04-09-2011, 01:55 AM
Wow! Thanks for all the compliments, fellas!
The rail is RailCraft Code 70 ... I bought a couple hundred feet of it back in the seventies.
The ties ("sleepers," for Jonte) are Campbell "Profile" Ties. I use three or four shades of MinWax stains into which I submerge a nylon stocking "bag" of ties and let them soak for an hour or so, whereupon I spread them all out on old newspapers (which I get from my nextdoor neighbor - I don't need a daily paper - I read my news on-line). After a day or so of drying time, I scoop them all up and dump them in one of my yellow-painted M.O.W. 2 lb. coffee cans (with a plastic lid) that I've lettered "TIES" on the side. I use them "as I grab them" ... in whatever order they happen to present themselves.
I use a homemade jig to lay "correctly" spaced ties on a 1/4" stip of upside-down masking tape ...
Then, it's just a matter of laying rail by sliding three three-point track gauges along (the middle one reversed from the outer two - it helps on curves,) at first spiking every fifth tie, four spikes into each tie. Then later, it's the "therapeutic filling-in" of all the ties in between that is a great task for when the mind is numb from a rough day at the office and I want to do something that takes no thought ... just watch it happen.
The ballast is a well-stirred mixture of several shades of Campbell ballast, kept in a few of my yellow-painted M.O.W. 1 lb. coffee cans (again, with plastic lids) that I've lettered "BALLAST" on the side and I "spoon" it out as needed. I use the usual diluted Elmers, eye-droppered on to "wet-water-prepped" ballast and then wait several days for it to totally dry to "Hard-as-a-Rock" status.
A couple different mixes of "rusty rail browns" are applied to the rail web with a smallish (#1 or #2) brush in a random pattern until all sections are painted. It's really not difficult at all, and it is quite satisfying when you "get down on it" and give it a look, as you can see.
To me, it's a lot of fun ... but then ... I'm easily amused! 8-)
I apologize for taking up so much space, more-or-less hijacking the thread ... I just hope it was helpful to at least one person.
The rail is RailCraft Code 70 ... I bought a couple hundred feet of it back in the seventies.
The ties ("sleepers," for Jonte) are Campbell "Profile" Ties. I use three or four shades of MinWax stains into which I submerge a nylon stocking "bag" of ties and let them soak for an hour or so, whereupon I spread them all out on old newspapers (which I get from my nextdoor neighbor - I don't need a daily paper - I read my news on-line). After a day or so of drying time, I scoop them all up and dump them in one of my yellow-painted M.O.W. 2 lb. coffee cans (with a plastic lid) that I've lettered "TIES" on the side. I use them "as I grab them" ... in whatever order they happen to present themselves.
I use a homemade jig to lay "correctly" spaced ties on a 1/4" stip of upside-down masking tape ...
Gluing down ties goes pretty quickly when you can press them onto the brushed-on white glue in 24" sections!
Then, it's just a matter of laying rail by sliding three three-point track gauges along (the middle one reversed from the outer two - it helps on curves,) at first spiking every fifth tie, four spikes into each tie. Then later, it's the "therapeutic filling-in" of all the ties in between that is a great task for when the mind is numb from a rough day at the office and I want to do something that takes no thought ... just watch it happen.
The ballast is a well-stirred mixture of several shades of Campbell ballast, kept in a few of my yellow-painted M.O.W. 1 lb. coffee cans (again, with plastic lids) that I've lettered "BALLAST" on the side and I "spoon" it out as needed. I use the usual diluted Elmers, eye-droppered on to "wet-water-prepped" ballast and then wait several days for it to totally dry to "Hard-as-a-Rock" status.
A couple different mixes of "rusty rail browns" are applied to the rail web with a smallish (#1 or #2) brush in a random pattern until all sections are painted. It's really not difficult at all, and it is quite satisfying when you "get down on it" and give it a look, as you can see.
To me, it's a lot of fun ... but then ... I'm easily amused! 8-)
I apologize for taking up so much space, more-or-less hijacking the thread ... I just hope it was helpful to at least one person.
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln