umm.... i dont see paint on the track there dude.... haha.
if you guys want some GNARRRRLY track detailing, you should check out the stuff over at the Proto87 stores. the guy Andy has a line of handlaid track and turnouts that uses tie plates on every tie!! its crazy. it looks soooo good, especially the turnouts. The Central Valley tie-strips have tieplate and spikehead detail, but since they're part of the ties, it doesn't loo as good as the Proto87 stuff.
I'd like to see other people's track detailing, and to list what colors they used to paint the track.......
I'm currently in the process of detailing the track on my 9' x 11' around the room layout in preparation for ballasting (after I get a bit more adjacent scenery base in place). It's a fairly tedious process because I'm hand brushing with PolyScale paints, however I like the results. I decided to go slow, take my time and try for a convincing job. I feel this element on layouts is an important one and despite the drawn out process I'm using, I find I'm enjoying the process. The railroad is small enough that the work is highly doable! So far I've done the rail sides and ties and have just begun adding some rust in random places.
Welcome aboard
Grizlump said what I immediately thought - what kind of seed (or fertilizer) is in those white piles on the ties? It certainly is an interesting effect. I'm planning to use a more advanced (as in, been there longer) version on a couple of 'abandoned in place' small town freight house spurs.
Loved your transformer photos. I have a 1:80 scale model that's very similar to the four-truck articulated well flat in your photo. Since it's fabricated from tinplate (galvanized steel - no lie) it will lift any between the rails Kadee magnet that isn't solidly anchored.
Hope to see more of your work (says he, who has yet to post a photo.)
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
They were being shipped by cargo ship to Brazil. Since real locomotives are not fully attached to their trucks like our models are, they are often shipped overseas separate from their trucks. The only attachments between an engine and it's trucks are the traction cables and other wireing; if you pick up the engine, (such as to load it on a ship) it will come up off it's trucks. The same is true of freight and passenger cars.
They are probably a different gauge so can't be shipped on their own wheels.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I love the shots of the new MRS locos sitting on the flats. That's a cool catch! Wonder why they shipped them without the traction motors??
looks like what we might have here is spilled grain that leaked out of a standing car. it often sprouts in railroad yards and makes little clumps of greenery. walking around railroad yards for years i came across a lot of strange things on the ground and stepped in a few of them too. hell, i once found a whole bale of cotton between the tracks.
grizlump
With all of the recent articles in MR about track detailing, I thought that two photos I took yesterday from the highway overpass of several tracks in NS' Montview Yard might be of interest. They show that even today's Class One's can still have 'weedy rails'! Find them here- www.apwrr.blogspot.com. They are the newest post, (TRACK MAINTENANCE?).