Hill Valley - Time era early 1930's - 1950's
Nestled in the Monkee Mountains of Missouri




Click on any thumbnail for enlarged photo



HILL VALLEY
The first photo is an old one that I found of Hill Valley in it's beginning stage. Other 2 photos show as it looks in July 2003. What a difference a little scenery makes



July 2003, I added a swimming hole
The water is Envirotex, colored with powdered real earth and Woodland Scenics green turf
The Preiser figures and Jordan vehicle were also added to represent an old swimming hole



JULY 2003
After putting it off for many years, I am finally finishing the area behind & below the pond area. Tunnel walls were constructed from Northeastern wood sheeting after the dirt road was laid
Woodland Scenic plaster cloth finished out the 2 auto tunnels. The dirt road is real dirt
The guard rails were made using 1/8" wood dowels, 10" scale wood strips. The dowels were painted white with red tops.

The track on far right side of the tunnel leads to Squaw Creek area, it splits into a dual lane and travels beneath the lumber company exiting just before crossing Squaw Creek
The Squaw Creek section shows this track exiting the mountain and crossing the creek over a Walthers Double Track Truss bridge



This is my granddaughter, Kayla Marie who was visiting for the Holidays several years ago. She loves to give Grandpa Rick a helping hand build the back side of Hill Valley. At the time, she was small enough to get up on the table and plaster & paint where Grandpa Rick couldn't reach. She is shown busy working on Hill Valley and the future Devil's Backbone mountainside
Kayla also loves to run the choo choo!




MARCH 2004
It has now been several years since the above photos were taken. The 3 photos below show Kayla Marie now at age 12 helping Grandpa scenic the Squaw Creek area. Kayla has gotten taller and Grandpa has gotten grayer



BLACK SNAKE CREEK
Black Snake Creek Canyon lies between Possum Hollow and Hill Valley. The creek was made using Envirotex. The canyon walls and creek bed were formed using Woodland Scenics Plaster Cloth, followed 2 coats of thinned plaster painted on. All plaster was painted with earth colored latex paint, then real dirt, grasses, turf, weeds, etc were all then glued in place. The Envirotex was then poured in at one end, allowing it to flow to the far end which is about 8 feet away. After several batches were poured in, the Envirotex finally reached the falls beneath the twin bridges and created the end reservoir where fishermen fish
The creek is a dirty, murky creek that swimmers enjoy occassionally. A small gold vein can be found at the north end where Prospector Sam is panning in the creekbed. All bridges are scratch built of scale Northeastern or Kappler scale wood with the exception of the automobile bridge which is kit bashed plastic IHC train bridge, Rix concrete railings with scale wood boarding on the top side. Most of the wood bridges are superdetailed with Grandt Line nuts & bolts.



This section shows various bridges and roads that access Hill Valley from the East & West. The 3 span HOn3 Pratt Truss bridge that approach the area was scratch built using Central Valley girder sets. The HOn3 narrow gauge railroad services the local coal mine, which is a Campbell kit. The coal loader was scratch built referring to photos of a Fine Scale Miniatures kit. The Pratt Truss bridges lead to Sugar Town which is still in the planning stage at this time



NEW ADDITION: Fine Scale Miniature's George Bailey's Produce Structure
The other 2 structures are scratch built using scale wood & clapboard
The red one was inspired by FSM that I saw in George's book. I tried 3 different colors and red suited it best



DEVILS BACKBONE MOUNTAIN RANGE
Devil's Backbone Mountain Range lies just west of Hill Valley. It is 12 foot long mountain stretch that lies between Hill Valley and Sugar Town. A vehicle tunnel located at Sugar Town can be seen in the last photo. Sugar Town is still in construction stage. The HOn3 2-8-0 coming out of the tunnel is a Roundhouse kit.



Below is a scratch built Devils's Backbone Freight Depot
I had purchased a FSM kit on Ebay and numerous pieces were missing, so I scratch built my own and put the kit back on the shelf



HILL VALLEY MAIN STREET
This is Hill Valley's Main Street. Hill Valley is a poor midwest town that still copes with dirt streets. The saw mill, hotel, 2 downtown stores and the house are plastic kits while all of the others are scratch built from either wood or plaster. The big power plant just outside of town is a Walthers Northern Light and Power plastic structure. The Walthers Substation base was cut in half due to a limited space available. The cute trailer house is a resin kit



HILL VALLEY 2ND STREET
This is 2nd Street - On your way out of Hill Valley
We have all the wildlife most communities have: hobos, skunks, pigeons, red birds, lioness. rats and dogs which are all viewable in the photos below - not viewable, bears, chickens and deer.



RAY'S TEXACO GAS STATION
A scratch built structure which I made from looking at photos in George Sellios' Franklin & South Manchester book



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