The Right Track

TIPS AND TRICKS

If you have a tip you would like to share please send it along to my e-mail address and I will include it on this page.

Track Work

Clean track work is essential particularly if you are using DCC. The cleaning product known as "GOO GONE" is great for cleaning track. You can also use brass or silver polish to clean the track and leave behind an anti–corrosion barrier which helps to keep your track clean longer.

When using flex track on a curve always solder the next piece to the one you are currently installing while there is still about 10" of it still not tacked down. You are then soldering two pieces of essentially straight track together and your joint will be less likely to cause derailments.

Use a wooden yardstick as a compass to mark out your radius for laying track. Drill a hole at the 1" mark and insert a wood screw to use as a pivot. Next drill holes that will hold a pencil securely at various inch markings including 19" to maybe 25" remembering that you are starting at the 1" mark. So an 18" radius curve should be created using a pencil in the hole at the 19" mark. Remember too that the sectional track is made to create a circle of that radius from the centre of the track to the other track centre...not outside to outside.

When nailing your track work down make sure you do not push the nail in too far. If it pushes the tie down it can actually put your tracks out of gauge by squeezing the two rails in slightly. Keep your track gauge handy.

Scenery

Twigs from a Mountain Ash tree make great scale logs when they are allowed to dry. The bark dries with a wrinkled appearance and resembles scale bark. Cut some to log length as loads for cars or material at a saw mill but also cut some to the length for stumps. Don't cut all the way through so that when you break off the piece you are cutting it has a small ragged edge to represent the logging operation.

Bamboo curtain can be used to create telephone poles and fence posts. It will accept a stain quite well and can be split to create a cedar rail fence or fence posts in any popular scale. I have even used the bamboo to create log cabins in N scale and HO. Rafts and dock scenes are also possible with this wood.

Use a blend of isotrophyl alchol and india ink to create a black stain which is very useful to weather natural wood to appear like weathered cedar. It can also be used to stain railway ties.

Use a white glue ( carpenters glue ) and water mixture for applying your ballast or turf. Using an old paint brush "paint" some of the mixture on your dry and painted plaster then sprinkle your turf onto the wet scenery. If necessary you can spray some extra on to hold the turf even better. The glue will dry clear and flat finish so it will not be visible. It can also be applied with an eye-dropper.

Grow some Sedum in your garden over the summer and allow it to dry out in the fall. The large flower head can be broken apart into individual flower heads which can be used separately or glued together to great a fuller tree. If you want to glue them together remember to scrape the onion skin like bark from the outside or else thet will not glue together successfully. The flower head can be spray painted and then dusted with some turf to simulate the foliage.

Pull ragweed in the summer and allow the roots to dry out. It can then be trimmed and used to resemble dead trees in your forest or use it as an armature for trees by applying foliage to it

I use cork road bed to create roadways and streets for my vehicles. Use N scale for the roads ( split apart , properly spaced and filled in between with plaster ) and Ho for sidewalks. The difference in height between the HO and the N cork roadbed creates your curbs in town scenes. Use an old paint bush to apply a thin wash of diluted plaster of paris to it then sand and paint.

Green pot scubbing pads can be cut to various widths and the strip used to represent hedges on the layout. You can dip it into a white glue and water mixture and sprinkle it with turf to give it some texture.

The end from a standard pencil which holds the round eraser makes a great 45 gallon drum in HO scale. You can even cut a styrene top and sand the edges to create a sealed one.

Make great looking culverts by wrapping aluminum foil around a coarse threaded bolt. Its best to cut the foil to the appropriate size before you start to wrap it around the bolt. After applying about 3 or 4 layers back the bolt out of the piece and trim the culvert to size.

General

when cutting sandpaper up into pieces..don't use your scissors on the grit side...nothing dulls them faster. Score the underside and tear into pieces...usually works fine.
When putting small screws into trackwork such as Aristo Craft G scale track a drop of glue at the end of the screwdriver will hold the screw onto the end of the screwdriver to get into those hard to reach areas without the screw dropping off the end.