a combination of dig holes, low wall for edge molding, terrain splines (house grass, ballast, etc.) and tall wall spline to make retaining wall along the graded roads: I used small trees along the retaining wall at the train board edge to avert plainness and give the layout a more natural appeal: Topo water squares, of course form the bodies of water seen: I wanted to make the bench edges as close as possible to the river bridge scenes as if real people were standing along the bench work for getting the best views of the train layout so I cut out excess train board to get close to the intersection of Drummond Drive and Highway 45. When designing a model railroad layout, bear in mind that real-world people in the train room may want to get as close as possible to see interesting scenery.
question: is there a better way to have the edge of the train board near a graded road?
Here is one more interesting tidbit: Patton Harley-Davidson out in the boonies on American Eagle Road off Highway 85. Imagine a motorcycle shop out in the middle of an American forest of the Pacific Northwest? Well, some of those old bearded mountain goats love their Road Kings and Electra Glides! Yes, there is a yellow Dead End sign at the end of American Eagle road where the train table terminates. Just before this street ends, semi trucks and store employees turn right onto the one-way back alley to the rear of the dealership through the opening of the chain link fence. There is a one-way/do not enter sign guarding the exit of this back alley.
I will never get my layout perfect. I had to even touch up the Harley shop extension table some as follows:
UPDATE: I got the bright idea to scrap the stone wall,the tree row and the house grass altogether and just run the bench edge molding (Low Brick Wall) right along the light-ballast spline shoulders of the graded roads for a super clean look! Your benchwork cosmetics are just as important as the layout scenery itself. I've seen some ugly model railroad benchwork where rivers abruptly terminate sloppily along the table edge showing an ungainly river cross section. The molding, plaster wall and ballast spline point heights are calculated and adjusted according to the road grade (YARN road spline point heights). You can see all the spline points and stitch work involved.
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