Track Laying Begins

My afore-promised late-December posting never materialized, mainly due to the holidays, a modeling side project in HO scale (chain link fence) and the arrival of a new child in our family.   However, I did make some progress lately on laying down rail on the test track that I'll share here now.

 I'm happy with the results thus far...The tie plates make a huge difference and the spike heads are not obtrusive.  A few comments on each of those:

After testing both tie plates, the first from Jim Lincoln's Shapeways offerings and those from Monster Model Works, I found that I prefer the ones from MMW.  The Shapeways ones look fine but are made from a brittle plastic that broke a few times while I was inserting it under some already spiked rail.

Speaking of spiking, I'm trying out the scale spikes from Proto:87 stores.  Now, you're probably confused since this is a Proto:48 project, but they offer some longer and slightly larger ones that work for this scale too.  For the first go-round, I picked the 0.120" long spikes.   Let me tell you...They're tough to get off the frets and into pliers.   The big disappointment here was they're too short to work well with the MicroMark spiking pliers (although the flat part below the groove on these pliers does work reasonably well for holding the spikes).  I just recently ordered some of the 0.180" long ones, so hopefully they'll be easier to drive.  Regardless, at four spikes per tie, handlaying track this way is going to take a long time...


Joint bars (L-shaped, as observed on the prototype) were ordered from Bill Brillinger's Precision Design Company and I expect them here soon, so that'll be the next update along with finishing touches for weathering.

Color Is Everything

Finally got around to trying different approaches for coloring the ties.  I was going to post this almost two weeks ago when the painting was done, but decided that for a proper evaluation I also needed the contrast of the ballast.

The first three pictures are the ones I felt gave the best results:
First, Rustall #2 solution as suggested by Mike Cougill in his book,  Detailing Track
Second and third are a random combinations of Umber and Gray PanPastels plus a drop or two of India Ink turned into a wash with 91% ISO.  The darker ones are heaver on the gray PanPastel or India Ink and represent more recently replaced ties

For full disclosure, here are a few other options I tried:
First up is a spray paint approach using a Testor's Graphite Dust -- It ends up being too metallic looking
Next are some paint-pen trials, but despite being labeled brown, have far too much red in them

I think I'll stick with using the Rustall #2 as a base and then come in with some of the washes and randomly distribute a few darker ones to show some age variation.

I am pleased that the wood-grain distressing shows up nicely with this weathering method.

The ballast is an approximate 2/3, 1/6, 1/6 mix of medium, fine, and coarse sizes of Woodland Scenics Light Gray ballast.  Prototype photos below show varying sizes of rock, so I think mixing them while favoring the medium size provides that look.  If anything, I probably should up the contribution of the "fine" size.  In the future I might try some real rock products from, say, Arizona Rock and Mineral.

Look for a post later in December, hopefully with tie plates (from Jim Lincoln and Monster Model Works), rail and joint bars (still need to order those from Bill Brillinger's Precision Design Company!

Ties

The test track build continues.   This installment is a short one; just a couple pictures of the ties glued down.
I used standard yellow wood glue to attach the ties to the homasote.  Two ties were initially out of alignment and replaced, so that provided a nice contrast that highlights the distressing.

The ties were distressed first by dragging a fine-tooth hooby saw perpendicular to the ties to create a grain, further sliced up with the sharp end of a tiny screwdriver and finished with a hopefully random distribution of knife slices along the tie edges to smooth any perfectly square corners.

I first read about these distressing techniques in Mike Cougill's publication Detailing Track.  Also see Vol 7 of The Missing Conversation for additional discussions on track.   I also observed Trevor Marsall use similar techniques in his Roadshow series on Trainmasters.tv (paid site, but worth it).

Next up is staining and coloring followed by ballast.   Per Lance Mindheim, I'll look into the products offered by Arizona Rock & Mineral.

I also have the rail ready to go...Trying something new for this handlaying adventure: prototypical 39' sections of rail.  I understand that I could go the "easy route" and lay three-foot sections of rail and glue on joint bars every 39ft, but I'm trying to recreate that distinctive wiggle in industrial track that the individual pieces might provide.  We shall see.

Homasote Splines

I constructed the base for the test track out of Homasote Splines this evening.  The finished product seems like it will work well, but there were some rough spots getting here.

 First, while those knife-edge blades leave a very nice edge and generate a fraction of the dust that anything with teeth would, they seemed prone to wobble, especially as they warmed up.  This meant I constantly needed to make fine adjustments to the jigsaw attack angle and was prevented from using a guide like I had hoped.  The result is some slightly wavy cuts.

This makes for a tedious process with lots of long slow cuts, so I tried doubling and quadrupling the material.  Anything more than two and the blade would wander too far on the bottom piece and leave you with nothing but scrap.

Alas I got eight good two-foot long pieces that overlapped to form a three-foot long section.  I used a standard wood block plane to smooth down the top (track) surface and screwed on a left over piece to the bottom side to make up for the variations in piece height.  This is only necessary since this test section lives at the workbench.  Normally, the pieces will (should!) get cut closer to desired size and the bottom just screws onto the risers or other benchwork supports.


So, it might be that future spline production is done from full sheets on a table saw outside.  In mid-November, I'll be visiting a model railroad that uses this track support technique, so construction details will likely be some of my questions.


In other news...I ordered a full set of the tie rack jigs from Fast Tracks -- one of each spacing (20", 22", and 24").  My research trip did yield that the tie spacing was 20" -- at least on the remaining track where one could actually see the ties.  This was close to a turnout, so I didn't take it as gospel that the whole line used this standard.  Some variation, especially between more and less frequently used tracks will provide some visual appeal as well.

For this test track though, I doubt I'll wait until the jigs arrive.  Shouldn't be too hard to lay 3 feet of ties by hand.

Looking ahead to track laying, I'll close with some prototype photos.  It should be fun replicating track in this condition (and having it still operable)...

Quick Update

I usually try to keep the project-related postings coming about once a month and in order to keep that frequency, here's a quick post about current plans.  The GBW 7080 project was moving along nicely, culminating in getting couplers mounted on it when I realized that in order to make any more progress, I'd have to have a test track in order to confirm coupler heights and finish work on the trucks. Since P:48 is new for me, many projects pause while waiting for the next internet order of supplies and tools and funds from the sale of unused HO scale equipment.

The plan is to create a two-foot test section of track both to try out some of the construction and detailing aspects and result in a functional test track.  I"ll build this on homasote splines.  To that end, supplies have been rolling in to get that test track going:

• Homasote (locally obtained from Menards in a convenient size)
• Knife-Edge Jigsaw Blades (on this advice from the Proto48 Yahoo Group)
• Scale Ties from Northeastern Scale Lumber
• Tie Plates from Jim Lincoln
• Code 100 rail from LHS
• Short Spikes (0.120") from Proto87 Stores
• Spiking pliers from MicroMark
• Track Gauges from Red Cliffs Minatures

While at Red Cliffs, I also ordered the parts to make a #8 turnout as well.  The corresponding kit from American Switch & Signal turnout castings are lined up for the next Protocraft order to compare.

Also, I have one more opportunity to visit the prototype here in the next week, albeit probably only briefly.
Chief research items are:

1. Length of switch points in the three remaining turnouts, including the one to the mainline if I can safely measure it.
2. Spacing between the cross ties.  This is branch line trackage and I'm trying to decide which -- if any -- of the Fast Tracks tie jigs can help me or if I should just roll my own.
3. Number of holes in the tie plates.   I'm assuming four-hole, as this was light density trackage.

Stay tuned for construction progress and photos.


Oh, and fun fact, this is post #50 since the beginning on 27 April 2013 (907 elapsed days [~2.5 years] and an average of one post every 18 days).