Upper Deck Benchwork Completed

Over the last few weeks i have been able to complete and install the remaining upper deck benchwork modules.  This completes my goal of having all the tedious and messy heavy construction out of the way by the end of 2011.  The only remaining benchwork items are a narrow shelf for Fort Nelson staging tracks, but that can wait for a while.

The upper deck will be entirely dedicated to representing Fort St. John yard and industries.  Some editing will be required to fit everything in.  The track layout will represent viewing the yard from the south.  The old grain elevators will sit along the front fascia with the station buildings and CANFOR facility along the backdrop.

I decided to use a ‘hillboard’ view block in order to partially screen the Fort Nelson subdivision mainline.   As in the prototype I wanted this line to curve away from the main yard tracks and head north.   Without screening its exit, the line would appear to head south behind the yard spurs.  I just knew that this would have irritated me so i used this method instead

Hillboard viewblock to help screen exit of Fort Nelson subdivision track

Small structures, trees and other painted backdrop hills will eventually help hide this hillboard better, but I am quite happy with this compromise that allows the track to appear to head north towards Fort Nelson even though it heads the opposite direction to a future staging shelf under the window.

Future site of Fort St. John yard on upper deck.  Peace River bridge below

The masonite backdrops have been given several coats of the light blue I used on the lower deck sky.   The fascia and light valance have a matching coat of green used on lower deck fascia.  I am quite pleased with the presentation of the layout at this point, even though there is still lots of work to be done.

Future site of Fort St. John yard throat and CANFOR plant on upper deck. Taylor on lower deck.  Helix on right.

Upper deck lighting will be the same under cabinet strip fixtures I used for the lower deck.  The integral backgrop and lighting support structure has been deliberately over-engineered to hold the relatively heavy under cabinet fixtures.

I plan on taking a break from the heavy construction over the next few weeks and putting some serious time into painting the upper deck backdrop and also completing some unfinished areas of the lower deck backdrop.

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