The Yard has Hills

After getting some ground foam down around the yard tracks and the loop end, I decided to break up the overall flatness and add a couple of hills on the loop end of the yard.  Nothing too big, just a couple of bumps.

I also decided to add a backdrop on the far right end of the yard.  I think they'll compliment each other, plus it will help hide the shelving unit and other clutter for photos?

I started with a couple layers of pink foam.

I got it shaped and then covered it with paint and a base layer of ground foam, then started blending things together.  I also extended the ballast a few inches further.

Then a friend told me that that area was begging for a bridge, maybe an abandoned bridge?  After thinking about it, I thought it would be a great way to get a frontage road into the industrial I had planned for the middle of the yard.  So I dug around and found an old Rix bridge that I was planning to use on an old module years ago and started playing around with it to see if it would work.

Seeing that there was promise to the idea, I proceeded to work it into the scene.  A second friend told me to use pink foam for the abutment.  After getting one cut out, I covered it with a thin layer of  plaster, inserted it and glued it in place and test fit the bridge.  

 

I had to grind down the foam a bit to level things out for the road.  I also added a couple layers of cardboard to build it up even with the bridge and abutment so the road would line up.  I wound up with about 1/8" between the top of a double stack container and the bottom of the bridge.

After getting everything lined up and glued in place, I cut a piece of 1/16" gray craft foam for the actual road, glued it down and then used grout for the shoulder and then got the rest of the ground foam laid down.

Here's how it stands today. 

I plan to add some guardrails and either a concrete anti-erosion slab or just some rip rap below the abutment.  This whole area will be covered in trees when finished.