Building The Canyon 1: Laying the Groundwork

 I finally started work on a new micro layout, The Canyon.

I talked about the concept in an earlier post, but basically, this one will have a canyon cutting diagonally across it, with two bridges. The scenery will be reminiscent of the High Sierras or the Rockies, with lots of big conifers.

Today I built a simple box frame from 1x2s. In the photo below, the larger section is filled with a roughly 2x2 foot slab of pink foam. The plywood panel in the lower corner is where I'll mount a DCC-EX circuit that will power the layout.

I started rough cutting layers of foam. I'm using three different thicknesses -- 1", 1.5", and 2" -- so the layers are varied. The next picture shows what I've cut so far. I plan to add another layer or two.

The canyon will get wider when I start carving detail into the foam.

The Campbell truss bridge I build a couple of months ago will span the narrower end of the canyon, farthest away in this photo. The near end will have a curved trestle.

Later: I laid out the oval and marked the location of the truss bridge on a sheet of 1 inch foam. It quickly became apparent that I seriously underestimated how wide the canyon needs to be to accommodate the bridge. I'll have to carve back the foam a few inches.

I left a temporary bridge section in place in the foreground for alignment; I'll cut it away once the foam is glued in place.