Street running.....

While waiting on some parts for the Georgia Pacific plant, I decided to start working on the downtown area of Ackerman. I strayed from the prototype slightly here as I wanted to have some street running somewhere on the layout. There wasn't any along the line I'm modeling but there was along one of the branches off of it. So, I used the scene on the branch as inspiration for the street running part of downtown Ackerman.

The scene I'm modeling is an interchange between the ICG and the Frisco where the interchange track diverges between two buildings along Main Street to where it connects with the other railroad that runs down a side street. Unfortunately, it won't be a functioning track as the benchwork was too shallow to create a working interchange. So, I've got the interchange track modeled running between the buildings as in this photo.

The second photo shows the Frisco line running down the side street.  The interchange track would connect in just beyond the tan building on the left.

This was one of those scenes where the scenery intimidated me. I wasn't sure how I was going to actually build the roads. I wanted to use styrene because I liked how it looked once painted. However, I wasn't sure how I was going to cut the styrene to match the curve of the rails. I put off and put off attempting this scene until today when I just decided to give it a try with the plan to start over when I messed it up.

To make the cuts on the styrene, I first put some paint on the rails then pressed the styrene to it. That left the mark of the rails on the styrene. I think just used a sharp X-Acto knife and hand cut the styrene. I normally can't draw a straight line but I got lucky and the cuts turned out well. So, I'm happy with what I have so far. The foam base beneath the styrene is just a hair too tall. So next comes a light sanding then some paint on the roads!