Going down the basement to put away some trash, I made a wrong turn and ended up in the workshop.
This caused a tiny flicker of inspiration, and I decided to do a little work on some track test pieces I never finished.
One is for the mainline and the other for a rarely used siding. The mainline needs a fair bit of weathering, but concider it a freshly laid length of prototype track.
I am a bit unsure about how successful the exercise was, so I would appreciate some feedback. Dont hold back, they are test pieces of only a feet length or so.
mainline_2.jpg
siding2.jpg
By the way, the track is 0-scale (1/45, 22,22mm gauge)
I'd say it's very believable, and looks very nice.
Track varies a lot, so you'd have to know the prototype to judge whether it is well captured.
Locally, I'd say that sleepers in that condition (captured well) would likely be less brown and more grey as the preservative has weathered away. Likewise, the ballast is maybe a little large, thought it looks like great material. Again, locally, quality ballast should all pass a 1.75" screen and be mostly larger than 0.5" according to the 1958 permanent way handbook that I have.
Track often looks inconsistently weathered with the areas next the rails typically a rusty shade, with the centreline collecting staining from traffic, though that varies with all sorts of factors. Not something I've done to my own track yet, I admit.
What is there to criticize? -- Russ
Precisely what is there to criticise !! just looks perfect to me - in fact just looks like the wood at the bottom of our garden sort of holding the fence up - it just gets to me that some critics always see it differently and feel it should be slightly a different colour its like the old debate on what is box car red - and the man who lives there said it all depends on were the Box car is left eg under the trees / half in the shed / by the river / on a sunny day /on a dull day and on and on we go!
So Its fine in fact its perfect it looks like ageing wood - so ignore any negative critics which there appears to be many and give non constructive views on other peoples work
with there long winging views of what they think
Barney
Thanks for the feedback!
Yes, the mainline ballast is a bit too course, and the ties a bit fresh. And new creoste treated ties is indeed a more black than brown. But with some weathering it might be fine.
The siding should probably have rust on top of the rail, too. Track in that condition didn't get a lot of traffick, I think.
And of course it all depends were it is and what the weather is doing !
Barney
Excellent, Hauk!
Given the crusty rust along some of the bottom of the inner side of one siding rail, you could take advantage by making the adjoining sleepers there a bit rotten with perhaps a wet hole developing under them and a spike or two working loose.
Maybe also part of a sliced torso and a pool of blood .... -- ssuR
Hi Håvard
I just found your test piece on the Internet ;D
Gleis_HH.jpg
Cheers, Peter
P.S. Hope you found my PM.
That last photo is definitely his test Piece
Barney
Hauk,
did you take the pictures inside or outside with natural light? To me it seems like the light might adulterate the colors. And the color impression might benefit from a slightly bigger camera dictance. My first impression indeed was that the sleepers in the first picture seem too monochrome brown, but I do emphatically second what Barney said about the box car red debate, too. Maybe a second wash with a whitish or blackish tone just to darken or lighten the fibre's gaps a bit?
Cheers,
Volker, his majesty of creosote drenched grooved rail sleepers
Thanks for the feedback, everyone!
The pictures were indeed taken indoors with a complete random floor lamp for lighting.
I took the pictures with my iPhone as I was too lazy to fire up the Fujifilm camera with its excellent fujinon macro lens. I need to get my shit together...
We are working a bit backwards here, but I also started to think if I had seen some prototype track that matched my tests.
Here are some shots I took at Jädraås in Sweden a couple of years back:
IMG_9060.jpeg
IMG_9059.jpeg
Not entirely without likeness to the old track test, I dare say.
Looks almost as good as your modeling. -- Russ
Both look great to me. The first piece, if the ties are supposed to be relatively new, I do think they could be darker/blacker.
The ballast size really depends on the prototype. During my Nevada trip last year I spent some time around modern mainline tracks and was surprised at how large the ballast was. I didn't take any measurements but I'd estimate the stones were about 3".
Hawk -- how was that rotten look achieved on your first photo - I presume it was plastic sleepers to start with
Barney
Quote from: Barney on May 11, 2025, 01:22:14 PMHawk -- how was that rotten look achieved on your first photo - I presume it was plastic sleepers to start with
Barney
No, both samples are wooden ties. The grain in the siding ties were made with coarse sandpaper. Works a hell of a lot better than a razor saw blade so often recommended.
Quote from: Barney on May 11, 2025, 01:22:14 PMHawk -- how was that rotten look achieved on your first photo - I presume it was plastic sleepers to start with
Barney
No, both samples have sleepers made from real basswood. The wood was distressed with coarse sandpaper -much better than the razor-saw treatment described in olden modellign mags. Different stain & inks. Builders In Scale Silverwood and very dilluted Windsor drawing Ink.
When we look at sleepers and suchlike, we're rarely close enough to see the actual grain. What we're generally looking at is the splits, shakes & checks. As Håuk kinda sorta implies, the razor-saw attack, so beloved of ancient "craftsman" modellers, reproduces what modellers think wood should look like, not what it actually does. FWIW The 1:34-scale 1067mm gauge sleepers in this photo are balsa, dealt to with a scalpel.
The hardest problem to overcome when modelling spiked track is that most commercial spikes – such as the Micro Engineering ones I've used here – bear only a fairly approximate relationship to the real thing and scream model.
Proto-87 Stores do some nice etched spikes which look great in side elevation, but are rather undernourished from normal viewpoints. I would guess that 3D-printed spikes might be an answer, but part of what makes the mashed steel spikes work is the way they rust, which locks them in place to the roadbed.
Terrific looking sleepers, Krusty.
Is that track part of a static display?
I doubt it is possible to model track more realistically than you've done. -- Russ
Hi Bill. It was knocked up as a quickie base for photographing some logging locomotive models (in this case a Davidson locomotive scratchbuilt by Paul Berntsen).