light weight solutions to scenery work AND early rust on track!

[Anonymous]

My layout is predominately pink insulation board and metal studding. As a result it is relatively light in weight.
I wonder if cut up (& painted) insulation will appear to be decent rail ties?
Has anyone worked with light weight materials for New England style stone walls; a tidal marsh; or rail bed?
I have not tried a blender w/ the pink insulation but it may turn out to be the answer for gravel and stone effects.
The pink saw dust is fairly bland although I've not painted it.
AND.....RUST
The rust: layout is in basement that is as dry as a typical basement. After 12 months some track, straight, curve, and switch has developed rust. What can I do to safely remove the rust? What should I do to prevent rust?
I use Simple Green to clean the track.

Thanks for your interest and aid.

[jefelectric]

I don't know how much track you have installed, but the simple answer is go with Atlas Nickel Silver Track.

[FJ and G]

a bit of rust won't hurt. Just keep your track clean.

If you're using tubes, the main issue w/rust is the trackpins. Easy enough to solder jumpers around the sections.

you might want to invest in an ohm meter and periodically do some track tests

Atlas n/s track is really good (as is GG), tho more expensive than tubes.

As to your other questions, I recommend making a list of specific questions and putting them in separate posts. You'll get more responses that way. [;)]

[wrmcclellan]

HuizC,

Try a little WD-40 and Scothbrite to clean the rust off. WD-40 will help keep the rust in control and it is conductive!

Regards,
Roy

[marxalot]

While you might be able to easily clean rust off exposed track I would be concerned about it occuring elsewhere not so accessible and paper products can't be scraped off so well. They don't rust but will be affected by high humidity. We run a couple of dehumidifiers through the summer and really into late fall depending on the temperature......... If we don't the basement gets a bit clammy anyhow..........


Jim

[lionelsoni]

Whatever its virtues, WD-40 does not conduct electricity.

[thor]

Scotchbrite is good for getting off rust and its also good for trees!

...lightweight solutions to scenery.....(not what you meant, but)
If you pull a Scotchbrite pad apart carefully, you'll find its sort of layered and you can get those layers to peel off so that they're almost transparent, like a soft fabric which cut up and draped and glued to various dried plant skeletons makes exellent looking trees.

A bit of spray glue and a scattering of tea leaves makes the best looking foliage.

[tjsprague]

re

QUOTE: Has anyone worked with light weight materials for New England style stone walls

I've done quite a bit of modeling with pink and blue insulation. My layout is primarily pre and early postwar, so it's a bit more toy-like than some. But here's some techniques and results.

First, my old Christmas layout was 4' of foam insulation which sat on the floor. i rough cut the foam then very lightly painted that ough surface with gray and tan latex.


For my new Christmas layout I wanted to add some depth, so i cut out a bit of the frame and foam to make a frozen pond with a "granite" wall around it.



I painted the ice surface on a piece of illustration board and slipped it under the foam insulation before gluing it all together.



then I carved the blocks with a drill bit on a Dremmel tool. painted itwith acrylic artist paints, using a few tones of gray along with some pale yellow to give it some natural granite tones.



Oops. I made the "ice" about 1" short of the pond area. So I cut some extra granite blocks to look like remnents of a long forgotten bridge or pier.



Not bad. Almost looks like i planned it that way.



Final product, light, whimsical, but a touch of modeling and detail approriate for the toy-train look.

From the ever under-construction big layout....



Another granite wall, this time along a winding river. I'll also be modeling a granite quarry. I'll post pix if i get to it anytime soon.

Good luck, let us know how you make out.

Tim

[thor]

Tim thats a very realistic looking frozen pond! Clever the way you made it look like it had skate cuts on it

[Anonymous]

If you want to make light weight mountains or hills use aluminum screen wire, paper towels and textured paint. It is much lighter than hydrocal of plaster of paris.

It is available at paint stores in cans or as a powder to be mixed with water.

Charlie

[Jumijo]

Here's a link to a thread with some photos the Chief took of my layout. I'll be posting some more later this week. The entire field stone wall surrounding the farm, set in New Hampshire, is carved from pink insulation board. If you saw it up close, you'de be amazed at how real it looks. I even carved in a broken section. The tunnel portals are also made by me using a pencil to scribe in the brick and mortar lines.Anything is possible if you try.

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=57096

Jim