Dark Canyon action

Even in the midst of scenery construction, CN and CP trains slowly make their way (video captured on my iPad -- thanks Santa!) through my latest effort to build out the Dark Canyon area of my layout. Think I'll be tired of seeing pink insulation board by the time I'm done with this! Gotta say that I'm sure glad the good folks at Woodland Scenics in Linn Creek, Mo., are safe and sound. Also good to know that their Foam Putty and Profile Boards are still in production -- I've gone through 10 or more small tubs of the putty thus far!

Canyon re-creation

When my friend and noted Model Railroader contributor (see the December 2011 issue) Mike Danneman sent me a railroad photo he captured along the Thompson River in British Columbia, I immediately knew it was something I wanted to model on my layout. Trouble was, I had no idea how to build the craggy rock formation.

Foam has long been my friend when it comes to building other massive rock wall formations, but the defined vertical orientation didn’t seem to fit my typical technique of laminating 2-inch-thick insulation board in a vertical arrangement.

After putting some thought to the matter, I stumbled upon the idea of working with Woodland Scenics no. ST1419 foam profile boards. These tongue and groove boards are intend to be situated horizontally, but when turned on end they sure seem to match the rock strata I wanted. To achieve the appearance of depth in a shallow space against the hardboard backdrop, I used carpenter’s wood glue to assemble varying layers of profile boards with ½–inch and 2-inch foam board. After roughing in the formations, I applied Woodland Scenics no. ST1447 foam putty in copious amounts!

I won’t complete all of my canyon scenery using this method, but here the pre-fab grooves sure saved me a ton of time.