RED ROCK CANYON Motivation for building a sandstone rock formation was inspired by the scene John Olson made in 1984 and republished in the February 2008 Model Railroader magazine. The layout is around the walls construction with this large peninsula section that was unfinished for many years. Three days of carving up Styrofoam with the Hot Wire Foam Factory tool and coloring with my #1040 Rock Powder Pigment is the result of this scene. We took photos of the construction sequence that reveals the techniques for building the scene and will be shown later. Notice that the scenery drops below the edge of the layout to eliminate the standard fascia board.

DROPPED WANDERING EDGE SCENERY I have used this technique for the last twenty five years and finally got around to applying it to this portion of the layout. It doesn't matter if you have "L" Girder construction as you see here, or a flat top table. Instead of using a plywood or Masonite fascia, let the scenery be the fascia. This type of scenery is advantageous for those low angle camera shots were any profile board ruins the illusion of an otherwise realistic picture. All it takes extra is installing a plywood shelf to the bottom of the girders or bench work. Here is an opportunity to avoid straight lines around the layout edge if you cut the shelf edge so it weaves in and out randomly.