Haunted By Waters

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.”
-Norman MacLean-

While additional detail parts may eventually find a place, I’m ready to call the first significant rural scene on The Hills Line complete.

The 10,000-foot view shows the relative placement of most of the elements. All the foliage and flora follow methods I’ve previously used on the layout… just in greater quantities. The cornfield itself is separated from the right-of-way with a scratch-built barbed-wire fence that was then buried by a large amount of weeds, scrub, and underbrush.

The combine shed at Hills Grain & Feed was similarly covered with shrubs. I know that having the corn head propped up against the wall isn’t close to prototypical, but I do like how it looks in the scene. Whether this becomes a permanent fixture will require some more thought.

Also in the not-quite-completely-accurate-but-still-cool category is this small MOW shed just north of the bypass. It’s based on a CRANDIC prototype located just south of the Iowa River on the industrial spur. The shed was kitbashed from a Pikestuff yard utility building kit.

The last little vignette is a private farm crossing into the cornfield. The gravel was built up over the track in successive layers with the flangeways cut out as the material was drying. The ruts were made with the same methods, topped with Woodland Scenics Blended Turf. The crossing signs were made in Photoshop, printed on copy paper, then attached to scale lumber.

This scene may not have been cut by the world’s great flood, but my small slice of the Iowa landscape adds another memory to the basement of time.