Hello, all! First, the question: What's the best way to have rails running in a street? Now, the background: I'm planning an industrial module, 2x4 feet. It is set in an autumn of the mid to late thirties in the industrial district of a New England city. There will be at least three switches in the road, leading to short spur tracks and one longer siding. Walthers sells an insert kit that looks good, but I can't see it (I'm in Europe), only a picture, so I can't tell how good it will be. I've read about using dyed plaster or just painting plaster after it is dry- which sounds like it could work with any situation but I'd have to make really certain I got it right the first time! So, what would you do? Thank you!
My method is as follows: First I lay the track down, flat on the board without roadbed. Next, I isolate the area to be "paved" by using styrene strips or some other material- balsa wood strips , etc. I take regular drywall plaster (premixed) and cover the area, rails and all. I smooth it out using a plastic scraper or drywall knife, leveling it out to rail height level. You can make either a scribe measured out to the inner portion of the rails or as I did, use a spare set of trucks and roll them back and forth a few times to make the grooves for the rails. When it drys you can use a damp sponge to further smooth it out. This is the best part of plaster is that it cleans up with water (warm preferably). One note is that in applications where plaster is put on thick, chances are that it will crack when it dries. This is no problem though as you just have to patch and repeat the area with a thin layer (or you can leave some cracks as I did to make it look realistic) I model N scale and it turned out pretty good. If you like, I will try to post a pic of the results. Russ
Hm- no roadbed? I'm new to the hobby, so I don't know- what will be the effect of running without roadbed? I had planned to use roadbed, but I don't know why, except that the book said to
The only reason for roadbed (cork/homasote/etc) is to provide something to attach the track to and/or to provide the shape of the ballast. Cork and homasote also provide some sound deadening qualities. If you glue you track to the subroadbed (plywood/foam/etc) it is fine for flat areas like yards, industries, and streets. David
I agree with David. Roadbed is used both for contour and sound deadening. In a slow speed industrial area there is no need for either. Good luck! Russ [ 13. November 2002, 19:41: Message edited by: rush2ny ]
One other note about cork roadbed is that when you glue down your ballast it destroys the sound deadening capabilities. On the club layout we had a lot of stretches of track that whre not yet ballasted and the noise difference was impressive.
Int-er-est-ing. I guess that nailing the track straight to the plywood prarie won't hurt, then... but I'd have to figure out how to get from street level up to ballasted-with-roadbed level. Maybe I can use a shim to raise the whole street area to the level of the roadbed- luan plywood, for instance. That would make it possible to transplant the whole industrial district when I feel the need for a change. My next question: How would one get switches to work reliably under such circumstances? Use temporary dams to keep the plaster from constraining the moving parts while the plaster dries? Again, thank you all for the help. [ 14. November 2002, 10:45: Message edited by: Biggerhammer ]
There was an article recently in Model Railroader about doing trackage in the streets. I believe it was based upon a railroad that used the streets of Boston. You might want to check the Model Railroader website http://www.modelrailroader.com. I just did a search and I think the article I am thinking of is the one in the Nov 2000 issue. Maybe somebody can provide you with a copy. David
Absolutley you must isolate the moving parts of the switch. I have never done a switch "in the ground" but what I would do is cut out some balsa or styrene to fit in the switch (enough that you can still use the switch) and NOT plaster it at all. Blend the plaster around the balsa or styrene and paint all the same color to blend it all together. (Kind of like you would do a grade crossing.) BTW- here is one pic of my in the ground trackage. It still needs some touching up and weathering. The chain link fence in the foreground was made with window screening and pins as posts. Russ
That is one problem with using foam. You have to build up or remove down. I prefer to use plywood and the cookie cutter method. I guess you could do this with foam but it would be a little more difficult. I would recommend you use something like sculptamold to build a gentle ramp between the two levels. Don't make the transition too dramatic. If it isn't a smooth transition you risk coulpers coming apart. David
