In most real life railroads there are discarded track or extra rails in a yard. I cant figure out how to do this and there as far as i can tell no products for this intresting peice of senary. Does anyone know how to do this or a product for it?
To be glib about it, there is a product. Its called “rail.”
In order to model it, you do the same that the full size guys down: take a length of rail of arbitrary length, then put it on the ground.
Yeah. Just take a few sections of sectional track, or maybe some cut-offs of flex track for “extra track” in the yard. Use scrap rail - or pop some out of some extra or damaged track - for the “extra rail”. I’d paint and weather it before putting it in place.
Brad
Sounds like you guys are talking about panel track? Maybe the OP is talking about rail racks, though?
Back when stick rail was the standard and section crews had short areas of track to maintain, there were often racks that held a few lengths of rail just high enough off the ground to make them easy to get underneath and lift. That way a broken or bent rail could be quickly replaced.
I’ve seen these modeled a number of different ways reflecting the variety of prototype practices. Usually just a few pieces of treated wood, sometimes made of old rail itself, usually about a foot off the ground and set back from the track, but close to it. Most held a dozen or so pieces of rail.
I haven’t seen any discarded track in a yard, but I have seen it with sidings. They were generally grown over with grass. In some places you could see the ties but in others just the top of the rail showing. In other instances where the track crossed a street and had been asphalted over some of the top of the rail showed in places where the asphalt had worn off.
The RRs don’t like to spend money to make things neat so they just let Mother Nature take its course.
You could just take some pieces of rail without the ties and scenic accordingly.
Let’s see some pictures
Bob
Eh? Yes they will let mother nature take its course, but they will sweep up all of the iron. THAT stuff has a good scrap value. They go out there with magnets and pick all of their stuff up just the same as we do on our layouts. MR had a picture of such a purpose built beast.
In yards, they stack snips of tracks and stuff, because you never know when you will need a piece of metal.
ROAR
I know most modelers thinks it’s a keen idea to leave discarded track carelessly laying about…
However…
There are safety issues involved that we must remember…The discarded or replacement rail rail must be far enough from the track so,it doesn’t become a tripping hazard as switchmen go about their work.
How would you like to swing off a car in the middle of the night only to trip over a rail and end up under the wheels,bashing your head on another track or falling into another moving train?
Model with safety in mind.
You’re kidding I hope, model with safety? We’re talking about model railroad on a train layout, not full scale track lying on the floor around your layout, yes that would be a safety hazzard, but I have never seen a modeler using full scale track . If you are referring to the little plastic men on the layout getting injured, I doubt it very much.
I have always seen racks built for the purpose of storing the rail pieces off the ground for the reasons stated by Brakie.
Safety and ease of retrieval when needed. I can not imagine needing rail and then have to look all over the area to find some. Railroads do not work that way.
My post was referring to abandoned track.
Bob
Bob,You are correct…I have seen abandon track that had small trees growing in the gauge.
Unless its been completely paved over I can show you some ties that dates back to 1941!
This was C&O’ s branch line from Garrison(Ky) to Carter (Ky) around 22 miles…This lines source of traffic was crushed stone.
If you don’t model proper safety practices I’ll get the impression that your full-scale approach to safety might be equally hazardous. Maybe it’s my years of pounding a flight line, where even a pebble or the snipped end of a cotter key was unacceptable clutter. (Why? that little bit of discard can destroy $$$ worth of jet engine parts.)
A few ways to make rail look prototypical around a railroad yard:
- Cut pieces of flex (or straight sectional) track to 39 foot length and stack them up. Panel track, used for quick repairs or rapid assembly of new trackage.
- Make a rack and lay lengths of loose rail on it. Pieces of odd length should have one end painted whatever color your road uses for non-standard lengths.
- Pile them, none too neatly, in a beat up MOW gondola. Pulled from an unused siding or abandoned route.
And along the right-of-way, stretch full-length rails along the roadbed - either discarded when new rail was laid or (in my case) preparation for laying new rail on the new concrete ties. (Note that new rail was only in place for a short period - about six weeks in the case of my prototype. The discards were unbolted and gone a week after the swap. This wouldn’t be a, `Full length of the transition era,’ scene. Since I only model one month, I can get away with it.)
Now about that 1:1 scale rail. My doorstop is a 16 inch length of well-used #60 steel. It’s also handy for anchoring the load when I take cardboard to the recycling center in my pickup.
Some of my books show Southern Railway yards that did not have racks to store rail in, it was laying off to one side (possibly on old ties to keep it off the ground). Photos taken a couple years apart from the same vantage point show the rail still there, though the later shot shows less rail. I think it’s safe to say it was kept “on hand” there. These shots were taken in the 50’s (I think).
I plan on having at least one or two abandoned tracks, maybe an abandoned spur/siding somewhere. Panel track - even if it was fairly common in 1957 - would be out-of-place on my prototype, since I model a lightly trafficked branchline. If anything, it MIGHT be appropriate for the nearest junction with the mainline, and even there it would probably be out of place (unless they had plans to do some track work in the near future). So that means I probably won’t be modeling any panel track. I might add some spare rail where the abandoned track is, it could be considered rail that had been recently removed, and kept close by for repair - since the branch uses lighter rail than the main.
Brad
I have a few places along the line where rail is placed atop two or three lineside ties. The one shown below has a couple of heavy planks across the closely-spaced rails on the bottom tier, allowing the rails on them to be easily lifted or slid to one side:
Another one here, on the unfinished area between the main and the siding:
some more…
Wayne
I think the key word is MODEL.
So you have to concider what the full size real world does and if nesasary do some research, when placing any scenic element.
So if the real world don’t dump it there, then the model can’t dump it there.
Because if you do instant loss of realism
In our miniature world that is just as important as scale fidelity.
regards John
Surely you jest?
Modeling railroad safety is just as important as modeling stop signs on our model streets…Of course I’m talking about believability and advanced modeling that comes with knowledge through observation and study of the prototype…
I used old brass sectional track I had on hand that I was not going to use. Just strip the rail off the ties or cut the ties and rail in sections if you want panel track. Make a rack in a part of your yard or on a Maintenance of Way siding to hold the rail or lay on some ties on the ground.
If new the rail should be a little lighter shade of rust than your rail on the right of way. New rail used to be in 39 foot lenghts but I don’t know how long the new continous rail might be. Brass track usually can be picked up pretty cheap at train shows as most people have gone to nickel silver track.
Jim
Never know when a railroad may need a chunk of rail. My N scale section had a foam surface that was coming up, and needed to be glued down and WEIGHTED.
So you weighted, and waited, and waited … [(-D]
Brad
Bethlehem Steel’s local industrial railroad, the Conemaugh & Black Lick, always had “spare rail” stacked at convenient intervals to be used at a moment’s notice. Take special note that CB&L also stacked “spare ties” in the same manner.
A good source is to use older brass track that is collecting dust. Purchasing a “lot” of old brass rail on eBay can also be cost -efficient.