HO scale yard remodel Part 3 plus scenery work

The Cleveland yard on my HO scale layout is now complete, at least as far as the trackwork goes. I've put all the rolling stock back on and have been running operations to make sure everything works OK. So far, no issues.

Here are a few photos of the final result.

Looking toward the roundhouse, you can see the diamond that now accessed the fueling/sanding area. On the right are the caboose track and the car shop. The track now connects to what was a dead end track for the shortline to serve several of the industries in the flats. The concrete portion to the right is for the port, including the coal loading crane.

A blurry photo of the refueling area. The SD9 on the far track has just returned from exchanging freight with the CB&Q. The switcher in the foreground is currently sorting the new arrivals.

The new maintenance track near the roundhouse. Now I have someplace to put my crane. There are a flat and gondola, too, but I have them at the end of one of the yard tracks as all four of them made this track look too crowded.

The area in question is along the fence to the right. It stretches from the middle of the layout to almost the near corner and helps create a "layer" between the layout and the buildings to make the view appear more realistic. I need weeds and grass in front of the fence, but have to keep things low to make sure I don't snag grab irons and other details protruding from freight cars.

I used a grass mat cut into thin strips and glued to the layout with tacky craft glue. I filled in any gaps using pieces of ground foam clumps that I cut into thin strips to sit next to the grass or hide gaps under the fence.

Same area, now with grass strips.

The before picture. More of the fence, looking the other way.

Now we have some grass along the fence and a few more scrubby trees in the corner.

A section further down.

A close shot of what the grass looks like. It turned out really well. I also used some scenic material to add to the top of the wall and then did the same thing to the much bigger wall along the Chicago section (not pictured) to blend it into the scenery better.