As you all are probably painfully aware by now, my latest layout attempt is the downtown area of the town in which I am living. So I thought I would tell you my plan for making the asphalt and you can tell me where I may be prone to error.
I plan to use drywall mud.
On the outside of the rails, I plan to leave the street slightly lower than the rail for cleaning, etc.
On the inside of the rail, I plan to cut .040 strips and tack them to the rail using rubber cement. Then after the streets are poured and sanded, I can pull these strips off easily.
For the throw bars, I plan to create service boxes out of styrene with a hole in the top plate large enough to be pulled with a hobby pick to leave the connection to the pull cable accessible. From the top it should look like a metal service plate.
The points I haven’t worked out yet. I know what the space looks like that must be cleared for the points, I just haven’t figured out how to keep that area clear during the application of the plaster. I could use suggestions here.
I used plaster and scraped it with home made tools. (from a box car weight )
Wolfgang
I use Durhams Water Putty, but this trick should work for either medium. As you apply the mud, use a wet foam brush to smooth it. Keep working it every few minutes to get rid of bumps, depressions and bubbles. This is a lot easier and less messy than sanding later.
I paint my roads with a thin wash of gray acrylic. I deliberately do NOT try to mix colors. The wash gives me a bit of uneven coloration anyway, which looks more realistic. Since I always use the same unmixed color, I don’t have any trouble matching it up for later roadbuilding. I use styrene between the rails, and paint it with the same color. I weather the between-the-rails part more than the roads, which covers up the flatness and uniform color of the styrene.
Question: Why do you need to sand? I diluted dry wall mud with water and soap and used a trowl to make it smooth…a couple drops of dish soap gives you more time to play with the ‘mud’…I built up layers if required but I would avoid the sanding! Switch points… argh! That’s a challenge, make sure your happy with the switch, frog, electrical conduction… I spent hours pain stakingly wiring jumpers from points to rails just to make sure there would be no issues. Diverging rails seem to always lose the electrical contact. Once this is done create a styrene box to prevent plaster from entering under the switch points. Top the box off with a sheet of styrene sheet that interfaces with the bottom of the throw bar. Next install the switch. Pour the plaster in, I did not use styrene strips for the wheel flange clearance, instead I waited for the plaster to set up a bit and ran some deep flange wheels through the plaster, let it dry then cleaned up the rest with a bright boy, I cycled the switch by hand and cleaned up the mud off of the points as it began to set with a sharp pic…this is risky but it worked. Of course I only had to do two switches, however mainline trains passed through it with out ever stalling and the switches worked with no derailments. If you have multiple switches to do how about making a styrene insert locally at the points that can be removed after the plaster dries.
If you decide to abandon the the mud idea. I used cut styrene, sanded the tops to rough up the shine, and painted it concrete color then installed them and had good results too…
Mouse, I am all for putty/foam/plaster/mud/real sifted dirt outside the turnout, and perhaps up to the frog, but keeping the hinge/joiner joint of the closure rails clear and the throwbar is a major consideration as you are obviously aware. I would use styrene from the frog on down and leave the points as clear as required for full throw. Styrene can be taken up, trimmed, replaced, retaken up, trimmed, sanded, painted, etc. If you really want to experiment, make a small mockup and try the full treatment with mud on one sacrificial turnout.
If you do wish to persevere with the mud/plaster, use painter’s tape, inverted (sticky facing upward so its stuck to the nether sides of the ties) under the throwbar/points area far enough toward the closure hinges, and form a “tub” of tape to protect the belly of the turnout from permitting mud to seep in under the rails, between the ties, at the throwbar especially. You will have to make “tub ends” with strips of tape stuck to the long sides of one or more ties between the rails for security. Once that tub is formed, you should be good to go. Once the plaster has set, but before it is too hard, use a cutter and take away visible tape, and start gouging out the flange-paths. This is where that four wheel truck you and I were talking about would come in handy again, to prove the paths you’ve created.
-Crandell
That is awesome! I’ll have to give it a whirl.
I don’t know whether it would apply to the streets you are modelling but how aboutlooking at some of the brick, cobbled or stone sett patterned plastic sheets made by Walthers and others to provide both infill (maybe between the rails) and variety in places in the streets in general?
If not in the streets maybe you could use this in the coalyard? Or a narrow strip across the gateway to mark the property boundary?
Whatever you get up to please let us see both hw you did it and the result… even if it goes wrong (I hope it won’t)… how not to do it is just as useful as how to very often.
I’ve previously been advised on the forum to lay string inside the rails before spreading plaster. I think that maybe it was waxed string? The idea was to ease it out after the plaster dried.
Persoanlly I would go withadding a dull colour… grey or whatever to the plaster. As road surfaces get so much top coat/weathering I wouldn’t be bothered about matching it again if it neded repair or alteration later… but when it was waiting maintenance a grey (or similar) colour would show up much less than white. Any repair can always be made to look like a roadworks repair/patch… or a pothole…
[8D]
I thought of doing a street in these cobbles:
After doing this short stretch, I was glad I didn’t do any more. The cobbles are a Hydrocal casting from a mold I made using a piece of artificial honeycomb. It’s not too bad making a slab, but when it has to go up to the tracks, the casting is way too thick so I had to Dremel off the back until the whole thing was wafer thin. That’s why there are “missing” cobbles.
Have you considered making single point “trolley” switches that are designed for paved areas? One point is moveable and in the place of the other “point” is a something like a frog that allows the wheels to run which ever route the point side directs them. The flanges of the wheels ride on the frog casting.
If you are using conventional switchces have you considered making a wood filler for the point area. Pavement on the rest and a wood planking like a grade crossing around the points. You could then build a dam on either side of the points, pour the mud and then after it dries, remove the dams and install the planking over the points. may not be as typical, but I have seen it done.
Dave H.
I’m beginning to like the idea of styrene in the turnout. It would give me the control over the turnout I desire, plus allow me to protect the points and throw bar. I can mud the outsides and flex track.
Daves,
I want to stick with asphalt as per the prototype but either idea would have worked.