My new Z-Bend Track Module

I started work on a new module. This one is designed to fit in the trunk of my car. It is 33.5" long in the front, and 39.5" long in the back, and 26" wide in the middle, making it a 5 sided 15 degree bend. It is also 12" tall, with a 6" scenic divider style mountain to divide the front and back views.

This module is being built with a little more vertical scenery, to allow for a trestle:

I wanted a wooden trestle, but could not locate photo's of a 2 track trestle anywhere, so I used Modelers License to modify a standard design from the 1922 Maintenance of Way Cyclopedia.

I wanted to have a waterfall, and having never done one before, I bought the Woodland Scenics Scenery Manual for guidance and technique. This waterfall is not the most pleasing to grace a model, but I'm going to leave it as is, because the photos are more flattering than in person, due to the contrast between the water and surrounding scenery.

The trestle took me 2 weeks to do, but really involved about 10-15 hours total. There are over 1000 pieces individually glued on, even though I used the laser to cut the Bents and Howe Trusses to save time. The trestle's not really finished yet, and the tracks are not laid to the ends of the module yet, but I wanted to post something, and I always look at photo's of a project during construction, so I can address the flaws I do not notice in person.

For the other side of the module, I am planning a small trackside downtown, and I want to light up the scene with LED's and Electroluminescent signs. I ordered some panels from Hong Kong to experiment with, and much to my satisfaction, the material is laserable. In this photo, the left side shows a 1" wide sign i made for the top of my bookstore. In the middle is a 1/3" wide sign with .030" wide letters that would not light up all the way. (notice the size of the contact pins) I have determined that the minimum line thickness has to be about .040" to get good illumination. The right side of the photo shows the relative size of the bookstore sign behind the store. More experimenting with EL panels needs to be done still.