I first painted the subroadbed on the inside of the tunnel a deep brown color. I was not too concerned about exactly which shade of brown, I just needed something dark to serve as a base for ballast.
While the paint dried I began constructing the tunnel liner. For a lightweight and low-cost solutions I went for foamboard and a textured cardstock I had on hand. This I held together with hot glue. I will be honest as I was putting these together I was beginning to be skeptical of how they would turn out, however, they proved to be quite sturdy and easy to put together! I simply used the tunnel portal as a template for the foam supports and went to town cutting!
Here is one half of the tunnel going through some rigorous testing. The tunnel portal I am using is sadly not prototypically accurate, but I think a fairly decent stand-in for the tunnels on the line. Only true Cascade fans will know its is not correct. I did raise the tunnels using scrap pieces of cork roadbed for my intermodal equipment to clear.
Ballast! This is the first true element of scenery on the layout. I installed Arizona Rock and Mineral ballast on the track inside the tunnel and secured it with WS Scenic Cement. The darker gray color is perfect, I was quite surprised as it comes in a very light color before securing it with glue.
I gave the two tunnel liners a spray with some black rattle-can paint I had on hand. Didn't go for a solid finish, but left some variation.
Tunnel in place! I have not secured everything just yet, but the scene is ready for some basic terrain. I still need to paint and weather the portals themselves and there are some gaps to fill on the lining, but otherwise this afternoon project turned out much better than I imagined and will be a technique I return to for the other 9-10 tunnels on the line.
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