Model Railway Forum

My layout is in an attic with two sides that has back scene boards 300mm /12in high. Each side is approximately 3.65m /12ft long

My upper track runs 150m / 6in high alongside the back scene on both sides. Rather than have inclines and declines I opted for a dual track at a high level around the layout. This left about 6 inches of visible board below which I planned to be embankment and rock faces.

I cannot make the boards higher, without major alterations to the layout

My original intention was to paint the board and have trackside growth hiding my less than artistic talents.

My children (now at an age where they are not!) brought me a 6 sections continuous back scene which is 15in / 385mm high Luckily I am at a stage of building where I can incorporate bridges / viaduct to display some parts of the lower part of the back scene.

My query is; I need to cut the 15 inch scene down to 12 inches high, Losing 3 inches, otherwise the sheet will have to follow the slope of the roof.

Should I take it of the top , mindful that cropped hills might appear unusual and allowing some sky or

Off the bottom, or equidistant top and bottom?

Layout is generally 2 to 3 foot wide at 38inches 960mm high

Thanks for any thoughts

You obviously take it off the top or what ever is on the bottom will appear to disappear into the ground.

I would suggest that trimming at the bottom is preferred as you can easily hide with structures or shrubbery, hedges etc....... that is what I have done on my layout to reasonable effect.

Trimming the top works if you have plenty of skyline to work with, but you mention truncated hills and that doesn’t seem to make any sense to me.

Trimming both top and bottom might be a good compromise if it helps the various features blend and flow better.

Good luck anyway

There you go two completely opposite views. I suppose it really depends what is at the top or bottom.

You could always fold it and then pin it to the back board - this would enable you to see which looks best - top off or bottom off? BB

Cutting off the bottom could (most probably) bring the middle forward. Things then may look out of scale. I did a similar thing.

Glencairn

Walkingthedog wrote: ↑Fri Jun 26, 2020 12:11 pm You obviously take it off the top or what ever is on the bottom will appear to disappear into the ground.

Harsh but True

Thanks for the replies, I have taken a little while to play (study) with the items and have decided that raising the height of the backboard on one leg is the best solution for one side. The other I still considering where to trim.

Its strange how things begin to annoy one. The back scenes consisted of three rolls (containing two sheets) of connected scene.

Roll one consisted of 2 sheets, one of which is a mirror image of the other. They work with the other sheets, but I look and see a the same tree, bush, rabbit in the same relative place on each sheet ! ( ID Backscenes - Village Long - Pack A). It would have been better value had each sheet been a separate scene. That said, I am certain that with a bit of scenery in front, the scenic views will look quite different.

Rgds

I initially purchased an ID Backscene for my layout but I just could not seem to get it to mesh with what I had in mind....... I have since switched entirely to the Gaugemaster range and have been very pleased with them - I have 3-off sets installed and another ready to go after I do some other layout building work.