I have prototype pictures of a Guilford Railroad yard in 1984 where some tracks were rusty but still in service with weeds between the ties, other tracks had the rails removed and just the ties remained, and some tracks were only beds of ballast and the ties/rails were gone. I plan to model this in my staging yard, and it will serve as both an operational yard (active tracks) and scenic area (tracks being removed) at the same time.
I have never used static grass before but intend to buy a machine and practice first. But, I don’t know the process for applying static grass to railroad tracks so that it occurs mostly between the ties, not on them. Do I ballast first, then after the glue dries do another pass with static grass? Do I apply the ballast and static grass at the same time? How do I keep the static grass mostly from the tie tops?
I have some static grass clumps I can use, but was hoping to use a machine to model this. I don’t recall seeing a recent MR article about this, so hopefully someone can help with the order of operations and pictures.
A while back I finally finished some of the ballasting and “weeding” of a small yard on my layout.
I really wasn’t concerned with weeds between the rails as I was going for a yard that saw daily use but I did place some weeds between the tracks. Grain cars would often leak and things would get green pretty quickly.
Woodland Scenics and others make some strands that I like to use for tall weeds. These I push into a pre-drilled hole with a dab of white glue then trim later.
I have a fairly large sewing needle that I ground off part of the eye to form a two-pronged fork. I grip the sharp end of the needle in a pin vice. Place the strands folded over the fork and push into the hole.
I made my own grass zapper and I’m pleased with the results but in my experience it is best used for broad applications of static grass. The awkward practice of trying to place weeds between ties would be cumbersome to deal with the ground pin as you would most likely have to move it from “clump-to-clump”.
There are smaller, detail type static applicators now. I plan to look into making or buying one of these for my future “weeding” applications.
The static grass will only “stick” to where the glue is;
so
use a fine brush to place the glue between the ties and then zap the area with the static grass. When the glue is dry, vacuum up the loose fibres for use another time. The fibres will only stick to wet glue.
Use the best quality applicator you can afford, the best quality fibres and the best quality glue!
I wet the area with Alcohol first, the glue with flow into the Alcohol so you can stick the ground pin anywhere in a wet area. The grass will only stick to the glued areas.
I usually work in a small area at a time. I use a redundant perfume atomiser to spray the area to be worked on with a few drops of liquid soap added to water. This wicks into the existing ground cover and provides the path for the static electricity. I then paint the glue to the specific places I want the static grass to be added and apply the static grass fibres as soon as possible. The glue I use is fairly thick and does not wick into the sprayed water.
We keep two quarts of 70% AND 91%, one for train stuff and one for medical stuff. The train stuff goes a long way and the med stuff goes even further. My wife only has to re-up about once a year.
To model and unkempt track area, I use ground foam put after the ballast dries and some field grass. The grass isn’t too tall to allow a car to go over it flawlessly. I also add more rust colors. It looks kinda cool.
If ever there was a photo of an environmental mess that photo is a good one. Nothing would grow there and I bet you could not even find an Earthworm below decks.[(-D] Fortunately, I have seen the results of when similar nightmares have been clean up here on the West Coast. Nature did return.
You can put small areas of glue between the rails and use the static grass gun or you can use premade grass tufts. I have found that making small areas of static grass can work but it doesn’t always look as good as the tufts.
Dont apply static grass at the same time you have wet ballast glue. Do things one step at a time and let each layer dry thoroughly or you will have a big mess on your hands.
Here is some staic grass tufts and patches mixed to gether:
I like to use some tall field grass between ties, not a lot, but definitely enough to put some drag on rolling stock passing over. Normally I like free running, but when dealing with sidings and yards, there are different rules. When there is anything but perfectly flat terrain, free running rolling stock tends to, well, run free, and if you have strong uncouplers magnets, they may make it hard to spot cars because the metal wheels or axles are drawn to the magnets. That tall field grass will hold rolling stock in place without impeding motion.
I wouldn’t think you’d need static grass between the ties. Plain old turf should suffice. Static grass is great, I use it a lot, but between the rails it’s going to get lost.
