I've got a couple of tracks that dead end, so what do I put at the end? These are staging tracks so appearance isn't an issue, but it's also an excellent place to practice something that will look "nice" (ie realistic) for some future more visible dead end.
Also, is it wise (or not) to gap the track to keep locos from plowing along unseen?
I would suggest a loading facility, even if one that is used perhaps for three days a year. I think of sidings in Petawawa, ON, where 2 CMBG (that is "The second Canadiam Mechanized Bridage Group) is housed. There are earthen and timber ramps that provide access to wood-decked flat cars for transporting armoured personnel carriers and armoured fighting vehicles such as the 8-wheeled AVGP Coyotes and such. If poo really does hit the fan, such as a national emergency or a local one (ice storms, Red River Floods), or during planned deployments on six-week-long major exercises, we have to get vehicles to the location where they will be used.
Something of that general function, perhaps?
My thought would be to build different things to try out. When you get something you like and it works, save it for the layout and make something new. It makes a good place to pratice making things and to try them out.
As stated before an end loading ramp is a good start. I have a dirt pile with ties embedded in it started for a little used siding. The amount of use makes a difference on how fancy and rugged the bumper needs to be.
Look at different photos of prototype and other modelers, try it out and decide what you like. Certainly can do a lot of experimenting for little cost.
Have fun,
ducky123 Also, is it wise (or not) to gap the track to keep locos from plowing along unseen?
If the track is visible, rely on your operators. And even if not, how are you going to account for differing lengths of a number of cars? If needed, I'd go with cameras and a cheap TV to make things visitble. There are other solutions, but perhaps they aren't as simple and cheap.
Mark
cowman I have a dirt pile with ties embedded in it started for a little used siding. The amount of use makes a difference on how fancy and rugged the bumper needs to be.
I have a dirt pile with ties embedded in it started for a little used siding. The amount of use makes a difference on how fancy and rugged the bumper needs to be.
The pile of dirt with ties is what I've seen. And then there are those bumper things sold at the hobby shop that don't look like anything I've ever seen. So if a pile of debris is "normal" for a little used end, what about for a more frequently used area?
In the prototype, I have seen everything from quarter circles of steel plate welded to the railheads to concrete monolith bridge abutments (without bridge.) One classic was a pile of ballast - about two dump trucks worth - dumped on the end of a long storage spur (abandoned Rock Island main line remnant) in Amarillo, TX. On one of my cross-country trips, there was a covered hopper high-centered on the pile!
My own hidden staging yards are back-in facilities. The tracks are as long as the longest train that will ever use them (plus 6") and I stop things with a locomotive-killer (dead rail, powered up for departure.) The end-of-track bumper across four tracks is a chunk of two-by-four. My five car staging yard terminates at a steel angle iron. I'm saving the cute little track bumpers (and other cosmetic treatments) for visible locations.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
You might want to give some thought to why there are terminal stops of any sort. I believe its to protect rolling stock (and whatever would be in their path) or just to avoid having to bring in a crain to put them back on track. The most fragile part of my rolling stock is the coupler and any stopper I concoct leaves a hole for the coupler to easily pass through even if its a temporary chunk of 2x4. I'm not worried about my 4 oz. rolling stock hurting anything else and my crain is a big hand in the sky but couplers are a different story. Replacing, realigning or adjusting couplers is probably my least favorite scut work but somebody has to do it..... just don't want to do it everytime that half blind engineer (me) rams a boxcar into the stop. Don't ask how I know but stops are important inside your engine house too.
Roy Onward into the fog http://s1014.photobucket.com/albums/af269/looseclu/
Walthers sells a package of bumpers. 10 bucks for a dozen of them:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3511
These are dark gray plastic. I consider them to be an exercise in painting and weathering. I usually paint mine flat black, and then rust them up with paint, weathering powders or Instant Rust. I've painted diagonal yellow stripes on the pads of a couple, too, for "safety." If you haven't done much weathering and particularly "rusting," these are a good item to practice on.
For your final staging tracks, though, I think I'd go with soft foam rubber, like they use for pillows. If you put an indentation into it for the coupler, I'd imagine you could run most engines into it full speed without any damage.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I have a pair of stub-end staging tracks that ends in the laundry/utility room(my C&NW Wisconsin branch). I have a 2" piece of foam at the end of the tracks, with a 'cut-out' for the couplers to clear. This provides a 'soft landing' in case my engineers get carried away and try to go for Madison!
Jim Bernier
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin