Fencing has accompanied railroads as long as they have been around. Many times we overlook an item that is so common. Here's how I make fence for The Oakville Sub. Since I've done so much of it, I thought I'd share my techniques. Raw material is Evergreen's .030 Rod. I believe that scales out to around four inches diameter, about right for posts. I drilled some slightly oversized holes in a piece of 1X2 - spaced maybe an inch and a half apart - I needed something in which to put the rod after painting. I'll paint all but a couple inches with Polly S Roof Brown, and place the piece in the 1X2. I just cover the plastic - if there's a dark and light variance in the paint, so much the better. When the paint has dried, I use the NWSL cutter set around seven feet and cut the first half, then paint the remainder and stick it in the 1X2 to dry. Here's a shot showing the tools I use for installation: The pin vise holds a number 55 bit - this is slightly oversize to allow the post to slip in fairly easily. The tweezers allow me to easily pick up posts from the car. The two pieces of plastic are the key and are used together: The long one is marked in ten foot increments, the shorter one measures 30 feet. My standards call for the fence line to be 30 feet from the opposite side rail of a track. I selected that number because it "looks" right - you may wish to use other numbers. I place the long piece at the last post (or the starter post), place the short piece on the inside of the rail, drill a hole where the plastic intersects, and place a post. I then drill holes for the other posts and place them. On curved trackage, I measure each hole from the rail, drill, and place. This way the fence line nicely follows the track. Consistency is important. By using the measuring sticks, all the posts are the same distance from one another and the track. It's easiest to place the fence around the same time you're doing trees, although I've done it before any trees and after planting trees. I happen to be working in an area where trees have been planted at the moment and find I need to remove some of them to avoid smashing them. Once I've touched each post's top with matching paint, I go back and manually adjust any out of line posts - this might go on for weeks, as I follow trains around the layout I'll occasionally reach in and tweak a post. A frequently asked question is do I plan to string barb wire - and my answer is I haven't trained the spider just yet! There are some places we just can't go - YET!
