A little rearranging and some mud

A building relocation, wagons and mud make the depot section
look busier and dirtier--i.e. perfect.

Something just wasn't feeling right about the depot area on the layout. Even though having the freight station on the "far" side of the tracks opened it up a bit, it didn't have a natural flow to the buildings. I decided to experiment and I think it turned out well.

Before, the freight station felt left out, ignored.

Though it made a pretty scene, it didn't say "army depot."

The freight station is now on the same parcel of land as the passenger station. The area is more cramped, but I think that's fine for what I'm going for. 

I also added some mud (real dirt) to where the wagons and foot traffic would have worn away all the grass. Adding in some of the station workers and cargo, and it looks more like the bustling depot I had hoped to build.

Moving the freight station onto the same piece of land as the
passenger station was the right move. 

My hope is to supplement this scene in the next few months with another loading platform, more figures and cargo.

The figures are the biggest time sink, as I haven't yet started on any of the other miniatures I got from Good Ground and GHQ. I have to run out for some black spray paint to prime them.

But I'm already getting excited for how improved the whole scene will look with double the wagons, some officers, = a platoon of cavalry, and a company of infantry moving to their next destination. 

Civil War Trains: A Scene

Settling back into the routine today after spending a week down the shore. It was our first true vacation as a family. We had a great time.

Before I left, I spent a few minutes setting up a static scene on the layout, using the figures I had completed, as well as three of the four locomotives and a good number of the cars. The lighting wasn't great, and there needs to be far more figures (and more wood loads to cover the decoders) to give a decent amount of realism. But overall I thought this turned out to be a good overview of what I've accumulated since last summer. 

And just for fun, I threw the first image above into photoshop. It's not the greatest, but it changes the perception a little. I'll have to play around with the settings more to get that true wet-plate look.