When I started, I hadn’t actually planned a backscene, or a cover. Due to the long gaps in working on the layout, I had covered it with an old bed sheet, and when I started working on it more recently, I had started to make a crude structure to support the bed sheet so it wouldn’t damage the scenery.

I ended up with a rough timber frame around the back and sides, with the bedsheet over the top and bits of bed sheet to the sides. The bed sheet had battens stapled to it which kept it taught over the body of the layout. But then I thought it did need a backscene.

So, I removed the existing structure, and added a new one, with a plywood facing this time.

I made several schoolboy errors installing the backscene though. First, the photographic backscene wasn’t long enough for the whole length. Second, in installing it I mis-measured where I’d need to cut it in the corners, and it ended up a right mess.

I was going to just start again, but encouraging words from the N gauge group on Facebook persuaded me to stick with it. I ordered a second copy of the Snowdonia backscene and spliced in bits of the same scene to the left and right to fill in the gaps. I also added foliage over the bits I’d messed up in the corners. The result, I’m pretty happy with.