Outer Station Backdrop Eliminates the Great White Wall

A particularly unsightly corner of my Hanley Spur layout is the point at which the Outer Station yard 'runs into' my wife's craft storage cabinet. This stub-end yard technically carries on east of Montreal Street. I've long wanted to 'complete' the layout with a suitable backdrop extension. Not only for more fulfilling photography, but also to make viewing the layout more believable. Before photo (above) in which I've tried to minimize the view of the cabinet - its large expanse of Great White Wall and the gap between the cabinet and the room wall are just visible. During photo (below). 

You can't miss Peter Macdonald's photo of a CNR steam excursion stopped at the Outer Station in the mid-60's - taped there half as inspiration and half as protest! I've covered the end of the cabinet with three sheets of appropriately-coloured, taped-together blue cardstock out of another craft cabinet located nearby! The shade closely approximated the painted room wall colour. I gently curved the left-handmost piece to cover the gap. It'll still be 'in the dark' but more believable. I printed a couple of track photo backgrounds and test-fitted them:

Most often, there will be cars spotted here in the yard, so the track background will not be that visible. I trimmed around the foliage in the printed photos:

Every backdrop has a silver lining - once I add some cloud stickers, anyway. This will heighten the illusion of a distance and sky.

Some more trimming has taken place to visually soften and link the backdrop the the stick-on lichen at left:

Finished, for now, with foreground cars removed for visibility. The Great White Wall is no more! The Athearn Geep is sitting on what would be the north main track, though on my layout it's an electrically-isolated locomotive track. Flick of a light switch and it's off to do some switching, like returning those cars that the 0-5-0 switcher has just moved out of the way!

More prototype inspiration. A platform view looking east, taken by my Dad in the summer of 1970. Notice the generally flat topography in the distance. This itself would have made an excellent backdrop if I'd just removed that westbound passenger train! Notice how many telegraph and power poles are in the photo....hmmmm....as we know, one's layout is never truly finished!