Jim, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm also going to revise the chutes to something like you did that's both more prototypically correct and will drop coal over the center of the tender instead of 6 scale feet to the outside. I also have to add concrete feet (again like you did). This will raise the building a bit higher which would be a good thing. I built this model in 1997 in a furnished rental apartment in Cincy, while working on a SAP project with Henkel. I bought it from Golf Manor Hobbies which is no longer in business. I also bought the Tudlow's Confectionary Steam Era Structures kit. I didn't have a running railroad until 2000 while in Germany, but had no landscaping on it. It wasn't until now that I'm actually reaching a point to start adding the buildings and structures that make model trains really interesting, (IMHO).
Today, I finished all the ballasting (hooray!) with the completion of all the yard ballast. I still have to do ground cover for this huge area (among other huge areas), but this was a major step. When it's nice and dry, I'll go back and check for loose areas, and after drying again, re-air brush rust on the rails and shoot some weathered black down the centers of all the tracks.
It took about 125 lbs of "white" roofing granules for the whole layout, plus an additional of 2 jugs of W-S black Coarse Cinders, 2 Jugs of Dark Brown and anything else I could find.
Now I have a decision to make... I have several directions I need to move, but not at once. There are two river valleys and three bridges to build. There's a nice sized mountain that will consume 4 tunnel portals, and then there's about 8 square feet of elevated portion over the return loop circle that will be the base for the town. Each of these areas represents a significant amount of work. Then there's the general contouring of land and ground cover as a result of using "cookie cutter" construction that leaves some open areas around track.
Like everything else on this large layout, everything is costing $$$. I'm thinking about building a master and making my own portals since 8 of them will cost about $160, an I still would have a mountain to build.
I already had the Plastruct bridge kits so I think that should be next. I was hoping to buy a NWSL rivet press setup, but I don't think that's going to happen soon.
