Ballast Color, Surface Color and Prep Questions for Freight Yard

[OT Dean]

cedarwoodron

My switching and freight yard/ locomotive servicing yard is set in the early diesel era, but as I complete some remaining trackwork I am now thinking ahead to covering up that beautiful grade A plywood table surface. The fictional location is the upper midwest northwest of the Twin Cities and I am wondering about ballast color, should I paint the plywood any specific color(s) as a base and what other surface treatments would be typical for a yard in this era/location.

Cedarwoodron

 

Since you're modeling the early Diesel era, the yards would probably be mostly cinder fill.  Steam locos produced a lot of cinders and klinkers, and the railroads liked cinders for yards and engine terminals.  It provided good drainage, was easily replaced--and it was relatively FREE.  There would often be patches of dirt with stuff growing and dirt would migrate into places besides sometimes being left behind when the roadbeds were graded.  I have a "thing" about switch stands, which were found in abundance in most yards.  They add a lot of realism, particularly if your turnouts provide head ties for them.  Be sure to have shelters for your switchmen and refer to an earlier string about placement of switch stands, as designers of yards tried to keep them clustered on one side of the tracks to avoid having the men having to cross over.  Have fun!

Deano

[NHTX]

    Railroad yards of the early diesel years were usually a sea of cinders after two world wars due to the steamers those diesels were replacing.  In most cases since they were so plentiful, cinders were the only ballast yard tracks ever got.  Yard trackage only received maintenance due to mishaps so ties buried in the soil/cinder mix are common.  Weeds take over areas of little activity and sprouting spilled grain is not unusual.  Tracks used for classification won't be as weedy as tracks used for storage.  Locomotive sand is heavily deposited on lead tracks where engines dig in pushing and pulling cuts of cars.  It is also found in service areas and where engines stand idle at times.  It was easy to find the yard office by the sand that had leaked out the engines while the conductor was inside getting his paperwork.

    Leakage wasn't confined to just locomotive sand.  Freight cars often contributed to the spillage in the yard.  Most yard spillage would be dry in nature because although this was before the EPA, liquid spillage attracted attention and was often accompanied by a distinct odor, so you wouldn' have 5000 gallons of gasoline, vinegar, or even milk go undetected and corrected.  Areas up and down switch ladders and along leads will be worn smooth and bare by the feet of pin-pullers.

    Since your grade A plywood surface is unpainted, I would paint table top and track with an earth tone camouflage color in a spray can.  When it was dry, I would brush over the ties with a bleached out acrylic gray wash and then apply my cinder ballast, using the smallest cinders for the areas of heavy foot and vehicle traffic.  Last, add your vegetation and spilled lading.

[HO-Velo]

gmpullman

photo below has a bit of sun glare to it

Ed, Interesting set of photos.  Smoother and tromped down areas like in the sun glared photo can be nicely simulated by working in varying amounts of rock powder to the ballast.  Though have to be somewhat careful when misting with wet water before gluing to avoid the dreaded crater effects.

Regards, Peter   

[gmpullman]

Fortunately, Jack Delano had some Kodachrome I to play with when he was shooting some railroad scenes in Proviso Yard on the C&NW in Chicago. Right railroad, slightly off on the location but I don't think there would be too much difference.

CNW_Proviso_x5a by Edmund, on Flickr

This photo below has a bit of sun glare to it:

CNW_Proviso_yard by Edmund, on Flickr

CNW_Proviso_yard2 by Edmund, on Flickr

The trick would be to get the right amount of clutter and debris on the ground to make a believable scene. George Selios has a knack for it. I can't quite duplicate it but I try.

CNW_Proviso_yard3 by Edmund, on Flickr

These last two photos show how a bit of sand also builds up. You can imagine day-in and day-out all the locomotive pulling and shoving moves would dump quite a bit of sand after a while.

You can go to the Library Of Congress and search Jack Delano for more photos. Some of delano's photos are featured at Shorpy, too.

 

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=jack%20delano%20railroad%20yard&sp=8

 

I painted my yard track with varying blends of Rustoleum Camo Brown and Krylon red primer with a little gray dusted over. I didn't concern myself about covering the plywood as some of the overspray took care of that. The scenery materials cover it thoroughly so there are no bare spots.

IMG_7822 by Edmund, on Flickr

I had some Highball cinders and blended that with Scenic Express cinder mix. I like the finer grades, N scale for HO. Here I piled a little sand as if the sanders on the engine were left on for a while. I see that quite a bit in yard trackage.

IMG_7816_fix by Edmund, on Flickr

The main line is on the right, secondary trackage in the middle and yard tracks to the left. Those weeds seem to really jump out in the photo. Under regular layout lighting the colors are actually more subdued.

 

IMG_7933_fix by Edmund, on Flickr

IMG_7812 by Edmund, on Flickr

Hope that helps,

Good Luck, Ed

 

 

 

[HO-Velo]

I have some holidays that stand out and so kinda wish I'd painted the plywood surface of my yard/loco service area before applying the ARM brand ballast/gravel.  Though guess it wouldn't be too much work to fix those eyesores with a little glue & ballast.

 

Regards,  Peter

 

 

[cedarwoodron]

My switching and freight yard/ locomotive servicing yard is set in the early diesel era, but as I complete some remaining trackwork I am now thinking ahead to covering up that beautiful grade A plywood table surface. The fictional location is the upper midwest northwest of the Twin Cities and I am wondering about ballast color, should I paint the plywood any specific color(s) as a base and what other surface treatments would be typical for a yard in this era/location.

Cedarwoodron