looking for advice on modeling railyards where there are sometimes no rail ties, dirt instead of ballast, road crossings, etc. For example, how can I make a dirt road where it crosses the track? This is all for HO scale. thanks.
I bought Sassi’s book Basic Scenery for Modelrailroaders, a Kalmbach book and followed his ideas. I changed ground goop to Liteweight drywall seam cement, latex paint and sawdust, becasue I had the ingredients. It also takes a day to dry and gives time for detail at a slow pace. I laid the track on WS foam roadbed and filled in with goop. That allowed me to do a pond on the plywood without cutting.
Here is a pic before ballest or weeds but after first round of ground cover.
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There are several ways to model a grade cossing. A dirt road crossing in a yard could be lumber between the rails and gravel up to the outside of the rails. Or it can be all gravel and dirt. Whatever you use, the main things to pay attantion to is the flangeways and height of the crossing between the rails. You should have a NMRA Standards Gauge in your modeling tool box. Use it to check clearence for the flangways. The crossing at the center should not be higher than the railhead, otherwise the coupler trip pin could hit.
Same thing if you bury the rails in soil. The flangeways must be clear and the center at or below the railhead.
Test out your work by pushing a pair of trucks, with metal wheels, back and forth with your finger to feel for any bumps or snags.
No ties? Sometimes ties will become buried in dirt, creating the illusion of no ties, but they’re still there–even where rails are buried in concrete or other street surface, generally there are ties underneath. Use whatever you’re using for scenery (dirt) to bring the scenery level up to slightly below the railhead (so you can clean track without trashing your scenery) and use an old cheapo plastic wheelset/truck to dig out grooves for your wheel flanges (a nice, far-deeper-than-prototype flange is best for this.) This works for Sculptamold, plaster, drywall mud or Ground Goop.
To really get the ‘look,’ have one track completely submerged in the mud, with an X of grabbed-off-the-ground planks fastened across the target of the associated switchstand. ‘Plant’ lots of weeds, and even a small bush or two. Decorate liberally with scraps of newspaper (shredded toilet tissue) and something that resembles the shards of broken bottles.
Add a couple of rusty, beat-up Conrail cars and you’ll have a virtual duplicate of a Conrail yard I railfanned in the mid-'70’s.
Chuck