O'Brien's background.

Painted areas of the background that no longer matched the new rock face. The rock face was repainted and some ground foam was added. Below are before and after pictures. First before, second background painted and some ground foam, last a lot of trees added.

Painting rock walls

The rock cliff below Waldo needed to be painted, see June 27 post. With some craft paint, medium grey, raw sienna, golden brown, tan and burnt sienna I painted all the white areas with mixtures of the above colours. Then dry brushed mixtures of mainly golden brown, burnt sienna and raw sienna, over all of the rocks on the cliff. I also use this technique on the rocks by the coal triple. Both areas were then sprayed with a dilute black paint to highlight the shadows.

Cliff's of Waldo 

Coal triple area.

Pelican Bay fences.

Added guard fencing in the town of Pelican Bay.  I chose to use all the same type of fences in this area to maintain the look of continuity. These fences will all be painted a weathered grey although I may have someone painting the fence at the restaurant white, maybe Tom Sawyer can help.

Ferry dock.

The dock where the ferry will tie up was too high so a new one had to be added. Luckily I had 1 saved from the old port that would do the trick. Cutting it into 2 sections to make it fit around the the higher dock, and adding a sloping path to the parking lot was all that was needed. Well not quite, some rock blasting was needed to shove the building back from the edge of the Peninsula to make room for the leg of the new, lower dock. I think multiple deck levels adds interest to the scene. The lower dock will be attached to the upper dock as I want to be able to pick up the entire unit  to clean the water surface below the docks (as are all of the docks and piers over the water). Now I  need a name for the building, Pelican Bay Ferry Co. perhaps.

Paving crews.

The Paving crews have been busy paving in O'Brien and Pelican Bay.
After the crossing planks were installed and covered with masking tape the road was plastered in. When it was dry the roads were painted a medium grey. A lighter grey was washed in while the medium grey was still wet, giving the roads are weathered look. Cracks and patches will be added at a later date.

The port

The port area is built on a rugged coast line and should look the part. The first thing to tackle is the plastic edges of the turntable. Using shaved down ceiling tiles these edges were covered. The station area was elevated and the road to the ferry was graded into different levels. Areas around the passing tracks were also elevated. A rocky wall around the ferry terminal parking lot was plastered in. Without colour on the plaster some of the features are hard to see in the picture.

Electrical Changes

Making the mainline 1 big loop required some wiring changes. The leads from the rotary switch powering the line from the port to OBrien had to be swapped green for orange. This made the positive and negative tracks the same from the port to Grants Pass. O'Brien is still powered by a DPDT switch but the power leads to the coal mine had to be unhooked from that block.The port was gapped making it electrically separate from the rest of the railroad.  The black and red feeders from Waldo were joined to the blue and white feeders of the mainline, at the terminal at the end of the port. The old Waldo rotary switch was used to power the green and orange feeders powering the track now designated as the Northern Pacific. These feeder wires were also reversed at the terminal to keep the correct rail positive. At  Grants Pass the blue and white feeders, from the DPDT switch, had to be swapped blue for white, at the terminal there. The turntable at the port was also powered. This divides the layout into 4 blocks. The port, the port to O'Brien, O'Brien to Grants Pass, including the Waldo branch, and the N.P. connector. Power to Grants Pass and O'Brien is selected by throwing a DPDT switch to 1 of the 2 connecting tracks power. However the DPDT switch powering Grants Pass when thrown from N.P. to the mainline or vice-versa will also change the engines direction, as this is the 2 tails of a loop, joining in Grants Pass although it is not meant to run as a loop. This is caused because of the need for a crossover near the ports turntable that joins the N.P. Track to the port track.
This post is mainly for my reference.

Trappers Gulch

Started mudding in the area of Trappers Gulch and put in the upper mainline trestle. The trestle needs a couple braces replaced. The lower trestle needs the bents installed. After the background is repainted, scenic materials will be added.