Track laying 2

John Wiffen — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 11:31:20 +0000

The track detailing of course begins with the most boring task in railway modeling – ballasting. Using some scrap track I tested a couple of different ballast colours and then settled on Woodland Scenics Light Gray Fine, the plan being to start with a lighter shade and then add colour to the track once the ballasting was complete.Once the ballast had been carefully worked into position an eyedropper was used to flow matt varnish into the ballast. Having tried the water, washing up liquid and PVA method a couple of times in the past I found the matt varnish far easier to use and the end result is rock hard! With ballast fully set I used an old brush to apply a wash of diluted Tamiya Flat Earth (XF-52). Using photo references I then washed an even more diluted flat black and dark brown here and there to simulate general track muck. The next step was to use an old brush to wash and ‘scrub’ the ballast with pure thinner. This really helps to soften and blend the various colours and ensure that the paint has thoroughly worked its way down into ballast.

Using a fine brush I then very carefully picked out the rail chairs and other track detail as well as touching up any of the rail sides that were scratched in the ballasting process. The final touch was to paint the sleepers flat black and lightly dry-brush the rail details with a lighter rust colour. The rail tops were then wiped clean using a small piece of cloth soaked in thinner.

Track laying 1

John Wiffen — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 06:28:37 +0000

My initial plans were to lay the entire layout in code 75 finescale, but with most of the track work obscured by platforms and parapet walls when viewed side on and the fact that I already had two code 100 Y points from a previous project, code 100 seemed to be the simplest option. As a compromise I decided to lay the two foreground tracks with code 75 with the ugly Peco ‘Herman Munster boot’ 75 to 100 joiner hidden beneath a barrow crossing.

My thoughts then turned to improving the appearance of the track. The current long over due debate in most of the UK model railway magazines (except Railway Modeller/Peco – surprise, surprise!) about the unrealistic appearance of commercially available track work provided some good pointers for getting most out of a range of pretty average products.

Central to most of the comments seems to be adjusting the sleeper spacing to somewhere between 7 and 9mm. I have tended towards the closer spacing on South Oak Road mainly to avoid the ‘narrow gauge look’ that a number of articles mention.

A fairly simple process of increasing the
spacing in between the sleepers really improves
the look of the track even before ballasting.

Though it takes a bit of extra time to remove all the
plastic between the sleepers, the process ensures
that you end up with prototypical ‘daylight’ beneath
the base of the rail.

Having drilled holes for the point motors, the track was glued into position and temporarily held in place with drawing pins. The sleepers at the traverser end were replaced with a 10mm wide strip of circuit board, (with a notch cut in between each rail to prevent a short). This well used method greatly reduces the potential for track movement, the scourge of any traverser! With the wiring and track all soldered and tested it was on to the fun part…

One of the great advantages of building a micro layout is being able to lavish a level of detail on to the track that would be very time consuming on a larger layout. One of the first tasks is to replace any missing sleepers. I used 2mm balsa cut into thin sleeper width strips and then painted flat black. Where the two points joined I also cut away (very cautiously!) the ‘non-structural’ sleepers and replaced them with two more prototypical full length strips that run the full width under both points. Additionally I cut off the unrealistic side lugs, puttied up the Peco point motor mount holes and extended the sleepers to one side of the mechanism in readiness for various detailing parts.

The next stage was to cut out the footprint of all the platforms, retaining walls, barrow crossings, signal and relay box foundations and cable troughing from 2mm card and glue to the baseboard. As illustrated from the image above taken on a recent trip Kentish Town station, all these items are visually bedded into the ballast.

The card footprints give the ballast something to flow up to and a flat surface to build on. Lastly the point blades and concrete sleepers are masked off ready to be spray painted…

All the track and adjoining foundations were spray painted matt red brown.

South Oak Road » Trackwork

Track laying 2

Track laying 1