Anyone have any tips on building a railroad grade crossing with styrene?
Bear "It's all about having fun."
Bearman
I assume your talking about the road surface across the tracks, be it wood, concrete or rubber. I have modeled several "wood plank" grade crossings using styrene. I work in HO scale and use Code 83 track. Thus, I use .040" styrene to create the wood planking and shim this up with .030" styrene to get the planking just below the tops of the rails. I start by scribing parallel grooves spaced about 1/8" apart in a piece of .040" styrene. I generally cut the .040" styrene into 1/4" wide strips (two planks) for the planking outside the rails and 1/2" wide (four planks) for the planking inside the rails. I then distress the strips using a razor saw and coarse sandpaper and scribe perpendicular grooves across indiviual planks to simulate butt joints. I also make shallow cuts in the ends of the crossings to simulate separate planks. At this point, I glue 1/8" wide strips of .030" styrene to the underside of the planking. On the outside planking, I attach the .030" shim strip to the outside edge of the planking and let the inside edge sit on the track spike details. Similarly, I attach the shim strips to the inside-rail planking just inside the edges of the planking strips so as to clear all spike/tie plate details.
At this point, I spray the pieces (top and bottom) with dark gray primer as a base coat. I then brush paint the wood planking surface with washes of browns, greys and tans. Using washes allows the dark primer to show through adding to the effect of wood grain. A little weathering using an ink/alcohol wash adds a little more depth. Once I'm happy with the wood coloring, I add bolt heads using an ultra fine point black Sharpie marker.
If the grade crossing is on a curve, I limit the length of the planking strips and cut the ends on an angle so that several plank strips will butt together along the curve.
I generally use dabs of latex caulking to glue the plank strips to the rail ties. I like to model my roads using a sheet foam crafting product known as Fun Foam. I cut the road edge even with the ends of the rail ties. Being that this material remains fairly resilient, even after painting, I can squeeze the outside-rail plank strips between the edge of the road paving and the outside of the rails. This makes it look as though the roadway paving was poured right up to the wood planking. Add ballast to the tracks and the result is a rather attractive grade crossing.
Several people who have seen my grade crossings have commented that "they also prefer to model wood using real wood." I'm not about to spill the beans that they're really looking at plastic!
Hornblower
I've used real wood with scale 4" x 8" lumber treated with a wash of isopropyl alcohol and black liquid shoe polish. You could use india ink here instead of liquid shoe polish. To darken the wood further, weathering powders or chalks could be used. One word of advice, if you're using real wood it is best to use the wash before putting the planks in place, as any glue that may get on the surface will seal it and leave light spots where the glue is.
Paved crossings using .060" sheet styrene as road material. Sitting atop the Atlas spike heads, the road surface is only a few thousandths of an inch lower than the code 83 rail - that means only a small bump for motorists, but the road surface is not affected if you need to clean track. The material between the rails is .080" thick, and sits directly on the tie tops, leaving flangeways in the areas where the spikeheads are located:
The same method works for tracks in the street, too...
Timber crossings on roads paved using plaster....
The styrene "timbers" on the outside of the rails are .060" thick strip material sitting atop the spike heads, while the "timbers" between the rails are .080" thick, again, slightly below the head of the rails.
A similar method was used for these gravel road crossings, where the road approaches and flangeways are protected by timbers:
Wayne
Hi Wayne,
If I may, when you said
doctorwayneThe material between the rails is .080" thick, and sits directly on the tie tops,
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critter Hi Wayne, If I may, when you said doctorwayne The material between the rails is .080" thick, and sits directly on the tie tops, I think what you meant was the material between the "tracks" is .080". The material between the rails is .060" because it sits up on the spikes. Is that correct? Dave
doctorwayne The material between the rails is .080" thick, and sits directly on the tie tops,
I think what you meant was the material between the "tracks" is .080". The material between the rails is .060" because it sits up on the spikes. Is that correct?
The way I read that, with the pictures, is between the sets of tracks, not between the rails of each track.
So, if I am correct, between the rails, and just outside the rails, would indeed be .060 high, but between the sets of tracks is .080 high.
I think that is what you are thinking as well, Dave.
But then maybe I am reading it all wrong!
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
This is how I interpret what Wayne is explaining:
By having the .080 off the spikes and resting on the ties it automatically makes clearance for the wheel flanges.
Have Fun,
Ed
Sorry if my explanation was unclear, guys, but Ed's diagram shows pretty-much the way it's set-up. The .080" height between the paired rails of each track is actually .060" sheet material sitting atop a couple of strips of .020" styrene....I buy the .060" material in 4'x8' sheets, as I use it for all sorts of things on the layout, but don't use enough .080" thick sheet material to justify buying such a large amount.
I use the same technique as described above. For complicated patterns like curves I cut out the pattern using paper first and test the fit and trim the paper if needed. Then I cut the styrene to match the paper pattern.
I use the same technique for curves, simply laying a sheet of paper over the area to be done, making a couple of register marks to ensure consistent placement, then use a soft pencil to do a "rubbing" of the tracks. Using that as a pattern, it's cut out, then traced onto the styrene. I usually use a utility knife for cutting the styrene, as the blades are sturdier and cheaper than those for an X-Acto.
That's is very good information.
Wayne I like the third picture with the wood planks and gravel.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Wow, lots of great ideas. I am going to go with doctorwayne's paved crossing since it is consistent with a paved road leading to the crossing on my layout.