Monero

Monero is a small town in northern New Mexico, on US 64 and on the former D&RGW line, between Chama NM and Durango CO. The town had a modest depot and a small trackside coal bin for truck delivery from a nearby mine. On my layout, the space was quite limited, so there’s just a spur and a coal bin, but it serves as a local source of locomotive coal for my layout’s switching operations.

This is how Monero looked in 2018 – just a spur with a gon. No finished scenery and an unfinished backdrop behind the scene.	In May 2019, I began by building the foam foundation for a road to connect the distant mine above, the coal dock, and the adjacent town on Toltec (out of view to the left). The scene here is quite vertical, making a realistic grade on the road a challenge. The first attempt (one switchback) was changed to two switchbacks, which eliminated space for even a small depot.	The switchback road had been covered with a scenery base of paper towels soaked in Hydrocal plaster to create a hard shell. The track has been protected by masking tape.	After vacillating between timber cribbing and stone walls to support the road, I chose stone. Here I have installed one pre-cast section below the upper track, and have paper mock-ups for the other sections to help visualize the future scene.	Using the paper mock-ups, I trimmed the pre-cast plaster rock walls to size using a jeweler’s saw with a #1 fine blade. Using a gray rock wash, the sections were colored.
The cast rock walls were glued to the scenery base, then weathered with brown and black chalks (dirt and coal dust) and streaked with diluted black acrylic paint to simulate water drips and stains. A few last rock castings were added – see rubber mold to the left.	The scene at Monero is nearly complete. The gravel road has been added, along with grade crossings, timber cribbing, track ballast and vegetation. It’s time to finish painting the backdrop and add some trees.	The coal dock was a modified ore bin from a Silver City Mine kit by Muir Models. I added height to match the road, and a top for backing dump trucks onto the bin. The model was heavily weathered with black chalk.	An eastbound stock train rumbles across a combination steel girder-timber trestle bridge into Monero on its way to Chama, with K-27 453 at the point. The bridge was inspired by such a bridge in the vicinity of Monero NM.

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Monero

This is how Monero looked in 2018 – just a spur with a gon. No finished scenery and an unfinished backdrop behind the scene.

The switchback road had been covered with a scenery base of paper towels soaked in Hydrocal plaster to create a hard shell. The track has been protected by masking tape.

After vacillating between timber cribbing and stone walls to support the road, I chose stone. Here I have installed one pre-cast section below the upper track, and have paper mock-ups for the other sections to help visualize the future scene.

Using the paper mock-ups, I trimmed the pre-cast plaster rock walls to size using a jeweler’s saw with a #1 fine blade. Using a gray rock wash, the sections were colored.

The cast rock walls were glued to the scenery base, then weathered with brown and black chalks (dirt and coal dust) and streaked with diluted black acrylic paint to simulate water drips and stains. A few last rock castings were added – see rubber mold to the left.

The scene at Monero is nearly complete. The gravel road has been added, along with grade crossings, timber cribbing, track ballast and vegetation. It’s time to finish painting the backdrop and add some trees.

The coal dock was a modified ore bin from a Silver City Mine kit by Muir Models. I added height to match the road, and a top for backing dump trucks onto the bin. The model was heavily weathered with black chalk.

An eastbound stock train rumbles across a combination steel girder-timber trestle bridge into Monero on its way to Chama, with K-27 453 at the point. The bridge was inspired by such a bridge in the vicinity of Monero NM.