009 Mammoth Cave RR - Layer Cake with Pink Frosting

I snuck down to the basement for about 30 minutes in hopes of getting some quiet time.  Its Sunday, which means the wife likes to yell at the kids all evening.  Its kind of a hobby.  Even the dog is noticeably missing.

We need to start building terrain.  We're going to use the layer cake method where we put on layers of foam to get the desired effect.  The second layer is significantly higher, so we'll use 2" foam.

Using some white paperboard, I'll make a tracing template for the next foam cut.

I lay out the paperboard on the layout and tape it to the side to keep it from rolling up.  A sheetrock square helps me to cut a straight edge with a knife.

After laying the track circle down on the paper and tracing it with a brown marker (for track) I then cut out the canyon part.

I tape the template down to the canyon and to all the sides to keep it from moving.

Using a red Sharpie (why didn't you guys tell me I had been spelling it wrong for years!) I marked all the cut lines for the foam.  I always cut the foam a little big, then trim it to size later with a smaller hot wire cutter or a rasp.

Be sure to mark the "keeper" pieces and the trash pieces.

Once the template is cut, I transfer the cut lines to the foam stock with a red Sharpie.  I'll go back and touch up the lines that were interrupted with the tape.

I cut out the foam layer with the heavy duty hot cutter.   Here is what it looks like.  Notice it is very close to the track line.  Later we'll trim it down and round it off.

The canyon is getting deeper.  A quick hit with a heat gun will smooth this out.

As you can see the top of the locomotive is higher than the foam.  All good until we hit the tunnel!

Later I'll add another stack of foam.   Its quiet upstairs.  Time to sneak by them and get a sandwich.