CrippleBush Rubber Rocks For The Backdrop Behind the 24 Stall Roundhouse and 130' Turntable

Cripplebush Rubber Rocks For The Backdrop Behind the 24 Stall Roundhouse and 130' Turntable

For a number of months, I had a difficult time deciding what backdrop to use behind the 24 stall Roundhouse and 130' turntable in the turnaround area on the Switching Yard side of the "new" JJJ&E. I then decided to use Cripplebush Rubber Rocks for the backdrop area. This part of the turnaround area is 50"x50", so I needed a large section of Rubber Rocks for this backdrop.

The first thing I did was to paint two pieces of foam the blue sky color I used on the rest of the layout. I then took a hot glue gun and hot glued the two foam pieces to the bench work. I had to gently bend the foam to fit the curvature of the bench work n the turnaround area. When this was completed, I had a nice backdrop behind the 24 stall Roundhouse and 130' turntable. I then painted the back of the foam, with the same glossy black color that I used to paint the back drop.

I then went to the Cripplebush website and decided on a rock mold for the backdrop. We must first understand what a Rubber Rock mold is.

From the Cripplebush website:

"Lets start with what they are not. Rubber Rocks are not molds. They are textured, natural rubber castings that are ready to paint and install. The castings are stiff enough so they require minimal support, but flexible enough to bend around curves. Because the castings are flexible, the details bounce back when touched and don't break. A fine level of detail is reproduced that cannot be produced in plaster or other commonly used brittle materials. Sizes range from 3x5 inches to 36x14 inches. Rubber Rocks can easily be trimmed with heavy scissors to fit any required space. Anything trimmed off can generally be used elsewhere on the layout. so there's little or no waste."

This is the ideal product I wanted to use for this part of the layout. I didn't want to spend the time making individual rock castings with plaster/hydrocal, as this technique is messy to say the least, and I would need an enormous supply of individual rock castings to fill the backdrop behind the Roundhouse. The weight of the plaster castings would be too much for the foam backdrop that I just created.

With this in mind I had to find Rubber Rocks approximately 50 inches long and about 12 inches high. I would probably have to buy two pieces of Rubber Rocks to fit this space and join them together with hot glue. I also had to consider how much room I had from the edge of the foam backdrop  to the edge of the track in the turnaround area. The Rubber Rocks couldn't protrude too much from the backdrop. I decided to use the Rounded Bed Rubber Rocks. This piece of rock measures 32"x8" and doesn't protrude too much from the backdrop. I needed two pieces of the Rounded Bed Rubber Rocks to fit the curved area behind the turntable.

This piece of Rounded Bed Rubber Rock resembles the red sand-stones of the desert southwest. Since the "new" JJJ&E is a layout in the western United States, This was ideal for the layout backdrop. I ordered two pieces of the Rounded Bed Rubber Rock and then pieced them together to fit the curved area behind the Roundhouse, I then took a hot glue gun and hot glued the Rounded Bed Rubber Rock to the painted foam backdrop. The backdrop of the Rounded Bed Rubber Rocks looked fantastic. I now spent several months painting the Rubber Rocks with Earth tone colors to get the effect I wanted to create for this part of the layout. When I was satisfied with the final effect of the coloring of the rock formations, I started to apply foliage  to the rock formations which took several months as I wanted to create the right effect for this back drop.

Below are photo's of the finished backdrop.