From the "Getting There" department

Tonight I closed the gap behind Emsingen in the backdrop painting, and test-placed a few trees to see if my idea of letting tracks disappear into the scenery is going to work. I think it will. Makes me happy.
I re-confirmed that I need to be in the right mood to paint, and waiting for that mood to appear is better than forcing it for the sake of making progress.

Update August 28th, 2014:
I finished wiring up the service facility and connecting it to the rest of the layout. All tracks have power. The three-way turnout works as designed with single button control and Logix in JMRI. I spent some time laying out the footprint for the coaling station. I will draw parts from a Faller kit to build the coaling crane, but the coal bunker will likely be scratchbuilt.