Progress on Ridgeville

I've spent some time on the basic landscaping for Ridgeville and thought it might be instructive to provide some 'before and after' images to show how much has actually been accomplished.

Ridgeville at some point in either late 2012 or early 2013. 

As you can see, the framing is in place and the contouring was underway. The rock face is not yet installed, nor are the tunnel approach retaining wall or portal. The image does show the outer loop on the left after the 'great re-grading' rebuild that required lowering the grade - and the height - of the outer loop on the north end of the layout.

With the south tunnel portal rough fit to the layout

In the next image, we can see that the tunnel portal from Pre-Size fit in place to get a sense of how it fits with the landscape. In a word - its too big. It should not tower up over the tunnel as much as it does. Looks like I'll need to raise the upper deck of the tunnel.

So, how did it turn out? Well...let's take a look at the current state of affairs in Ridgeville.

Ridgeville at the west tunnel portal

I've gone back and added another layer of homasote on top of the other layer to raise the landscape up to the level of the portal. The tunnel portal and the retaining walls are installed. I've begun to flock the land. Four medium pine trees screen the houses from a direct view of the rails and help break up the sight lines. I've installed the brick walls that keep kids from falling onto the track of the outer loop.

A short to the east along the north  (backyard) face of Ridgeville.

The southwest face of Ridgeville.

South face of Ridgeville. The houses are old bargain bin Plasticville all in need of work. The fence is Plasticville as well.

Hey! I'm actually making progress here! A few more days and the basics of Ridgeville will be complete.

But that missing bridge still bothers me.

Ridgeville needs a bridge

As I've worked to layout the community of Ridgeville, one thing that keeps bothering me is how its isolated from the model 'real world'. There it sits on the ridge with no visible road providing access. I need to install a bridge, even if it just leads "off the layout".

It should be a small bridge befitting the isolated and lower income nature of Ridgeville. I'm leaning toward using the Plasticville covered bridge because a.) I already have one and b.) its not uncommon to find small bridges of a similar type used as overpasses for the railroad tracks.

But to get the clearance over the adjacent tracks, there has to be one heck of a steep approach road to the brigde. Like something with a 30% grade. Its steep - and steep enough to confine traffic to cars and light trucks. Which is perfect for Ridgeville.

So now I'm shaping styofoam to build the approach ramp into town and trying to figure out how to squeeze it onto the ridge without cutting the church off from the community. I'll try and post some pictures in the next week or so.