A couple of questions...
1. What ground throw works the best for Peco switches?
2.I noticed on rr ties there is a greyish color,which color grey works best and what color works best for the rails themselves?Read in differant books on colors but they each say about the same but the pictures didn't really look that great.
Thanks Jeff
1. Don't know about "best", one layout I have visited has Peco switches and uses only the spring loaded feature of the switch to hold them in place.
2. Depending on your era, when they used creasote to preserve the ties, new ones were almost black as they aged they got lighter and lighter. I have heard several people say they use the color "Driftwood" to color their aged ties. Darken it a little for newer ties, lighten for older ones. For the rails, if "rail brown" doesn't suit you try taking some color sample strips out to the tracks and compare. There again, little used rail on sidings and little used spurs will vary from heavily used lines.
Have fun,
srr90 A couple of questions...
Which should have been included in your thread title, as in Ground throws for PECO switches? And, proper color for rails and ties? Everyone has questions, some people have answers.
PECO switches have built-in locking springs, so any ground throw robust enough to force the spring over will work. It then becomes a matter of which ground throw looks the best - a matter of individual judgement where your opinion is probably different from mine (which is influenced by Japanese prototype practice.)
If at all possible, take a long, hard look at either your friendly, neighborhood railroad (if that's similar to what you're modeling) or photos of the specific prototype you've chosen to follow (even if you'rre following it at a considerable distance.)
Ties on a given stretch of track tend to be approximately similar in color - they don't vary all over the lot. One or several newer-looking ties wouldn't be unusual, but every tie noticeably different would be. Exactly how you match colors is a matter of materials and technique - anything from artist's oils to Magic Markers can be used. (I apply reporting marks to black cars with a white Sharpie.)
Newer rails tend to be a deep shade of gunmetal grey where not burnished by passing wheels. Rust begins at sharp edges (edges of rail base, underside of railhead) and then spreads unevenly on un-coated rail. Some lines in humid or corrosive environments lay rails coated with cosmoline or similar materials - the typical 'brown rails.' Use of sand by locomotives tends to show up as a coating of talcum-powder white, sometimes mounded up over the spikes and tie plates if upgrade traffic and tonnage are heavy. Older flange greasers (found on sharp curves, including Tehachapi) leave a layer of black/grey/brown grunge on the greased (outside of curve) rail for several hundred yards downstream of the greaser - both directions if on single or bi-directional track. The newer, 'greener,' variety aren't quite as messy.
Hope this has helped.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Jeff
I use Caboose ground throws with my Peco code 83,I find them realistic enough for my purposes,and you can get them in bags of 5.
Work well for me.
Steve