When I’m trackside I often catch myself thinking how well modern railroading works for a modeller developing new skills. The scene above is in Dartmouth yard as it appeared at lunch today. This is a medium size yard that hosts three or four trains a day.
Learning to lay reliable track is a major point on the learning curve. From there we can learn to paint and weather it, then ballast. Once upon a time Woodland Scenics ground foam “grass” was the standard scenic treatment. It’s easy to apply and is sold in a broad range of colours. For me, it’s big fail point was the lack of three dimensional texture. That’s not a problem in the modern scene. CN keeps the grass in the yard cut closely to make it a safer place for its crews to walk when they’re at work. So, heck with texture, ground foam works here. As we learn, we can move further back from the track. Just as in the scene above, static grass and more detailed tree and shrub armatures along a fence line.
Collectively it could be an opportunity to grow with the work which might be a whole lot less to consider when you’re start.
