I was reading the post about abandoned lines tonight and it got me thinking… what about lines that aren’t abandoned, but owned by shortlines that only see occassional traffic, and don’t have the money for upkeep of the lines, resulting in ‘abandoned looking’ lines that are still in use.
My local shortline (the Great Walton RR, Covington, GA) was recently doing some switching at the CSX interchange, and while I was watching from a parkinglot across the street, I heard an extremely loud metallic scraping as they crossed the 5 lane hwy that runs through downtown Covington. On further inspection, I noticed that there was a place just on the other side of the hwy where the track had been very poorly maintained, and the weight of the cars had sunken the ties and bent the rail into about a 10" depression over the span of about 6 feet. The depression caused the front plate of the locomotive to scrape against the railhead as it when down into the sunken track. It was only on one side of the rail, so watching the loco and cars sway as they crossed the depression was scary to say the least. About two days later, I noticed a track gang was out trying to repair that section of track, but all they really did was lift the ties out of the muck, reballast the area, and set the track back down. So the depression is still there, just not as bad.
On the interchange stretch of track, it’s about a 150-200 yards long, primarily used for storing cars before CSX needs them, and occassionally used for older cars that are being shipped to the GWR’s storage tracks up near Monroe. The other day the tracks were empty, and I got a good look at the ‘straightness’ of the track. VERY out of alignment. Looked abandoned to the untrained eye for certain.
I started thinking… I know the tolerances in HO would be alot less than that in full scale railroad operations, so it would be difficult to duplicate entirely with success running an occassional train, but how about some ‘badly laid track’ with
Hmm, sounds like a good idea. If it is “rarely used”, possibly some short grass growing between the track. And there are ways to rust track harmlessly, I just don’t know how yet[:)]. Also, rotten-looking wooden ties would be a plus! I might have to work some of this stuff in with my short line. Hmmmmmmmmmm…[:-,]
If you’re actually going to run trains on it, I would hand lay track as best I could. But I would have some of the ties be broken, crooked, rotting, etc. and then have weeds growing in the roadbed. Have some dirt areas in the roadbed. Use smaller rail than your mainline. Paint it all a rusty color except for the rail head.
Enjoy
Paul
On a recent trip along the magnolia cutoff, we stopped to take pictures of a CSX train that had outlawed, there was a wye track that led to a interchange with another railroad, the rail was so light, and the track was so ill maintained, that just tapping it slightly with my foot walking over it caused the tie plate to shift.
If someone modeled it, the track would have to be Code 55.
Why not do your sidings and yards the same way? The mainlines get a great deal more attention than industrial siding or a part of the yard. A lot of “silver tie color” can give that rotten aged track and ballast underneath look.
Will
First,let me put one myth to bed…Our models is far more forgiving then was has been taught by the experts so called…Ever wonder how forgiving?Try some experiments and you will see…Wonder how a child can run his/her train set on the floor or dining room table with nothing more then a circle of snap track?
Now to the question…I have use a hammer and lightly tap a section of flex track in order to give it some dips and bows…Of course I then slapped a 10mph speed restriction across this section of bad trck…I never had a engine or car to derail.Find that hard to believe? Take a old section of flex track and try it…That just might give you what you are looking for as far as low maintenance track.
PS…Remove some of the plastic ties and replace with wooden ties.Split some of the ties and break some as well.
There was an article in Railroad Model Craftsman, I want to say sometime in the 1980s, in which an author deliberately kinked his handlaid track to resemble a run-down branch line. He had diagrams of what and wouldn’t work.
wasn’t there something in MR also? Something about putting plastic shims under one rail on one side, then further down one on the other.and just lay flex track unevenly,use dirt or cinders wtih sprinklings of foam as ballast,heck I might do my own layout like that, it’s a rundown branchline anyhow
There was another article about 2000 or 2001 ish in the same magazine. (It has to be that, becasue I remeber reading it this one teachers room. In high school. I just can’t remember which of the three classes it was I had with him) But this guy went the whole way. He discussed how to take stock Micro Engineering flex track. and make it look look half gone. He cut out tie spacers from the tie strips, Made ties crooked, removed ties. removed whole sections of ties so the rail could be laid across ties that he made to look half disintigrated and rotted. (Involved some trick with alohol based die and vinigar. I can’t remember exactly) All the classic halmarks that you would need for a rusting and decrepid shortline right of way. Fortunatly for the time being, I am only planning to model lines some what more prosperoous. (Though I might do that to some sidings on the logging line that I will have interchaning with my class one. [prividing there is room for it.]) The article stated there was no reason this couldn’t be used with any other brand of flex track. Just that Micro Engineering makes HO gauge track in the smaller codes that make this sort of run down affair look more natural.
In one of the Kalmbach books on track laying (there’s two and I can’t remember which one) They talked about taking out ties and putting some crooked to simulate the worn down look. This is also a good idea for siding which most of them aren’t perfectly laid track.
In the pentrex’s video best of the midwest Vol 2 the first shortline they visit is run down. So much so that they have jointed rail. In one shot while discussing the 10 mph speed limit on the line they show a shot down the tracks and it makes my trackwork look profesional. Which would make a good reason to run your trains slower than normal, making your mainline seem much larger.
Andrew
I can appreciate all the above replies and all, BUT, seems there’s always a b-u-t somewhere. Be aware that some locos{diesels withe three axle trucks, some ridged frame steamers) and some rolling stock may give more trouble then its worth if the track is too far out of level or too far “run down”. Especially on curves! ON three axle locos and three axle trucks the center axle will not allow the front or back axle to drop down in dips or uneven track, same with steam engines. I run a three axle trucked diesel to check newly laid track and believe me, track does not have to be out of level much to be detected with this method. Ken
I think what you may be looking for is the “illusion” of bad track. We have an are on our club layout where one of the members handlaid either code 70 or 55 rail. His ties are uneven and the track has a bit of a “wobble” to it. All of the equipment runs fine though. The key I think, is that since th track is hand laid, each rail takes on a personality where as using flextrack, the rails will virtually always stay aligned with each other. The weeds are a great idea, along with cinders, dirt, and heavy growth along the right of way.
rmc march 82…modelling track , very good ,weeds rough track painting
mr…july 99…weathering track on the franklin and south manchester
r m c…june 90…called on the right track…how to make flexi track better
mr…dec 82…track profiles
mr …feb 83… colouring track for max effect
mr…april 94…weathering track for realism…i use this a lot very good
there is an article about making very rough track …it even showed you how to make the track move as the train travels over it… (sounds like penn central)… not found it yet…will keep looking if enough interest shown…hope this will help…peter
geoge 745… will try and find issue and let you know…very good article… the track looks very rough but trains can go slowly over it…good for industrial track…i have 30 + years of articles from mr, craftsman and trains… i removed all of the articles i want to keep and keep them in folders for diferent subjects…very handy for reference…peter
I am not able to give any input about how to make the track just for the simple reason that I don’t have much experience with track laying. I was on a trip a few days ago in Fuquay-Varina, N.C. I came across this engine just sitting here and had to get out to look around. While taking some pictures I remember walking across some very bad tracks, it’s hard to see but in the first photo if you look from the bottom up the 6th and 7th ties are just about gone, farther up around the 19th 20th 21st and just before the engines shadow on the track those ties were bent so bad that they could be used for rocking chair bottoms. Like you said I think your talking about shortlines in the 2nd photo there is 3 sets of rails, the center one seemed to be the main line used and the other two were just used for holding cars. That’s my guess being there were a lot of boxcars sitting on the track just out side of the picture. Well that’s my [2c]
I remember reading the same article that Peter is speaking of, I remember the author cut a short section of track and somehow had it pivot on a center point, but I too read it way too long ago to remember which issue it was in.
In a recent Great Model RRs, within the past 2-3 years, the cover and lead article was about a Proto 87 layout that had jointed rail, the author took flex track, made alternating 39’ cut in each rail, then bent it a bit to simulate the track joints. It looked fantastic, in fact, the whole layout did.
I remember watching PennCentral GP38s rock and roll down a branch outside of Anderson, In back in the mid 70’s, and I loved watching them creep along thru the weeds.
Another good topic.
back again… just spent 5 hrs looking for the track article…found lots of interesting stuff but not the one i wanted… may be in a n m r a magazine or something…sorry …peter
