For all of You Train Lovers
- Thread starter khryslerkid
- Start date
FitzyB5
Well-Known Member
Found this today at antique fair in Deerfield NH.
First coat of black for the rock hillsides is applied and will be followed by three coats of three different shades of gray. Then a mixed shade of browns, then highlighted with a dry brushing of white, on top side to show depth. The track side rocks are laid, then sprayed with 70 percent alcohol to break the surface tension so the Mod Podge, basically white glue mixed 3 to one with water, can flow through the rocks like water when applied. It's applied with a disposable plastic pipette. The podge is a matte finish and all that's left after it dries is rock hard rocks that stay glued together and down. Podge is used on all static grasses and dirt for dirt and gravel roads. It also serves as a clear sealer for the river and lakebed before they're poured with tinted epoxy.
I choose a dark rock theme color this time to represent the granite rock we have in places in Missouri. I've use tans and brown for a southwest desert theme, but this blends in better with the hundreds of pine trees that will be placed for a higher elevation look. You have to remember that in scale, 1:87, 1 inch is equal to 87 inches. So for the sake of argument, an 1/8 inch equals a about a foot. So, the 1 inch foam transition is about 8 feet. The mountains I'll be creating out of carved pink foam will only be about 12 inches tall, in real world. Trains only run between 2 and 4 degrees of grade on most mainline tracks so as to be as flat as possible for fuel efficiency and operational ease, ideally at a 1.5 percent grade or less. If I make the mountains and tracks any higher, say 4 percent, it would require 16 feet to get there and 16 feet to get back down. I'll be at about 2 to 3 inches. This is about the details, the small details that bring it to life.
I power the track in about 20 places, run under the layout to a main feeder that runs back to the transformer, pos and negative. I bought hundreds of suitcase connectors to use for spicing street lights, house lighting and flashing street stop lights together. These lights are fed 3 volts and are all micro LED, somewhere around 50 of them. Three digital gauges will be installed to track power throughout the track system. One will be at the point of origin, transformer. Then one at each furthest point on each side of the layout to verify power is constant, a small drop can be expended due to length, more feeders, more constant power. I'll finish the track for the whole layout now and build one side at a time, but the track needs to be the one constant throughout the whole project. Building over and around it is up to my discretion. The amount of parts that will be coming together for this is crazy. This is a side thing, to keep my creative juices flowing and will take months. I can and will post this as I progress along if anyone finds this to their liking. I had a bucket list farm once, now I'm about to own a farm, town and mountain area overlooking a lake side industrial area and park. Swimming, boating and fishing. Hint, the lines for the fishing poles are made out of the stringy mess left from a hot glue gun or the stringy mess from pulled melted plastic!! Brown thread is used for barbed wire and stained toothpicks for fence posts to keep the livestock in! LOL. Pieces of everyday life that I enjoy looking at will be used and hopefully brought to life, I'm not an artist, but I'm going to do my best..... Remember Waynes waterslide......................... This is about to get stupid and no I'm not crazy, well, a little maybe. I'd like to call it eccentric!! LOL. My car should be back this week, I need a long drive or can you tell!! LOL.
I choose a dark rock theme color this time to represent the granite rock we have in places in Missouri. I've use tans and brown for a southwest desert theme, but this blends in better with the hundreds of pine trees that will be placed for a higher elevation look. You have to remember that in scale, 1:87, 1 inch is equal to 87 inches. So for the sake of argument, an 1/8 inch equals a about a foot. So, the 1 inch foam transition is about 8 feet. The mountains I'll be creating out of carved pink foam will only be about 12 inches tall, in real world. Trains only run between 2 and 4 degrees of grade on most mainline tracks so as to be as flat as possible for fuel efficiency and operational ease, ideally at a 1.5 percent grade or less. If I make the mountains and tracks any higher, say 4 percent, it would require 16 feet to get there and 16 feet to get back down. I'll be at about 2 to 3 inches. This is about the details, the small details that bring it to life.
I power the track in about 20 places, run under the layout to a main feeder that runs back to the transformer, pos and negative. I bought hundreds of suitcase connectors to use for spicing street lights, house lighting and flashing street stop lights together. These lights are fed 3 volts and are all micro LED, somewhere around 50 of them. Three digital gauges will be installed to track power throughout the track system. One will be at the point of origin, transformer. Then one at each furthest point on each side of the layout to verify power is constant, a small drop can be expended due to length, more feeders, more constant power. I'll finish the track for the whole layout now and build one side at a time, but the track needs to be the one constant throughout the whole project. Building over and around it is up to my discretion. The amount of parts that will be coming together for this is crazy. This is a side thing, to keep my creative juices flowing and will take months. I can and will post this as I progress along if anyone finds this to their liking. I had a bucket list farm once, now I'm about to own a farm, town and mountain area overlooking a lake side industrial area and park. Swimming, boating and fishing. Hint, the lines for the fishing poles are made out of the stringy mess left from a hot glue gun or the stringy mess from pulled melted plastic!! Brown thread is used for barbed wire and stained toothpicks for fence posts to keep the livestock in! LOL. Pieces of everyday life that I enjoy looking at will be used and hopefully brought to life, I'm not an artist, but I'm going to do my best..... Remember Waynes waterslide......................... This is about to get stupid and no I'm not crazy, well, a little maybe. I'd like to call it eccentric!! LOL. My car should be back this week, I need a long drive or can you tell!! LOL.
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It has been a long time since I set up a train set (N gauge). Do they make track in a more modern version to simulate the concrete ties that are becoming the norm on real tracks?
BLK 68 R/T
Well-Known Member
Yes they do.
Yes, but they get covered with ballast so to me it makes no sense. All my tracks will have fine gray ballast covering them and the track foam.
- Local time
- 4:59 PM
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2012
- Messages
- 18,323
- Reaction score
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- Location
- Surrey, B.C. Canada
In reality, the ties are usually above the ballast. They have to be for track securement inspections.
Your absolutely right. The ballast on most Ho train tracks generally is applied tie high. Brushed clean to expose just the top. Some paint them to match the look of black or brown ties. Some paint the sides of the rails to represent rust and dirt. As I said, the whole thing is about details.
Coronet_Arch
Well-Known Member
A tamping machine that lifts the rails above the ballast. I saw these in action on the main line that backed up to the property I grew up on.
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