More T-trak Progress

A project I've been procrastinating has been the tunnel on one of my end cap modules. As I've said, my idea for this layout is to focus mostly (but not exclusively) on contemporary passenger operations. I think the most interesting ones are still in the northeastern US and the Chicago area, and luckily, this is what the N manufacturers have mostly supported.

The main scene that's inspired me on one end cap module is the tunnel entry at 45th St on the Amtrak Empire Connection in Manhattan. Here's a photo I found on Google:

I started working on this scene in late 2016, but I've worked on it by fits and starts. I gradually built up a base area with scraps of white foam and then added Woodland Scenics pre-colored rocks, that I think worked out well for the scene. I found the building at a swap meet.

I gradually filled in more areas with Sculptamold that I tinted with craft paint:

Naturally, the prototype scene is on straight track, but this being a compact N scale layout, I had to put things on a curve. The good thing, though, is that the cut and tunnel will help conceal the sharpness of the curve.

But I kept wondering what I was going to do with the portal. The style seems to be unique to the Empire Connection, and there's nothing like it commercially available. And the concrete parts seem simple enough, but there's that odd corrugated barrier or whatever it is above the entry, and it's hard to figure out exactly where the street level is in relation to the tunnel.

Eventually I decided that the height of the portal above the track is due to the fact that it's meant to have a sound mitigating effect for the neighborhood, and the walls protrude some distance above the street.

I tried a new technique I've begun to use on this layout, mocking up building projects with paper. Here's a closeup of the tunnel without any portal:

Now with a paper template measured to fit in place:

This made it very easy to cut a version from styrene:

I had some corrugated styrene sheet on hand that was out of scale for pretty much anything, but it was more or less close for the peculiar corrugated structure above the concrete wall in the prototype photo. I made up a version of this, painted it silver, and cemented it to the painted styrene concrete portal:

The next question is what to do with the other portal on this tunnel. Here is the opening:

I'm drawn to the tunnels in my old stomping grounds, Washington, DC. I'm focusing on the old Virginia Avenue tunnel, which led the freight bypass around Union Station under Southeast Washington. It has recently been completely rebuilt and double tracked by CSX, but I'm going to follow the old version of the portal:

I think I found a good commercial product, the "Pennsy" Double Stone Portal from Scenic Express.

This should arrive in a few days. Then I can finalize the scenery around both portals and start dirting in and vegetation.