I have spent much of this year developing the scene and forest around “Pryor.” Pryor actually is a siding (unmodeled on my railroad) between Oakridge and McCredie Springs. I use the name here as a shorthand for that location on my railroad. The scene begins with the climb out of Oakridge and the bridge over Salmon Creek. It curves around and then has a long climb along a wall beneath Cascade Summit, which extends overhead in this area. The track passes Montieth Rock and then curves through Tunnel 21 on its way into McCredie Springs. Regular readers will recognize I spent a fair amount of time this past winter finishing Montieth Rock. Now it was time to develop the forest.
Forest development in the “Pryor” area before Montieth Rock (seen in the distance).
Forest development began with the backdrop. My original backdrop treatment featured mountainsides above the three-dimensional terrain painted in three shades of green, with the most distant one being more blue. Based on my experience with the Cruzatte scene, I needed to add more distinct trees to the immediate foreground of the backdrop. I added a couple of rows of trees, largely matching up to the eleven- and nine-inch trees I have been using for such scenes
Foreground trees being added to the backdrop.
The stretch of forest from the break after the corner scene to Montieth Rock is about twelve feet long. Add to that another couple of feet between Montieth Rock and Tunnel 21 that has at least some forest, albeit it younger forest (smaller trees) as occurs after a mud or rock slide in the Cascades. My typical tree spacing places four or five tree per foot, so this scene requires a LOT of trees! I finally made and installed all of the half trees needed over this stretch and have begun the next row down and forward of those backdrop-hugging trees.
Closeup of the tree additions. I used two different shades of green, with one more olive, with the intent of showing some color variation within the trees.
After the backdrop was modified, I began adding trees, beginning with half trees. These are trees with their “foliage” cut at the trunk allowing the trunks to stand next to the backdrop.
Final gap of backdrop-hugging half trees closing the gap toward Montieth Rock. The tree trunks on the mountainside are of different lengths and mark sections for my estimate of how many half trees to build for the scene.
I used smaller trees immediately around Montieth Rock to suggest recent second growth following a slide. Photos of the Montieth Rock area show it nearly bare when the railroad was built in 1926, but now show plenty of forest. I use tree materials from Coastman’s Scenic Products: https://www.coastmans.com/ Coastmans supplies both trunks and “green branches.” The “green branches” are coconut coil that has been painted and a layer of ground foam dusted on. Once I trim the “foliage,” I apply spray adhesive and a fresh dusting of coarse Woodland Scenics conifer green “turf.”
Montieth Rock and Tunnel 21 with the developed forest surrounding the rock.
Opposite view of Montieth Rock.
I still have a lot of forest to build and plant for this scene, but it now has enough definition to show where I am headed with it.