Upgrading Scenery and a Down Grade

I've been maintaining a short three-item 'TO DO' list for minor scenery projects on my layout, now completed:

1. Replacing the Cataraqui Street crossing, removed when I added a CP lead to Dyeco in 2023. Until now, crossing would have been, as Bette Davis said, 'a bumpy ride'.

I used some board-like brown card-stock and modelling clay, adding cross bucks for realism.

2. Dropping the Kingston Milling/Crawford Coal spur down below layout level. Since I added this spur a year ago redeveloping the CN/CP 'Confederation Basin' station yard, its awkward location at a joint between two pieces of my layout benchwork meant cars sometimes rolled away! I alternate set-outs on this track: coal for Crawford, next time grain for Kingston Milling. The spur and structures are selectively smaller than prototype, but including them has added a lot of operating interest. As a facing-point spur while switching the yard tracks, the spur must be switched on the CN switcher's return trip.

I used a multi-cutter to remove the plywood under the spur, then added a lower piece of wood to form a downgrade. No in-progress photos, just the finished, scenicked product:

3. Adding small embankments between the CN and CP mainlines and the CP lead near the River Street bridge, to visually break up the three-track-main-line look, prototypically leading to the bridge embankment and grade separation.

I used modelling clay for a base,  then glued rocks and strips of green 'fairy mat'.

While scenicking an entire huge layout is daunting, these tiny micro-sceneries are much more attainable and much more enjoyable to work on and to complete!