Today texture was added to the mountain, by painting on fiber impregnated, fast drying self leveling floor compound. Whilst drying i used a butter knife to score lines to try and approximate a slate face. Once dry it will be painted/stained/dry brushed to get closer to slate colours. Whilst doing it I couldn't help thinking of the classic scene in Close Encounters !!!

Of course even before fully dry I couldn't help giving it a spin (literally) with no worries about track conductivity, i forgot to fully clean the rails, so there were a couple of twitches of the loco as it passed bits of stray grit. The track laying is smooth honest..

So the moment of truth the idea in action... Link to video here ->  Record layout in action