Construction Update #18 - State Line, Kentucky Part 5 - Westmoreland Part 1

State Line

Work continues around State Line and the Cumberland River Crossing.  The Cattails finally arrived and I added them along with some 7 and 12mm static grass to the marshland.  I still need to add the water and some additional detail, but overall I think it looks pretty good. 

Work has also progressed across and up the east bank of the river.

 Here's a view from beneath the bridge.

 

 

As I go along, I can't resist staging some equipment and taking a picture or two.  Here is the MELOP (Memphis to Louisville Perishables) with SP power on the point.  The #9189 is a recent 1990's era release from Athearn with factory weathering and "see through" radiator section.  Even without SP power, this train is easy to identify with its "Colton Block" of  PFE reefers cut in directly behind the power.  The SP "Tunnel Motor" will be cut off at Preston Miller Yard in Bowling Green, turned, serviced, and sent back to the SP on the LOMEF (Louisville to Memphis Forwarder).

 Westmoreland

 

Westmorland is right around the corner and railroad east of State Line at the end of the peninsula.  Since I can only spend a hour or two at a time standing on my "new" knee, I decided to spend some modeling time, at the bench, building a few structures for this area.  I ended up building eight kits, seven from the Walthers Cornerstone series and one from Atlas.  They all build into reasonably good models.  Most of the parts were painted during assembly to tone down the colors and eliminate the plastic sheen typical of these kits.  Once they were done, I set them out on the layout and tried out different combinations.  I ended up using 4 of the houses and the small market. 

Here is the first acceptable arrangement I came up with.  I took pictures and left the building in place for a couple of days.

 

I really liked the above layout but as can be seen in the following photo, two well kept houses ended up being right next to the CEMEX redi-mix complex.

 

As a result, I swapped things around and came up with the following configuration.  The new configuration leaves some open space to transition from the residential area to the redi-mix plant.  There is a spur off the mainline to the lower left that will lead to a propane dealer.