The abandoned siding on my BRVRR layout is adjacent to 'Grafton Tower' and in close proximity to the team track sidings in the photo below. It is not heavily landscaped or weathered because it also serves as my programming track.
It is at the front of the layout and long enough for our largest locomotives which include several 4-8-4s and a Challenger.
Remember its your railroad
Allan
Track to the BRVRR Website: http://www.brvrr.com/
trainnut1250 Bob, The grass is silfor 6mm California gold. I applied it with a grass gun. This was done when I had just started using static grass. I would probably use some different length grasses and some clumps of grass if were to do the scene now. Guy
Bob,
The grass is silfor 6mm California gold. I applied it with a grass gun. This was done when I had just started using static grass. I would probably use some different length grasses and some clumps of grass if were to do the scene now.
Guy
Very nice, really adds realism to the scene.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
A 'minimum resource' way to create an abandoned siding.
Install switch ties, some replaced with obviously newer standard ties, under the two in-use rails. No other rails or ironwork. The switch ties should have spike holes and wear marks from the rails that aren't there.
Where the switch ties transition to the standard ties of the ghost siding, put in a couple of beat up, greyed out standard ties. Then bury the rest in thick underbrush, including saplings if your area supports trees. A parallel fence acting as catchment for tumbleweeds is a nice desert-area touch.
Of course, the opposite (Fresh new switch ties, graded roadbed) also works if, like me, you're modeling a scene where the railroad is adding or extending track.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - double tracking in progress)
trainnut1250 Another take on the abandoned siding idea. I thought it would be cool to have a crew removing rails. Obviously these guys are super strong (or maybe they need a crane)…… Musket miniatures made the figures (lots of filing) and the tie plates are Grandt line… Have fun, Guy
Another take on the abandoned siding idea. I thought it would be cool to have a crew removing rails. Obviously these guys are super strong (or maybe they need a crane)…… Musket miniatures made the figures (lots of filing) and the tie plates are Grandt line…
Have fun,
Real nice, Guy. is that Silflor grass? or individually placed clumps
Thanks, Bob
True, for a couple dollars you can get a bag of low profile wood ties, then distress them with a #11 and a wire brush, stain and weather them. The railroad may choose to reuse the better ones so the ones left behind are in pretty bad shape.
Using the plastic flex track tie strips doesn't look right because of the molded on tie plates and "spikes".
I'm currently looking for a place on my layout to incorporate an abandoned crossing. These were pretty numerous as the branch lines contracted in the 1970s & '80s. As Dave and Dean mention above, leave the frogs off to the side surrounded by weeds. Kyle's mention of the saplings is a sure indication of disuse.
I could have a small tower with boarded-up windows and poles representing signal masts either left standing or laying in the weeds as well.
Years ago I bought a Walthers passenger car wash rack that I thought I could incorporate into my Union Station area but I just do not have the space to devote a live track to it.
Then I came up with the plan to have it sitting in a dilapidated condition with just the remains of an approach track on either side of it. There was once a Whiting car washer in Cleveland Union Terminal and I remember seeing the remains of it in the coach yard when I was prowling around there in the late '60s.
Fun Stuff, Ed
Ed, excellent job on that siding. I was going to add, for added workability and realism, to do hand laid track. This allows many options of distressing of the wood ties and placement or removal of rail.
The vehicle entrance to my scrap yard is on a portion of an abandoned right-of-way.
You can see that I left lengths of rail, I drilled bolt holes for effect, and left them laying on a strip of Campbell ties. I plan to scatter some joint bars around to give the scene a look that the rail has just been pulled up.
I've been to Mount Union, Pa where the East Broad Top interchanged with the Pennsy and there are still a few cuts of hoppers stranded there.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=3845
Look on Flickr, too, for abandoned EBT. I seem to recall some pretty neat photos.
https://www.flickr.com/search/?sort=relevance&text=east%20broad%20top%20abandoned
Narrow gauge, but still...
Have fun! Ed
Perhaps some of the images from this Forgotten NY page may be of help. It does include the lone track bumper standing in an lot...
There was an article last year in MRR about creating a new industry. The writer cut out a siding but left the switch. To make the switch reliable, he used a track nail to hold the points in place, and soldered the point to the rail for electrical reliability. You could also use a feeder. Then he painted and used weathering powders to create a rusty look for the rails. The result looked pretty good, though I thought the rust color was a bit too bright orange. In my experience, steel usually forms dark brown/orange surface rust. rust. The key feature of a truely abandoned spurs is little saplings growing in between the rails, or trees.
I remember seeing a siding that was pulled up -- rails ties and all - decades earlier where you could still make out the vague outline of where the ties were. I don't know if it was the cinder ballast that was continuing to inhibit vegetation growth between the ties, or whether creosote from the old ties had leached into the ground and it was inhibiting vegetation growth, but you could definitely make out the pattern, and again that was decades after the siding was entirely torn out.
Sometimes you see abandoned sidings were only one rail remains, or the switchstand but no rail. Sometimes a bumper or wheels stops can be seen in a field. And it is not uncommon to see a building that was formerly rail served have a sign about "no clearance for man on side of car" or even telltales hanging uselessly.
Dave Nelson
Take a gander at Conemaugh & Black Lick, the industrial railroad for Johnstown Division, Bethlehem Steel's 20+ miles of steel mills, car shop (i.e. Bethgon), and coal operations. You'll find pics of various states of rails, dirt piles blocking sidings off, abanoned sidings with rotting ties without rails, and of course -- rusty rails.
A surprise to me was steam power that I never saw (before the era of Howdy Doody), in addition to the EMD diesels like the SW9. Since Bethlehem Steel went bye-bye, there is now a considerable amount of abandoned sidings without rails.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
Rip out the frog and the point rails, replace them with a piece of normal rail.
Dean
30 years 1:1 Canadian Pacific.....now switching in HO
I have seen seldom used/abandoned sidings with small trees growing up between the rails. One not far from here has an old box car sitting on it with trees growing up around it, enough so they might need a chain saw to get to it, if they wanted to haul it out.
As mentioned above "stuff" between the rails or close to and across them adds to the feeling.
Richard
paint the rails a rust color even on top...add weeds and other brush/ overgrowth. use darker ballast...weather the ties, even take 1 or 2 out here and there. just look at some pics of abandoned rails and use your imagination...an old piece of furniture dumped along it...broken pallet...misc. trash
Jeff
Hi guys.
I've got two sidings on my layout that I'd like to make abandoned, and I'm requesting some tips on the best way to make it look the most effective. I've been searching photos on Google so I get an idea of what they should look like (plus I've seen them in person) but what have you done to make them look good/things you have done to make it realistic?
Thank you
PS i did a search- came up with 15,000 results, none of which could help me much.
Modeling the N&W freelanced at the height of their steam era in HO.
Daniel G.