Keep on ballasting

I'm still in the middle of the "ballast the yard" project, meaning grout mixed with fine ballast, and weathering powders on top of that. Perhaps not very exiting, but here are some more shots.

Spreading Static Grass

When my wife a few weeks ago asked if I wanted anything in particular for my upcoming birthday, I said "Yes, a Noch Grassmaster". Although that did not immediately ring a bell, with a few hints from yours truly regarding the nature of this thing and possible vendors, she actually bought one. And now I have even tried it out.

I don't think I had the easiest possible layout patch for this first attempt. Only a narrow stretch between the main line and the fascia. I also tried to a few small isolated spots along the drill and team tracks. Here is the result.

Although it eventually turned out alright, nothing is as easy as advertised. I started out using some Woodland Scenics static grass flock. I have had a few jars of that stuff for several years, spreading it by hand. The problem is that over the years, and my handling I suppose, it had started to form clumps. This made it difficult to produce the desired "drizzle" of fibers from the Grassmaster. Instead I got clumps falling out. I tried to resolve the problem by tossing in couple of marbles, assuming that would help breaking up the clumps. That made things better, although not perfect. Vigorous shaking of the Grassmaster was the best approach, but that produced a true downfall of static grass rather than a more controllable drizzle. I think I just need to practise more.

I also figured out that you really need to mix different shades of grass. Otherwise you get a way to uniform look. Fortunately the Grassmaster came with three small bags of Noch grass, of different shades. And no clumps! The green tones were a little to bright, at least for my taste. I think subdued colors give a more realistic appearance. But the Noch grass was alright, as long as used sparingly.

Ballasting continues

With the mainline ballasted in a traditional way, displaying a relatively well manicured right of way, it was time to the turn the attention to the yard and drill tracks. Here I wanted a more unkempt look, with dirt rather than rock ballast. So I decided to give tile grout a try.

I did some tests and decided to go with a mix of 50% grout and 50% N scale ballast. To use only grout, which is much like a fine powder, was more or less impossible. It gave you nearly no control, and the stuff ended up everywhere. A mix of ballast and grout was easier to control, but still gave a dirt look. Here is a picture of a spur ballasted withe the grout and ballast mix (the middle track). The mix is kept in place with a water and white glue mix.

 

Once the glue had dried I applied weathering powders to obtain a dirt look. I also used some rust powder along the rails, and some black powder in between the rails, simulating oil and whatnot. I gave the mainline a light rust and oil treatment as well.

  



 

And a close up...

 

The dirt is a little to brown maybe. I'll aim for a slightly more gray tone when I do the next stretch of track.

Ballasting the main



I wanted at least some parts of the layout to become more complete, so I decided to ballast the main line. Part of the decision was also an urge to test the Minitec H0 Phonolith ballast, which I purchased some time ago.

But before ballasting I actually did scenic the narrow stretches of right-of-way along the actual track. So far, on previous layouts, I have always ballasted first and done the scenicing next, so this was a new approach for me. Some people say this yields better results, and besides this is how it is done in real life. I would not say that the difference, as compared to doing it in the opposite order, is very dramatic, but yes, maybe ballasting on top of the surroundings gives slightly better looking end result.

Anyway, I started by adding gravel along the outsides of the sub-road bed, and ground foam and static grass along the layout edge. I also added some vegetation that climbs on the retaining wall. I did all this using the true and proven standard method: apply a layer of white glue; spread the material; wet with alcohol; soak with a water and glue mix. The gravel is actually some N scale ballast (from Minitec). Here is a picture.

  

Next I added ballast. I used Minitec H0 Gleisschotter Phonolith. Gleisschotter is German and simply means track ballast. Phonolith is the kind of rock it emulates. Below is a picture where some of the track has been ballasted and some not.



 

Here is a closer look, where I also tried to add an old cardboard box, so that things would not look that neat.

 

In this last picture I wanted to show that with the CVC tie strips it possible to actually get a gap between the bottom of the rails and the ballast. Something that normally is not possible with flex track. Looks nice I think, but if you don't know the gap is there, you will probably never notice. But since I know...

 

Bumpers done

The bumping posts are finally painted and weathered. The rust patches are maybe a little to distinct, but otherwise they make do.

Building bumpers

This weekend I built myself some bumpers, for my yard tracks and spurs. I made a total of five Hayes style bumpers. I began by searching the Internet for some pictures and information on bumpers. On the Western-Cullen-Hayes, Inc. web page I stumbled upon this Bumping Posts Facts and Dimensions brochure. Perfect, with pictures, explanatory text and dimensions. Everything I needed.

I first tried to build a free-standing bumper, with the intention of installing on the track when it was complete. It turned out that was not that easy. For starters, it was difficult to get the correct dimensions. Not only should the bumper if possible have the same dimensions as a real bumping post, as specified in the brochure. It should also fit the model track. These two constraints turned out to not be 100% compatible. It was also hard to get the bumper square and even. Anyway, this was what I ended up with, built from different pieces of styrene.

It looks quite alright, and served part of its purpose; I got the general hang of how to build a bumper. But I decided to switch methods and build the bumpers in place instead.

So I started by gluing pieces of styrene angle along two ties on each track. Those are the reinforcement bars extending in under the rails, that help keeping the bumper in place when hit by a car.

Next I cut the so called compression members from .080" (2mm) styrene H-column. I cut them at an angle, beveled the ends and glued them together two and two.

Then I glued the paired compression members to the track, resting on the earlier installed reinforcements bars. I used pieces of MDF board as supports while the glue set.

And this is what it looked like so far, with the temporary supports removed.

Using a car to test fit the height. The head should eventually end up at the same height as the coupler on the car.

Next it was time for the tension members.I fabricated those out of a single piece of .010x.060" (0.25x1.5mm) styrene strip, which I first glued to the top of the compression members and then bent down to the track. To make the strip really bend, instead of breaking, I put on dabs on styrene cement where the bends would go. This softens the styrene and makes it possible to bend.

Last, I made the head from .080" (2mm) square rod and some .01x.125" (0.3x3.2mm) styrene strip. I really needed a rod with a triangular profile, to get the front surface of the head (where the cars hit) vertical. Since I only had square rod at hand, I had to file and shape it to make its profile triangular.

Here the heads are mounted, along with some "bolt bars", to make it believable that the bumper is actually attached to the rails.

Next the bumpers need some paint, and weathering.

Thanks for watching.

Flat finish

Some flat finish effectively kills the sheen on the retaining wall.