Hiding Another Hole on the M & M Sub., Part 2

The hole is starting to be hidden.

Earlier, I wrote about the need to hide the new hole on the lower level of the CP Rail M & M Sub.

The new hole is the result of changes to the layout (eliminating the three-level peninsula and replacing it with a single level).

Time off over Christmas gave me an opportunity to get working on this new challenge.

How it looked before . . . .

An easy fix would be a tunnel, but that would be an unlikely thing to find on the prairies (the tracks heading into the hole come from a prairie town).

The solution I decided on was to hide it with a bridge--a time-honoured way of hiding transitions between scenes on model railroads.

Early in the effort . . . .

Since the layout at this point is narrow, and tracks from the town of Fort Frances are on the other side, I needed to run the bridge across what are, in fact, two scenes that are supposed to be kilometres apart.

By creating a high hill between the tracks, I hope to obscure the fact that road and bridges are so close to each other.

From the other side.

In the end, I know that this is an imperfect solution--the way I hid the hole on the upper level is much better. But you have to work with what you have, so I will make the best of it.

As for my methods, I am once again using pieces of Styrofoam. I am building them up and carving them to suggest a narrow hill. I use small pieces of Styrofoam cut from the larger pieces to fill in the gaps; spackling paste is used to fill in and cover up the cracks.

Until it is painted and grass and trees are added, I won't know how successful this is. We'll see how it turns out . . . .