Staging yard is ballasted

The staging yard represents both Denver and Salt Lake City on my railroad.  So it holds through trains going east towards Denver, and west towards Salt Lake City.  It will also hold locals out of both cities that will drop off and pick up cars at my major city, Glenwood Springs.  Locals there will deliver the new empty cars to industries there, and pick up loaded cars to begin their trip back to Denver and SLC.  There will also "turns" or locals from GWS that will deliver cars and pick up loaded cars at the several small cities on the railroad away from GWS.  

Hard to believe here but the staging yard is totally ballasted.  Tedious. That is 7 tracks, each 8 feet long.  This will hold approximately 180 50 foot railcars. Less passenger cars and locomotives, but seven long trains and maybe 14 short ones.  

The ballast I used represents cinders in N scale, made by Highball Products.  Carefully spread (Sort of like spreading dust, but nice once done), wetted with 70% alcohol, and glued with dilute Elmer's Glue.  The ballast on the mainline will be like that used on the Union Pacific and Denver Rio Grande Western railroads.  That ballast is also N scale but slightly bigger and easier to apply-thabk goodness.  The bridge you see at the end of the yard is a view block.  It would cross the yard and continue on - in my imagination.  There will be a whole series of very shallow industrial buildings along the wall in the future to provide some depth.  And cars and trucks on the bridge. Maybe a few pigeons.

Interesting that here in Durango we also have a "bridge to nowhere" like my railroad does, built by the state but without securing the land at one end.  So it ends in a hillside.  But, what do you want for $30,000,000.  It is several years old and unused but plans are afoot to secure the land and complete it.  Probably just in time to renovate it.

Tomorrow once the glue is dry and the track cleaned, I plan on filling it with steam-era cars and locomotives so I can run real trains while I build the rest. I will blip it once filled.