This was a lot of fun.. I wished to model Guilford's notorious Watertown branch line to the Newlywed Bakery. Needing to have most of the track buried, it made sense to gouge out the right of way through my white foam base. Then I soldered short lengths of flex track together, bending rail ends with longnose pliers. There's even a short length of curved track in there. I placed it there, attached temporary DC power and repeatedly ran rollingstock and Guilford locos along it, adjusting the kinks with pliers until the locos didn't derail. I found Atlas locos to be far more forgiving than my Proto 2000s, but that's ok because all my Guilfords are Atlas. The track kinked vertically as well as horizontally. I needed a dip into the infamous mud pit, so the foam had been gouged out a bit deeper there, and I forced the track down into the dip. I used a lot of Fuller's MaxBond to glue it down. It's like Liquid Nails. I used heavy rocks to ram the track down into the dip while the glue set. The glue oozed up nicely between the ties and I spread it around to cover them like mud and soil. Then I had to leave it to set :tb-sad: Early shot of an Alco negotiating the dip into the mud pit:
Once the glue had set there was a lot more test running to do. To my relief I found the locos still handled it well. The same can't be said of all rollingstock, and I have to be choosy - unless I want a prototypical derailment :tb-biggrin: Because of the unevenness of track and gouged foam I wound up with lots of gaps under the track which I filled with dry sand that I glued down with almost full strength PVA. I wasn't too fussy about the appearance. Over that I spread powdered dry clay which also got the PVA treatment: I really had to soak it to get the glue to permeate the clay.
Once it was dry I painted it all sorts of soily/muddy colours. Over that I added a mix of crushed tea leaves and twigs with a sprinkling of dusty dry clay which was helpful in dulling the brownness of the mix Here the new mixture is going over the painted clay Next is the beginnings of the mud pit where lots of glue oozed up... Some acrylic gloss medium is there too, but it soaked away to nothing. Helpful for sealing the surface for the epoxy resin puddles though. Here are the puddles - resin tinted with acrylic raw umber and a dash of white...
I added lots of grass tufts - jute twine and painted fine fibre cleaning cloth. How it looks today. Everything except the snow is glued down Mike
Cheers guys Here's a couple of links to it Obviously the camera's foreshortening makes it look dreadful http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?2...IMPLE&PAGE=29&BOOL=ALL&SEARCHSTRING=watertown http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?2...MS=&PODS=&POYS=&POME=&PODE=&POYE=&RES=&PAGE=3 http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?2...SIMPLE&PAGE=6&BOOL=ALL&SEARCHSTRING=watertown http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?2...IMPLE&PAGE=38&BOOL=ALL&SEARCHSTRING=watertown
Beautifully done, Mike. That is a great tutorial on the process. Fun seeing how one needs to work hard to achieve "non perfection"
That is some incredible modeling! Your work is a true inspiration. And with this little "how you did it" description maybe some of us (me) can make something look as good. Thank you for sharing.
That's terribly awesome. Or awesomely terrible? Great job, Mike. And extra thanks for the step-by-step.
Wow. Simply unreal to see this done in a model scenario. What a fantastic creation. If I could give an award for effort, this would be top of the list.
That's an incredible model of some really bad trackwork... Much appreciation for the step-by-step. It's very clear and simple, and easy to see how varying the colors and materials could give a variety of effects. Looks so easy even I could stand a chance!
That really looks like FRA Excepted Track. GCOR 6.12 "On a track designated as FRA Excepted Track the following will govern: Maximum speed must not exceed 10 MPH. No occupied passenger train will be operated No movement will be operated that contains more than five cars placarded according to Hazardous Material Regulations But some darn fine modeling~
On the bright side, now I can change my track work quality description from "beginner" to "professional prototypical".
Thank you guys. Paul - I'm pretty sure I read somewhere on a railfan site that Guilford imposed a 3 mph limit on this section. Mike
Mike, I never tire of seeing photos of your Mudpit. Seeing it come alive in this tutorial made me appreciate your fine skills all the more. Dreadfully fantastic!