Still making a mess but...

Having finally finished carving the white foam on the other side, it was time to clean that up a bit and make a serious start on the other side of the backdrop, in other words, to make a different kind of mess.
Constructing the facia does make a mess but one that I can get my head around and that does not get little white balls "EVERYWHERE".

Although the crossing loop and goods siding have been in for over 12 months, I was not totally sure what industry or scenry feature would occupy the "return".

For any of you who have done any type of research into branchline timetables and the number of trains that might run in any typical week will find out that not many actually run at all. Even the busiest of branchlines may have run 2 trains per day everyday of the week!!!!!.

The reason for the construction of this layout is for the purpose of operation, therefore I needed to make more trains, but at the same time make a reason for there passage. To do this I need to incorporate believable industries that are served by rail.

Introduce the newist industry (it does not have a name yet) but will be a manfacturing and wholesale company. Raw products in and processed into products that are railed out, you get the idea.

trackwork loosely in place ready for the building to be constructed

This "customer" will be the main stay of the branch along with the other industries normally served by a mixed goods or branch line consist.

Anyway enough of my justification, having sorted that out I was able to continue the facia around to the end of the station area.

marking out where the supports need to go

Wanting the facia to follow the line and flow as one means a bit of planning and mapping out where the supports will go.

This facia will support plug in points for throttles, throttle holders, wagon and consist boxes and operators who persist in leaning up against the layout, so it needs to have some strength to it.

marking holes for the turnout activating rods

31 x 11 pine is simple but effective, please don't start counting how many screws I've used

what is should look like, ready for profiling

another view looking towards the new industry

At this point the facia is very firm and ready for any last minute profiling, below track cuttings. All that is left now is to fill in all the voids with the foam and carve the profiles to suit. More white balls, ahhhhhh.

I then need to install the dowel to the end of the rods for the point activation, next time anyway.

Here's to a good year of modelling.