TheQ

1. What type of railway locomotive would you be - steam or modern diesel-electric traction? steam
2. What company would it be for? MSWJR or Highland Railways
3. How big or small would the engine (you) be? Large boilered with my waisteline
4. What wheel arrangement woudl you have? 4-6-0
5. What gauge would you run on - standard gauge, narrow gauge or miniature gauge? STD
6. What would your purpose be - express passenger, heavy freight, mixed-traffic (branch-line traffic or main-line traffic) or shunting? Heavy freight
7. For the steam enthusiast: would the engine (you) have a tender or tanks? tender very tender
8. For the diesel enthusiast: would the engine (you) be big (Co-Co, 1Co-Co1 or A1A) or small (Bo-Bo, single-bogie, 0-6-0 or 0-4-0)?
9. Which is your favourite railway company you’d like to be a proud part of? MSWJR or Highland
10. After years of service, what would your fate be after withdrawal (scrapped or preserved - if preserved, would it be static display or restored to running service)? I think the way I feel, old decrepit, shoved into a siding and not working at all well..

It looks a good start, I've built similar Hillsides on my N gauge layout, the hillside rises a good 6 inches behind the railway, Where the backscene board does protrude above the  hillsides, I've spent some time getting a graduated blue sky not plain blue.  Later when more is built there will be a clip on section in one area, taking the hillside up higher.

As for covering the polystyrene. My favourite is genuine J cloths soaked in a pollyfilla water / pva mix, then coated with a thicker mix.  Genuine J cloths have holes in them and allow the polyfilla to link through. PVA in the mix gives a harder surface less likely to chip and produces a hard shell. I suspect with a couple of layers it would stand on its own without the polystyrene beneath..

To Hide the operator and cups of coffee, the back of the layout will have a light blue curtain, So that if neccessary you can reach through ( I hate the hand God on layouts) but otherwise remain hidden.

Even with the amount of compression you've had to do, that is instantly reconnisable as a place on my way to school, 1971-75..

Wonderful modelling..

www.dogfriendly.co.uk

I don't know the area but this might be useful.

The Q