shoes!

I have been ordered by the doctor to take it easy for two weeks so naturally I worked on scenery. The white material is Woodland Scenics Sculptamould which has been used throughout the layout. It is really easy to work with, is extremely durable and far less messy than plaster. The incomplete hills on the backdrop which are too high will be painted out and replaced by lower ones similar to those at Glen More. The surface of the benchwork is insulation foam which has been cut out and lowered in much of this area although it is difficult to make out in the photos.

Please accept my condolences.

New Irish Lines has a great article on Ballingrane in a past issue, all of which are available online. Anyone know which issue, I don't have time to search for it right now.

Very nice. I look forward to seeing more Irish wagons from you.

Just use the extra ends that come with the Parkside Dundas 12 ton BR van with the Pal Van kit and make a new door from plasticard. You need to do a little carving to make them fit.

I have noticed that lack of progress in certain parts of the layout is often a result of uncertainty or unhappiness with the plan or progress so far. A case in point is the west end of Glen More station where a level crossing was planned on the curve over the maim line and passing loop at the end of the platforms. The location was prototypical, every passenger station should have a road crossing near the station building and it looked well on paper. Early on during construction I roughed in the crossing using black card for the roadway and the Wills level crossing kit (it was planned to replace it with an SSM kit later) but it never looked right. The gates were too short to clear the tracks and avoid being side swiped by passenger coaches and the whole set up seemed to draw attention to the sharp (by prototype standards) curve even though the minimum radius is 26 inches. As scenery construction progressed from the fiddle yard West of the station and to the viaduct on the East this gap with the improvised level crossing remained. I was clearly not sold on the original plan but the layout needed to have a level crossing. A few posts back I outlined the plan to extend the layout to include the point at the East side of the passing loop at Grange. At present the main line and loop disappear under a road bridge into the fiddle yard. The new extension will add two to three feet to the scenic part of the railway on the west side of the road bridge and the question arose as to how to hide the new entrance to the fiddle yard. I didn't want to use a second road bridge so near the first or introduce a second tunnel on the layout, one is enough, they are not common features on Irish railways and I am striving to make the layout look a typical stretch of railway. This plan would of course involve tearing out the double track road bridge which I hated to do since the scene came out so good. The solution came to me over a beer in the layout room last Friday night. Remove the double track bridge at Grange and rebuild it in place of the level crossing at Glen More. Use a single track over bridge to hide the entrance to the West end fiddle yard and put the level crossing in on the west side of the viaduct on the single track (it was originally planned to have a single track road over bridge here). The next day the improvised level crossing was moved to the new location where it works so much better and a cardboard mock up of the road over bridge was made to evaluate the plan. An added bonus is that the bridge will break up the rather long flat stretch of railway through Glen More and improve the scenic potential of that corner of the layout. Enough of my ramblings so here are a few photos of the level crossing and bridge mockup.

http://shipspotters.nl/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=115&start=90 Here is a photo of one of the steam cranes working at Fenit in 1969. I tried to post the photo earlier but it didn't take!