I am in the process of making a whole bunch of middle of nowhere level crossings. I am really bad at colours, so I am asking, how does this look? I just put it in this spot for a quick pic. So that is the reason there is no grade up to the crossing. All suggestions greatly appreciated.[:)]
Color looks good but planks too wide!!!
Thanls rrebell.
You are right. I went to a Government website that had the regs and it said five or six boards should be used between the rails and a minimum of two boards on the outside of the rails. After looking at some more photo’s I will use more boards. I am glad I asked, thanks.
Looking good. I would suggest if you want to have an older looking crossing, use a light gray for a more weathered wood look.
The other thing I noticed is the ends might want to be tapered a bit so that “stuff” hanging from the train wouldn’t catch the ends of the planks.
Have fun,
Richard
Thanks Richard
I remembered about tapering the ends after I painted.[D)] I will correct that problem in the next edition. I’ll try a bit more gray, however it does look more gray in real life than it does in the photo.
There are a few wooden railroad crossings and wooden bridges in my area. In most cases the wood is a medium biege with a few somewhat pronounced darker lines where the grain has opened up and dirt has settled. They don’t appear to have been treated with anything because there is no difference in colour between the worn areas and the sides where there is no traffic. In a few cases there are slight depressions in the travelled areas where the tires run but nothing extreme.
I’m not sure if the railways would have treated the crossing boards like they did the ties, but I kind of doubt it. Logic suggests that treating them would have made them rather slippery in the rain.
[2c]
Dave
There is an excellent picture of a lighter coloured wooden grade crossing posted by Rob Spangler on another recent thread:
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3759/9396482434_7fd57eb025_c.jpg
Dave
Thanks Dave, those are good examples. I stopped by the local R/C shop today and picked up some more appropriate sized lumber for the crossings. Cost me a whopping $2.42. I then carried on with the wife and spent $1200.00 on tile. The wife wants the kids bathroom done. [sigh]. It may be a while until I get back to the crossings. Tomorrow it’s paint, a new bathtub, two sinks, three sets of taps and a toilet. I need a[D][:'(]
If those wider boards are an easy fit, you can just scribe each board to represent the narrowed version. Placing individual ‘strips’ does, however, allow you to 'beat up" the stripwood as you install to show a more accurate old weathered crossing. The brown stai (creosote) that you are using is fine for newer or replaced boards, you can easily add washes to lighten. I also agree w/ the chamfering of the ends. had a crossing that was just a touch above the railhead and would snag low items and cause a derailment.
These boards were chamfered after this pic was taken.
Those look really good Bob. I was exploring with Google earth street level last night looking at crossings and I think you have nailed the colour that I saw on there. What colour washes did you use? To my colour challenged eyes yours look more brown than gray. Also what was the base colour? Thanks for the help.
These were stained w/ Old English (dark) furniture polish. It’s more oil than wax. Slight drybrushing (brown, white and black variations mixed on pallet) and washes w/ light brown. The Old English may need a couple stainings as it tends to lighten after a few days. I use mixes of Minwax for the most part now.
All of the ones I’ve seen (not recently, though) used creosoted lumber. It’s pretty obvious when they’re first installed, but it doesn’t take long for dirt and dust to lighten the colour. On gravel and dirt roads, the colour change is even quicker and more severe.
Is creosote even in use nowadays? New ties look similar to the way they’ve always looked, but they don’t smell the same or to the same degree.
Wayne