Scenery Work On The Malabar District

I've been working on detailing roads and grade crossings on the Malabar District. I decided to try Woodland Scenics Asphalt paint, which comes in a small squirt bottle like their other scenery colors. The instructions say it's supposed to be used over their Smooth It product, but it looks like you have to mix the Smooth It, and I had some spackle on hand that I think is much more convenient. The YouTube instructions with the Asphalt paint suggest aging the dark black color by sanding it with fine sandpaper, which I tried, and it worked pretty well.

I finished one grade crossing:

I'm working on a second grade crossing and scenery area at the other end of the Malabar segment.

The second shot shows the road after it's been aged with fine sandpaper. I won't add crossbucks at the grade crossing until everything else is done, to avoid damaging them.

Below is the Walthers tank car loading facility on the Paper Box segment.

The inspiration for this part of my layout has always been the San Joaquin Valley railway, and the Walthers facility can only be a small reminder of the sort of tank car industries along the SJVR:

The end loading ramp visible in the photo of the Walthers tank car loader was also inspired by a location on the SJVR: