Unexpected bonus

The remnants of the foam layer of the layer makes a relatively small pile.

As I was taking the foam pieces to the trash, I noticed that I could pop some of the track sections intact from the foam scenery. I used 1/8 inch plywood sub roadbed glued to the foam.

I was able to salvage three turnouts from McCooks, a double crossover and a single turnout. Since I only need 9 more turnouts to finish my home layout, these will come in handy.

Three turnouts salvaged from McCook's Landing.

I came in like a wrecking ball....

There is a perverse pleasure in taking a wrecking bar to your layout.

Good thing I'm not a surgeon, look what I found under the foam layer!

A nasty snowstorm followed by icy rain was a good reason to stay home this afternoon. As I was doing some chores, I noticed one of the switch stands on McCook's Landing had a broken solder joint.  Instead of fixing it, I reached for my wrecking bar!

Catalyzed by the broken part, I started the recycling process for McCook's Landing. Several months ago I had decided to recycle its benchwork into a different layout. While I don't have my new design figured out yet, I went ahead with demolition.



Having thought about this for quite some time, it was very satisfying to actually being the work. Yes, I did feel a little like Sherman as he left Atlanta.

Please note that I am NOT dismantling my home layout, The USMRR AQUIA LINE, only the portable display layout called McCook's Landing. 

The shipyard got scrapped.

I did save as much as possible, so Haupt will not be upset.  As I removed the details, switch stands and most of the structures, I went around my home layout and looked for places where they might work. I think I can use just about all the structures. The figures will also come in handy. I did not bother saving any track. The turntable pit was solidly glued in and could not be removed. Unfortunately, the ship yard with the marine ways can not be used on my home layout. I was able to save the major assemblies, but the ship yard got scrapped.

I also removed the lighting valance. Since this will not be an exhibition layout, the valance wasn't needed. It also interfered with many good photo angles. So I took it down. But the LEDs were a big success and I would consider using them again.

I intend to raise the revised layout about 6 inches. This means the legs will be folded up, or maybe even removed.  I have not decided what to do about the backdrop. It took some damage during the demolition process. Instead of fixing the damaged spots, it  might be easier to  replace it with two 8 foot sections.

Some things I noted during demolition. It took longer them I expected as I plan to reuse the benchwork. So I had to remove glue globs, etc. The Liquid nails glue pulled up fairly easily. Carpenter's yellow glue was much harder to remove. By the most difficult stuff to remove was the polyurethane water surface, especially where there was sand at the shoreline.

I started mocking up potential next layouts. This is an HO mock up using some of my military vehicles. I am not sure what the final layout will be yet. 

McCook's Landing on Trainmasters.TV

Trainmasters.TV has posted the video they shot of McCook's Landing at the Atlanta NMRA show as part of  one of their free sample videos. Click on this link and go to the 18 minute mark to see some nice professional video of the McCook's Landing layout.  If you like it, I am sure they would appreciate if you sign up.

Miles Hale (l)  interviews me (r)  about the layout

Quintessential UK Exhibition Layout

Work has been progressing steadily on the book. I am very pleased with how it is coming along. Hopefully work on the Aquia line can restart next month.

In the meantime, check out this video of a very elaborate UK exhibition layout. One thing I find interesting is how much infrastructure this layout entails. It is quite a job to move it to a show.
I also wonder much much simpler the electronics would have been with DCC.

McCooks Landing at the MER Regional Convention

Gerry and I displayed the McCook's Landing layout at the NMRA MER 2013 Regional Convention. This year they called it the C&P Junction.

Wayne and his Dad at McCook's Landing

It was a great show. We had lots of folks see the layout and nearly everyone seemed to enjoy it. Our biggest fan was probably Wayne Matthews from Fredrick, MD. He was a second grader who spent a good part of Saturday along with his dad, Herbert "Matt" Matthews, watching the trains run on McCook's Landing. Wayne's favorite prototype railroad is the narrow gauge loop at Busch Gardens. But at the show he liked McCook's Landing the best.

He wasn't the only one that liked the layout. The NMRA Judges awarded the Biscuit Run Section the First Place Module Award (due to the somewhat arcane NMRA contest rules, Gerry was only permitted to enter one section, Biscuit Run, in the contest. We could not submit the whole layout for voting).

Nonetheless, the layout did receive the Blue Lantern Award. Martin Brechbiel, the MER NMRA contest coordinator told me it was the first time the Blue Lantern was awarded to a layout. In case you are like me and never heard of the

Is this the Blue Lantern?

Blue Lantern Award here is the official description, "The Blue Lantern is privately sponsored and chosen by long time MER modeler Terry Nesbit and his Narrow Gauge Car Shop. The Blue Lantern is given to a model best representing branch or private line equipment or facilities, which contain no more than forty (40) percent commercial parts. The prize—a genuine railroad lantern—is presented to the winner by Mr. Nesbit." Gerry took the lantern home to display.

We did not host any formal op sessions at the show. We just ran the trains in display mode. We got about 4 hours service out of the battery on Whiton. The Fury did not take a full charge and only lasted a few minutes. I need to look into why that happened as it ran fine at home.

 I presented two talks at the meet,  "Intro to RRs of the Civil War" and a layout update on the USMRR Aquia Line, McCooks  Landing and a sneak peek at the WWI layout, "Cambrai 1917."

One of the things I really enjoyed at the show was meeting lots of other modelers. I heard a lot of interesting stories from folks. We in the DC area are blessed with an amazing array of talented and smart people that do great work. It was fun to learn some of their stories.

Neil at the throttle

On Sunday we had an informal open house. Gerry Fitzgerald, Doug Gurin, Paul Dolkos, Bernie Halloran, and Neil Besougloff stopped by for a lengthy visit. Both Bernie and Neil were first time visitors. I put Bernie, Gerry and Doug to work. Gerry made duckboards, Bernie glued down grass clumps and Doug made fascines for the tanks. This was all for the WWI layout.

I love seeing other Bernie's, as the name is kind of rare these days.  I rarely get to say, "Hi, Bernie." I hadn't seen Bernie H since Granddad's hobby shop closed about 6 years ago. It was fun to catch up.

Ramon and barb

Neil is the editor of Model Railroader Magazine. He got a chance to run the layout. Neil likes sports cars so we talked cars as well as trains, rapid prototyping and other topics.

Alicia made brownies and everyone got their share, plus some to take home.

Charlie Getz and his wife Margaret

Last weekend Ramon Rhodes and his wife Barbara visited the layout. Ramon lives in DC area, though he and Barb are both from NY. We had a fun visit. They both a chance to run some trains. Ramon specializes in modern prototype railroads, but he is also known to dabble in 1/35th military models. Barb would like to build a garden railroad at some point.

On Monday Charlie Getz and his wife Margaret visited the USMRR Aquia Line. Charlie is the current President of the NMRA. He models in HO. They were in town for the MER Convention and then are heading to an RPM meet.

A busy weekend

Latest Loco on the roster

This was a busy weekend.

On Friday  afternoon I picked up the latest locomotive from SMR Trains at the local FedEx Center. This was a custom painted model of the Osceola. It is an early 1840s Rodgers design. This is the first SMR locomotive I have purchased with the motor in the boiler. I am curious to test it out. but since I don't have any analog power packs, it will have to wait until I get the battery system installed.

View from the deck at the MARPM

After picking up the loco I immediately headed to Stafford County for the Mid Atlantic Railroad Prototype Meet (MARPM). This was the first ever meeting of this group. They held it at the Hope Springs Marina in Stafford County with a great view of the RF&P Tracks.


I presented at talk on modeling the USMRR Aquia Line. It was fun, as the lecture hall (actually a boat storage warehouse) was about 2 miles from Aquia Landing and right next to the rr tracks. During my talk four trains went by.

It was great to see some old friends and make new ones. The meet was a success and they plan to have another one next year at a bigger venue as the demand seems to warrant it. Rob Hinkle showed me some old car cards. They would make good examples of cards to copy for my layout.

Example car card from Rob Hinkle's collection

On Saturday I went to the B&O Museum where I presented the same talk. The crowd was a little smaller than Friday night, but they really seemed to enjoy it. I made some new friends. Dan Toomey, my host, and I discussed a potential exhibit of the WWI layout next year.

It's always a treat to visit the B&O Museum

When I got home I unpacked the locos from the last trip. As I tested them, I noticed that Fury had been knocked out of tune. After some debugging I determined that the drivers were out of gauge (too tight) and the pilot truck was jammed and also shorting. The vestigial wiper on the front pilot truck was touching one of the pilot truck axles and was shorting. Vibration must have jammed the pilot truck suspension spring and knocked the wiper into the wrong position to short.

After some tune up on the workbench she seems to be running smoothly again. But this does not bode well for continued road trips. These locos are relatively delicate beasts. Taking them to shows with the attendant vibration, temperature differentials and rough handling is not good for them. This may mean that the McCook's Landing road show may have a much abbreviated exhibit schedule than planned.

While these are wonderful, beautiful models, these locos really could use a better pilot truck and draw bar designs. The draw bar is a particularly troublesome item if the loco has to be frequently lifted off the track. The insulated sleeve comes loose after repeated handling causing shorts. The draw bar could be made of a non-conduction material to reduce this point of failure. Furthermore, I think they would do better with a more permanent screw-on draw bars like the ones Hans Starmanns made for my old N scale steamers. If the tenders were permanently attached, the wiring from tender to engine could be done with thin hard-wires and no plugs. The plugs are another point of failure and problems. They are bulky and sometimes drag and catch on track work.

The pilot truck design cause shorts, has a tendency to stick and really doesn't contribute to the tracking of the loco. A long term goal for me is to redo the pilot trucks with an equalized suspension and made with insulated materials.  I am satisfied with their operation, but their always is room for improvement.

Om Saturday night, I experimented with an animated gif version of the night fire photo. That is a hell of a barrage! The animated portions get a little pixelated in this type of animation.

On Sunday Craig Bisgeier, Dave Ramos, Jim Lincoln, Ted Dilorio, and Amy stopped by to visit the layout, run some trains and have lunch. Jim scrounged through my N scale collection looking for cars he could use on his new N Scale layout. He found a few at a good price too.

Later Dave Emery stopped by to drop off some tip cars for the WWI layout that he had painted. They were 3D prints from Tom Bell on Shapeways.

Definitely a busy weekend.

McCook's Landing in Charlottesville

I hauled my portion of McCook's Landing to Charlottesville, VA for a layout open house.

We set up the layout in Gerry and Gabriela's home for  a one day open house for the NMRA James River Division. About 22 people stopped by to see the layout and sample some of the treats that Gabriela prepared. Most visitors had a chance to run the layout informally. We did not have official operation sessions.

Ken Monetro, Phillip Taylor and Rick Lull from the JRD NMRA helped during the event with greeter, photo and take down duties.   All in all it was a fun day.

Me, Gerry, Gabriela, Rick Lull, Phillip Taylor and Ken Montero pose after loading the truck for the return trip to Alexandria. The cookies were a take-home package for AW,

NMRA After Action Report and Lessons Learned

I have had some time to digest the events of the past week and offer the following thoughts.

Although we were a small group with  just 11 men (DC Cebula, Thom Radice, LeBron Matthews, Al Meuller, Dave Hoffman, Paul Dobbs, Joel Salmons, John Bazaitas, John Bopp, Gerry Fitzgerald, and I)  plus 4 wives/SOs, we had a great display.  (Matt Coleman spent a lot of time with us but he is not an ACW modeler. He is a great guy in spite of that. We have been acquainted for many years but this was the first time I met him.)

I really enjoyed participating with the ACWRRHS, as we have known each other for 5 years now and are becoming good friends. I spent most of the show in our SIG room. This was our first event where we participated as part of a larger NMRA event. I think we were successful in showing that the Civil War era is a viable subject to model in N, HO and O scale.  In some ways it was a perfect storm as we were in Atlanta with our ACW display during the 150th Anniversary of some of the biggest events in the war, and the NMRA offered a separate Civil War track of clinics and tours.

However, I am not sure we had too many converts. The NMRA as represented in these meets is an older crowd. Most have a significant investment in their current layouts or projects so it is not
unexpected that they would not be interested in converting. I saw only one person I would say was under twenty visit the room, and he was really enjoying the layout. I gave him a throttle so he could try some operation. Time will tell if we have any new interest in our subject based on this show.

Even if we did not recruit new members, it was nice being part of the NMRA convention. It presented the opportunity to distract us with clinics, contest room and layout tours. I didn't see too many clinics that appealed to me, but it was nice to have the option to sit in on one if desired. For example Jim Elster's marathon scenery clinic had some good tips. It was good to again see John Wilkes talk about his layout as his layout is built with aluminum channel and it as close to the Hadron Collider as a model railroad can come.  John Bopp and Dave Hoffman presented some excellent  talks to just the ACWRRHS. They were good enough that they could have been presented to the whole convention.

Dave Hoffman talked about some hand-built brass models he plans to offer for sale. He is looking for reservations and deposits. I made a brief video showing some of his pilot models running on a test track.  Dave lives in a rural area of Mississippi and does not have reliable internet access. So please contact Al Mueller at the ACWRRHS Yahoo Group if you are interested.

A Cabin in S Scale on Gerry Holmes Layout

I went to three layouts on the way home on Saturday and all were impressive. Phillip Stead has a large On3 model of the DRGW from Chama to Alamosa. Steve Austin has a finely crafted On30 freelanced railroad set in Appalachia. Finally I visited Gerry Holmes in Chattanooga to see his layout. Gerry is a client of mine and I have built several custom buildings for him.




With regard to the McCook's landing it operated very well with just a few problems.  We had six crews operate it. They took between 45 to 120 minutes to complete the switching tasks. I had put a prohibition on using the front coupler and that complicated their tasks somewhat.  It was gratifying to see that the link and pin couplers were accepted without complaint. They operators seemed to get into the challenge and actually enjoyed it.

I had a little glitch with the cassette tracks interface with Biscuit Run. I forgot to account for the 1/8th inch thickness of the sky board that created a gap in the rails.  I need to fix that before the next show. But it was amazing to watch the trains traverse a 1/8th inch gap in the rails. Ah, the advantages of O scale. Other than that the cassettes worked well. It was handy having a shelf to place stuff too. I also liked how the fiddle yard breaks down to a flat box and fits snugly in the transport truck.

The batteries on the locos held up pretty well. We learned that they could sustain about 3.5 hours of operation before conking out. That is entirely acceptable. The slow speed performance was excellent.

The layout suffered only minor damage. As one who has built many N Scale modules over the years, I know you have to expect some damage when you take portable layouts to shows. But in this case, the integral valance and lights helped protect the layout. Only a few figures vibrated loose during shipment. One figure lost its head, that was a surprising but minor issue.

I was personally gratified by the positive response of nearly everyone that visited the layout. Most were extremely complimentary. Several African American visitors expressed appreciation for our depiction of the USCT on the layout. I was able to connect with Robert West, a railroad artist. He is launching a series of Civil War related paintings and asked if he could consult with me on ideas.  That should be fun. Steve Benezra wants to do an article on ACW operation of the OPSIG journal.

The MRH folks had a chance to operate the layout. They posted detailed coverage on their blog. They even posted a picture of me, a rare thing as I am usually behind the camera. (When you see my picture you will know why).

McCook's Landing was also the subject of a video interview with the MRH Trainmasters-TV program. This video production looks like it has all the right ingredients to be a winner. I will be looking forward to it.

I attended the train show on Friday morning. It had the usual assortment of vendors and manufacturers. I didn't spend a lot of time there and didn't see anything so extraordinary that bears reporting. Just one observation, manufacturers are making some incredibly detailed models these days.

I usually come back from these shows charged up to build more layout. But I need to temper (curb?) my enthusiasm as I have some other projects I must complete first. I will focusing the next few months on my next book entitled "The Model Railroad Goes to War."  That will cover the ACW, WWI, WWII and modern eras.

As I was unloading the layout I noticed that the sun shine made for some interesting lighting. So I took a few shots. Here is an example.

I hope to start back on my home layout in December by finishing Aquia Landing. I eagerly anticipate that as I think it is going to be a lot of fun to build.  In the meantime, I'll be posting less frequently on this blog as construction on my ACW layouts will be slow. But I will come back big guns in December.

I'm baaack!

I'm back from the NMRA Convention safe and sound. I had a great time and will be posting a more detailed report later. We ran six "official" Op sessions. They went really well. My thanks to all that participated. All were very gracious. I didn't hear one complaint and I saw a lot of smiles.

Thanks also to my fellow ACWRRHS SIG members for their help in unloading, setting up and taking it down. Also, Paul Dobbs was very gracious as he provided security for the ACWRRHS Room for almost the whole convention.

I think the ACWRRHS SIG had the best display at the con. We were practically the only group to bring any trains.  Members of our group also gave a number of talks on the ACWRRing.  Of these, the talks I went to were well attended. I didn't get to too many clinics as I was tending to the road show.

(L to R) John Bopp, Rob Hinkle (Conductor) and John Bazzaitas ran the first op session.

(L to R) Stephen Brooks (Conductor), Andy Keeney and Sam Shepherd were the second crew.

(L to R), Seth Neumann (Conductor), Chuck Place and Ken O'Brien took the third session. They were very efficient and finished in 45 minutes.

OPSIG Journal Editor Steve Benezra stopped by for a visit.

(L to R) Dave Foster (Conductor), Bruce Faulkner and Mike Tylik ran the afternoon session on Thursday.

The staff from Model Railroader Magazine and Kalmbach stopped in for a lengthy visit. (L to R) David Popp, Neil Besougloff, and Kevin Keefe.

Dave Hoffman did a clinic on his upcoming HO locomotive products 

(L to R)  JF, Les Halmos, Joe Fugate (Conductor) and Patty Fugate ran the Thursday evening session. Patty was our only female operator.

Joel Salmons poses by his N Scale civil war display layout.

DC Cebula set up an impressive collection of prototype hardware and paper work.

Paul Dobbs manned the slide show and information desk.

The HO engine gurus ran a nearly continuous clinic on Mantua General 4-4-0 rebuilding

Atlanta or Bust!

The truck is loaded, the trains are packed, everything is ready to roll. On to Atlanta!

Fury passes a battery of USCT training in artillery. The gun is an Alkem Scale Models kit. The figures
are 40mm from various suppliers.

It fits, just barely.  The passenger seat will have miscellaneous cargo.

Fury will be making its debut as a fully operational battery powered loco.

Stanton BPS and battery sit on top of the motor in the tender. 

A styrene cover for the wood pile

Sign-Up Sheet for Op Sessions at the NMRA Meet

We plan to hold a limited number of operating sessions on McCook's Landing at the NMRA meeting.  We plan to offer three sessions a day starting on Tuesday and going through Friday morning. However, we will not have any sessions planned for Wednesday as we will be attending layout tours.

If you wish to participate in a session, please sign up by either sending me an email or commenting to this message below. I will manually update the sign up sheet on this blog post as folks reply. This will serve as the advance sign up sheet. We may have some additional impromptu sessions during the interstitial times if there is interest and time.

Each session can take up to three operators: Conductor, engineer and brakeman. A session will take about 45 -60 minutes including some training on the paperwork, throttle and couplers. The conductor will deal with some authentic paper work from the 1860s. The engineer will operate a radio throttle connnected to a battery powered loco. The brakeman will operate link and pin couplers and scale sized switch stands controlling stub turnouts.

Tuesday  10 AM Conductor  Rob Hinkle     Engineer John Bopp    Brakeman  John Brazaitis

Tuesday 2 PM     Conductor___________   Engineer___________ Brakeman_________

Tuesday 8 PM     Conductor___________   Engineer___________ Brakeman_________

Thursday 10 AM Conductor  S. Neumann   Engineer  Bill Welch      Brakeman_________

Thursday 2 PM    Conductor___________   Engineer Thom Radice  Brakeman_________

Thursday 8 PM    Conductor___________   Engineer___________ Brakeman_________

Friday 10 AM      Conductor___________   Engineer___________ Brakeman_________

The Sound of Fury

"I wish Bernie would install that wood pile. This BPS is no fun to sit on."

T minus seven and counting....

The do list is shrinking, though not as fast as I hoped due to the cassette staging and battery-decoder installs taking much longer than expected.

I made a new cassette from half-inch poplar. While the wood looks nicer than the previous cassette, it was a bear to spike into, even considering I was using flex track and track nails.  After building a 4 foot long cassette and testing it a few times, I decided to modify it. As I removed the long and ungainly cassette, I kept having visions of the whole thing dropping from my hands and hitting the floor.

The smaller cassette is for turning the engine.

The long cassette need not turn each run.
Note the thumb screw
for end of cassette security,.

So I put the cassette on my chop saw and cut it in two, but not after I did a test to make sure my chop saw would cut the flex track cleanly. It did cut cleanly and crisply.

Speaking of using big tools, I was also using a 20 ounce hammer and nail set to drive the track nails through the flex track and into pre-drilled holes in the poplar. You  got to love a scale where a 20 ounce hammer and a 12 inch chop saw can be used to lay track.

The new cassette works well - the cassettes can be repositioned without taking them from the staging table. We just need access from the back to work it. In my basement, I removed the front panel and accessed the cassettes from the front.

I added a rider and couplers to Dave Emery's box car. It is ready for service.

I did a bunch of little detailing projects before tackling the battery and decoder install in the next loco. This was the former W&ARR Texas. It is now the USMRR Fury. I originally was going to name it Leach, but after all the trouble I had with the install, Fury seemed like a much more appropriate name.


I believe the problems arose when I created a short circuit in the two track power feeders under the boiler tube. For some crazy reason the builders of these locos change the color code of the wires from the rails between the tender and the engine. I knew this, but I forgot that there was a wiring harness in the engine that feeds the headlight, AND ALSO takes power off one wheel on the pilot truck that has a wiper (presumably to help the loco pick up track power).  Temporarily forgetting the color code swap,  I assumed it all supplied one side of the rail but in truth that harness supplied both.

So by hooking pilot truck wire to the black wire that is connected to the frame in the engine I  created a short. Since I was just using a regular power supply with no short circuit detection, the loco just sat there when I put it on powered recharge track  and gave no indication of a short, even  the decoder was playing sound. But the rails were heating up at the alligator clip where I connected track power. I even got a second degree burn on  my thumb when I removed the alligator clips, I guess that was the highest resistance spot.

Anyway I sorted that out. I fixed the black wire from the pilot (actually removed it as it is no longer needed)  and redid the harness. No more short.

Then I did some tests that Derrell Poole at NWSL suggested (great customer service -  He answered my emails over the 4th of July weekend!). The BPS was not putting out 12V. The most I saw was 1.04V after 2 hours of charging.

I connected 10V DC to the decoder voltage inputs and was able to get it to play sound, but no output to the motor.

Using my existing plugs and  harnesses I put 12V to the motor with the decoder unhooked. The motor worked. So I knew my harness to the motor was OK.

The battery read 3.9V.

So I reasoned that I fried both decoder and the BPS. Oh well. I guess I'll be ordering some new BPS and decoders soon.

I removed both inoperative parts and redid the installation with a second BPS and decoder that I had on hand.  Fortunately, it works fine.   It picks up track power and turns on and off like it should. The decoder functions normally.  I used a Tsunami 23mm super mega bass speaker and it sounds good. I had to scratch build a square styrene speaker enclosure for it the would fit in the fire box/boiler. There was no room in the boiler for the decoder, so it is riding below the firebox. I painted the yellow heat-shrink black to make it less obvious. It actually doesn't look bad as it resembles the firebox in that location.

Once Fury was running I adjusted several CVs so it starts and stops smoothly and has good sound.  I replaced the burned out headlight with a yellow LED. I removed the lettering on the tender and repainted the letters using laser cut stencils. I replaced the name plate with a new laser cut one. I still need to add the wood pile and a coupler on the back. This engine never came with a rear coupler. Then I will weather it a bit to show a engine in heavy service.

Finally, we will have a back-up loco for use in Atlanta now that Fury is raging.

Finished the backdrop - 500th Post

I finished the backdrop for McCook's Landing just in time for the 500th post to the blog.  McCook's is almost done. There are just a few detailing and infrastructure tasks left.

I was very pleased with how the photo extension of D.S. Barmore worked out. AW says that it is now her favorite building as she really likes how I used photos to extend the left wing and add depth to the interior.

Overview of the left side of McCook's Landing. All the backdrops are done including the alleys between the buildings.

I used a photo of the model ship yard and saw mill to add a wing on the left side. I was amazed at how
convincing the computer printed image was at depicting the rest of the building.

I am now thinking the engine shed should have a roof.
I actually built two water tanks as the first one was a little too big for the spot. I saved it for use on Aquia Landing.

The photo flat is visible behind the engine shed. The photo had to be slit to accommodate the gap in the sky board
 between the layout sections. Two couplers awaiting installation can be seen on the flat car.

I painted the backdrop behind the engine terminal to represent an open area. Then I  added a few of cutouts from
Brian Kammerer's camp scenes to embellish the area behind the engine shed.
The Silfor flowering grass blend perfectly with the backdrop.