I’m working on my yard right now. The tracks have been in place for years but now I’m (finally) laying down the ballast, ground cover and related structures.
I’m looking at Google aerial images of actual railroad yards near the area I’m modeling and I see that the ties are all different shades. I’m replicating this effect by dry-brushing acrylics using varying types of browns and greys/black on random ties, but can anyone explain the prototypical reason why each tie is colored differently? It can’t just be weathering, otherwise all of the ties would be the same color, or at least sections of them would be. So what’s the actual reason?
Google Maps aerial image of Union Pacific Bakersfield, CA yard:
I would venture that such photos can be at least somewhat misleading. There’s an aerial photo artifact involved. You’re not looking at a difference in color so much as a difference in color density. In most cases, the lighter-colored ones are not really a different color at all; their actual color is obscured by dirt, gravel, ballast, or yard crud. Some may actually be better visible in an overhead photo - if only by outline - than they are at eye level. Certainly any tie that’s been replaced will be intrinsically different, something new looking unlike anything that’s been weathered, oiled, sun-bleached, splattered with whatever, and who knows what else for the last 43 years. But in the photo you’ve included, I’d bet that well over 90% of those ties once looked exactly the same. And the closer you get to them, the more alike they are.
It might be more helpful to find a spur to an industry nearby and note how alike almost everything is. Or find an street overpass with a sidewalk that spans a main line on the way out of town. Same thing with them.
Tie replacement programs rarely replace ALL the ties in a given area. A crew will pass through and mark the worst ones for replacement. Sometime later the replacement gang comes along and changes out those marked.
Might be every fifth tie, maybe more, maybe less depending on budget, projected traffic or age of the majority of ties.
A track diagram will have notations on type of rail, when it was lsat renewed, average age of ties, type of ballast along with usual degree of curvature and grade.
Sure, after a few years they all get aged and ‘blended in’ but for the year or so after a tie gang has been through the new ones will stand out.
Here’s an example on the left hand track where about half the ties have been renewed.
Definitely a resource though. Its helped me get my track looking better. Although one group had members who called fast track products “toys” because the handbuilt switches don’t have tie plates. Seriously. I like realistic rail, but scale tie plates is too much for me.
Agreed. I gave up idealism in mundane issues some years ago - if only for it’s being too time-consuming and impractical. I now reserve it for more fundamental or eternal issues.
Model railroading is really great and even therapeutic, but if it’s become one’s be-all and end-all, a reset may well be in order. But I digress, being out of the Diner.
When ties are actually replaced on a piece of track they only replace a few of them, they don’t re-do ALL the ties on a whole track. So all of those ties are different ages. Unless a whole brand new track is laid the ties will NOT be put down at the same time in a section when that section has been there and maintained over many years.
Add to that simple variations in how the ties are treated and weathered on an individual basis and there will be a fair bit of variation from tie to tie.
Main and other more heavily trafficked tracks will be maintained to a higher level. Meaning more tie replacements at a younger age than yard and industrial tracks, and better ballast maintenance and fewer buried ties.
Passing trains also kick up dust, rust, and oil that spread along the tracks and also contribute to evening out weathering.
Yes, the newer the wooden tie, usually the darker it is.
Tie replacement on main lines are on a preplanned replacement schedule. (Although with the cost cutting and Wall Street butt smooching the time between replacements has gotten longer.) The replaced ties that still have life left will cycle down to yard and sidings or be sold to short lines or tourist operators. Some will go to non-railroad use like landscaping.
Ties in yards normally are changed out only when they absolutely have to. I believe the requirement is 8 good ties per rail length, using 39 ft lengths, for 10 mph operation. So the emphasis to change out a lot of ties in a yard isn’t there.
The same with rail. I remember around 1999/2000 working as a switchman in a yard originally built in the 1920s. There were quite a few tracks in use that still had the original rail from that date.
I’d be curious if Google maps would show clearer images.
For what it’s worth, I use two different ballast colors. The light gray is for the mainline and the darker is in the sidings and yard. I also read you can put down some fine black in the yards ti replicate coal which fell off the hoppers. Another way to make the yard ballast darker is the occassional oil spots.
A fairly dramatic demonstration of different ‘eras’ of tie maintenance is the line immediately to the west of East Hampton station, where the oldest ties are practically white and heavily weathered, and the newest ones are creosoted and dark, with several grades between. This is fairly heavy rail, carefully bonded and relatively frequently lined and surfaced.
Something that has not been mentioned is the effect of spillage from cars. A number of those light spots in the picture appear to be piles of light-colored material in the cribs or piled on the ties; some of the other areas look like fouled ballast or mud pumping. Modeling this would be straightforward but not accomplished too well just with varicolored ties of particular ‘standard’ colors each.
