Time for Track on the Mascoutin Valley

Steps

1. Paint the Track.
2. Spike the Track.
3. After Spiking 3 feet of track, run rolling stock back and forth on the track for two hours and imagine trains running on your railroad.
4. Over analyze the size of the spikes.
5. Trim the spikes.
6. Spike more track.

Paint the track

I needed to paint the rails before I spiked them down.  I had this big idea of hand painting the rails.  So the first thing I tried was painting Model Master Rail Tie Brown on shiny, new Micro Engineering Code 70 Rail.  It didn't stick.  Next I tried good ol' craft store paint!  Burnt Sienna.  That worked OK but after a half an hour I only had 4 rails painted...at that rate I'd have my railroad done by 2047.  So I needed to switch to another paint...a spray paint.  So I chose this, Krylon Camouflage Brown Ultra Flat.  You can see the rail against the red Krylon Logo.  I also painted 16 rails in about 20 seconds.  One last thing about the rail.  I do intend on touching it up with Pan Pastels and other weathering techniques.

I really like this color.  Looks like real rail in the north woods.

Spiking down the Rail

Easy, right?  Kind of.  First the tools.  Two Code 70 Triangle gauges, one NMRA standards gauge and a good pair of needle nose pliers.  I took the rail stood it up on the ties, put my two triangle gauges on top of the rails in the area I wanted to work.  Next I grabbed a spike (Micro Engineering Medium Spikes) and put over half of the spike in the pliers before I pushed it into the railroad tie.  I made sure to spike straight up and down.  Its important to "choke down" on the spikes and go straight up and down if you don't, you will bend the spikes and start swearing! And I only spiked in every 6 ties or so.  I got the first 3 feet of rail done and this is what it looked like.

Spike heads are a little bigger than expected.  Not too bad though.  I like the contrast of rail to tie color!

Trimming the Spike Heads

Since I thought my spike heads were a bit big, I took to crowd sourcing (model rail radio facebook page) to get some advice on what to do with my over sized spikes.  Matt Newman (a facebook buddy - check out his blog!) and a couple other model rail radio chums chimed and mentioned to give them a trim.  So I took a side cutters and started trimming the spike heads.  This wasn't a precise process.  Put the spike head in the side cutters and snip.  The heads go flying if you don't shoot them into something so put your hand behind the cutter head to prevent them from flying everywhere. So WATCH OUT!  Here's my technique.  Its not the most exciting thing to do so I put on a podcast, A Modelers Life is a good podcast to listen to while doing this side project.  Just be sure not to stick your finger in the side cutter!

The Rail closest to the camera has the trimmed spikes.  Nice to have rolling stock on the rails!

Next time I'll be showing you how I create a turnout (switch) using Fast Tracks tools.

I want to thank everyone for reading! If you're on Facebook be sure to check out the Mascoutin Valley Railroad Page.  I put pictures on there and have discussions with anyone who posts!

Post any you comments or questions you have!

Till next time keep 'er in Notch 8!

"Tie"ing up 2015

I'd like to take a bit and review my model railroading hobby for 2015 and I'd like to show more progress on the layout!

Review of 2015

2015 was a big year for me in terms of model railroading.  I learned so much about this hobby its hard to describe it all.  I'll just hit a few high points.

Model Building

I hadn't built anything in 15+ years.  I had no idea what my skill level was.  So I took a Freight House kit that I built for my club module.  It had a really bad paint job and was barely weathered.  So I took it apart and started over.  And I repainted it.  I repainted everything.  Windows, Doors, trip, roof siding, and platform.  It went from an off colored orange monstrosity into a nicely weathered freight house that from a distance might mistake for a craftsman kit.  I must admit I did not finish it 100%.  I got it about 90% done.  The only thing that remains for me to complete is the interior and the lighting.  But other than that take a look and see what an ol' Tyco Kit looks like when you put a little elbow grease into it.

This is a nice head on shot of the Freight House.

DCC

In 2015 I learned what Digital Command Control (DCC) was.  Before I started back into the hobby I had no exposure to DCC.  All I knew about it was that you could control a locomotive with a magic hand held device.  I read a few books, watched a video or two and I caught on to it pretty quickly.  In no time I learned how to apply it.  I got so comfortable with DCC I started hard wiring DCC decoders into non DCC locomotives.  DCC is one of those things that just clicked.  I learned how decoders work and understood how a command center sends information packets to a decoder wired into a locomotive through wires then rails  Check out the link to a DCC decoder install video I uploaded on my Facebook Page for the Mascoutin Valley Railroad!

DCC Decoder Video

2016 and Beyond

I'm not sure what the future will hold but I'm pretty excited.  I feel I have a good grasp of todays model railroading fundamentals.  I am eager to start hand laying my own track and developing a model railroad that can be running trains in the next few months.

Ties, Ties, Everywhere the Ties...

 We've got the track plan transferred to the homasote roadbed and that means its time to start laying ties.  I took the approach of a madman when it came to laying ties.  I took 3/32" square basswood strips and cut them to 8'6" scale foot boards.  Before you call the loony bin, I had help I used a Northwest Shortline "Chopper" with the length set to 8'6" and made railroad ties as I watched TV.

Once I got all of them cut, I loaded up a "Tie Jig" that I made.  Then I took some frog tape (green painters tape) and ripped it into a thin strip.  I then took the tape and laid it on top of the ties in the jig.  It gave me a "string of ties" that I could lay down.  I laid some glue down on the lines from the track plan, spread it out with my finger and laid the ties down on the glue.  Below is a picture of me laying ties down.  I used yellow wood glue to glue down my ties.

Notice the Frog Tape on the strips of ties.

Once I got all the ties down I stained them.  This is pretty self explanatory.  See the picture below.

 
Once the ties were stained I needed to start weathering them.  I wanted to give the impression that these ties were old, worn out and sun-baked ties.  I took an incremental approach to this.  Add the gray wash first then come in with white highlights when the wash dried.  I made a wash of cheap craft store gray acrylic paint and water.  See the effect it creates in the picture below.

Gray wash applied to a few ties on the lower siding.

After I added the wash I dry brushed some white acrylic paint on the ties.  See the effect achieved in the picture below.

White Dry Brush applied to achieve the UV damage.

Rinse and Repeat to apply it to the entire taconite plant!  I will continue to weather the ties, but this is good enough for now to get some rail laid.

Next time I'll be showing you how I prep the rail and get it ready to spike down and with a little luck we'll get a few feet spiked down.

I want to thank everyone for reading and be sure to check out my facebook page where I post pictures and videos specific to the Mascoutin Valley Model Railroad.  Facebook Page Link.  Post any you comments or questions you have!

Till next time keep 'er in Notch 8!