Adding soot effects to track?

[RobertInOntario]

I've recently been adding some soot effects to my two small layouts by brushing on some black/grey powder (kind of like a weathering powder) that I bought at an LHS.

The effect is quite good. I've been looking at some pics of old steam & diesel railway lines trying to find out the areas that would have been the darkest. I think the main line would have been the sootiest where the locos would stop frequently and that some of the areas further down on the sidings would not be as dark. Does this sound right & can anyone comment further?

Thanks,
Rob

[lajry]

It's not really soot but oil & grease falling off the rolling stock especially locos. It would tend to be down the middle between the rails. It would be very concentrated where ever locos would be stopped like around engine facilities.

[RobertInOntario]

It's not really soot but oil & grease falling off the rolling stock especially locos. It would tend to be down the middle between the rails. It would be very concentrated where ever locos would be stopped like around engine facilities.

Yes, good point. I think it's oil, grease, diesel effect.

Here is a pic (taken from an actual steam railway in England that I visited in 2009 -- it's awesome!) that I've been using for reference. I think this is a great shot and I well remember this section of that railway.

Cheers,
Rob

   

[Russ Bellinis]

In the steam era, cars had plain bearings instead of roller bearings. Lubrication was done by packing grease and oil soaked rags into the journal boxes. If you look at your photo, there is also oil and grease along side of the road bed out to just past the ends of the ties as well as down the center of the track.

[RobertInOntario]

In the steam era, cars had plain bearings instead of roller bearings. Lubrication was done by packing grease and oil soaked rags into the journal boxes. If you look at your photo, there is also oil and grease along side of the road bed out to just past the ends of the ties as well as down the center of the track.

Thanks -- yes, I noticed that as well. It seems that the track in this photo is particularly oil/grease-soaked!

[Sumpter250]

Steam era track would have had little or no "oil" down the middle of the track. There might have been some ash, from the ashpans, and any "leakage from freight cars" ( grain, cement, coal, etc. ).
There would be one other "weathering effect", and that would be on the up-grade tracks, there would be a buildup of sand, that would be heaviest on either side of each rail, and between the rails. This becomes particularly obvious with two track mains, where one side is consistently the up-grade, and the other, the down-grade track.

[MasonJar]

Yes, good point. I think it's oil, grease, diesel effect.

Not diesel...!

And Pete's note about sand also applies to any starting area like at passenger platforms, although maybe not in the same quantity as on the ruling grade...


Andrew

[Will_Annand]

Looks real good Rob.

[RobertInOntario]

Steam era track would have had little or no "oil" down the middle of the track. There might have been some ash, from the ashpans, and any "leakage from freight cars" ( grain, cement, coal, etc. ).
There would be one other "weathering effect", and that would be on the up-grade tracks, there would be a buildup of sand, that would be heaviest on either side of each rail, and between the rails. This becomes particularly obvious with two track mains, where one side is consistently the up-grade, and the other, the down-grade track.

The pic that I posted is from a modern-day steam heritage line in Somerset, England. The line is mainly travelled by steam locos although they do have a few diesels running occasionally. In addition to that pic, I've been looking at a few photos in my British 1950s/'60s steam era books (steam ran until the late-60s in Britain) and these pics show a darkened area on the tracks, especially in the "4-foot". So would that have been caused by oil & grease coming off the locos and freight car wheels?

The darkening effect in the pic that I posted is almost extreme -- it's less noticeable in my books (mentioned above) but still there.

Rob

[RobertInOntario]

OK, here are a couple online pics that show some of the dark weathering effects on the track, that I was referring to... There are other good shots on this site as well.

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<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.railphotoprints.co.uk/index/detail/7663/48706-80043-Bath-050366-RP208.jpg.html">http://www.railphotoprints.co.uk/index/ ... 8.jpg.html</a><!-- m -->

You can see that some sections of track have very little dark/grimy weathering while others are quite black.

Cheers, Rob

[Russ Bellinis]

It is interesting that the tracks on the outside of the first pic show a lot of dark weathering in the center as well as right along the ties on both sides of the tracks, but the track with the steam engine sitting on it, shows no weathering at all.

[RobertInOntario]

It is interesting that the tracks on the outside of the first pic show a lot of dark weathering in the center as well as right along the ties on both sides of the tracks, but the track with the steam engine sitting on it, shows no weathering at all.

Yes, I noticed that too -- quite curious. Maybe the right-hand line was used more?

Rob

[Russ Bellinis]

I'm wondering if the use of the line determined the weathering on the track more than whether it was steam engines or diesel. If one line was dedicated to passenger train operation, but the other saw a lot of coal hopper transported, much of the dark weathering might be due to coal dust falling on the tracks even out of the bottom dumps in the hopper to give a general black, sooty look to the entire track. A passenger train would not have anything except the locomotive to drop smoke and soot.

[Bob C]

It might be that this unweathered track may be a main track, and have just had maintenance done. Such work often disturbs, cleans or replaces ballast, eliminating the weathered look...the sleepers are grey-ish (stone dust) and the clean stone is evenly leveled to the tie-tops. A section of just renewed track would make a great detail vignette with a track crew around, or just evidence (tools, hardware containers, etc) of their toils.