Drivin' em In and Tyin' em Down!

I dug out my old digital camera and scrounged up a couple of batteries in hopes of getting a better close-up of my trackwork. And so, voi la!

     I'm learning a lot about spiking rail. Want to learn how to spike rail? Get the materials and give it a try. You will be learning before you know it. Rule one: spike one rail in straight (use a metal straightedge) and then gauge the second rail off of the first. Rule two: push the spikes in at an angle, so that the points of the spikes almost meet under the rail. Rule three: push the spikes in just a little back from the rail, rather than snug up to it. That way you can tighten up later when you fine-tune the gauge.
     I discovered that pre-drilling is rarely necessary. Push 'em in with the pliers. If the sleeper splits, then pull out and drill the hole wider. So far, only one split. Having them glued in makes the difference. And just like that, I'm laying track! It's great fun. So far, I give myself a B- in getting it right. It looks good to me, and the test truck rolls over it beautifully, but the gauge is tight in one spot, and it's too late to correct that section. Lesson learned. But seeing is how I've completed less than a foot of track so far, I'm quite chuffed at my success!

Staining Sleepers

     Taking a cue from our own Jim Lincoln, one of the great Jedi Masters of trackwork, I went to work on the sleepers with a stainless steel brush. If you lean in and go slow, it will gouge out some lovely furrows in the grain. Unfortunately, my little phone camera hasn't got the wherewithal to show that kind of detail, but it really does work. When you apply stain, it goes in the grain quite nicely.
     I experimented with alcohol thinned india ink, which gives a beautiful gray age to the wood, but still leaves it "blonde" underneath. Testors "Rust" thins down to a perfect redwood stain, but looks too fresh. The two together give a close approximation to what I had in mind. I had considered thinning Testors "Flat Green" to simulate a copper sulfate preservative that's popular out here in the west, but I think I'm happy with what I've got so far.
     In the picture you can see my various track gauges, tools, and materials. The bright sleepers are bare basswood, for comparison. I painted the rails with the same rust paint, less thinned. The spikes need to have the heads trimmed down, which you can easily do with your rail nippers. Takes a bit of time, but the way I see it this is a hobby, not a job. This is time well spent. Besides, I figure I'm about as fast as a scale chain-gang, give or take.

Gandy Dancing

Planning a layout is a lot of fun for me, but occasionally you gotta drop your pencil and build something, even if your plans have yet to be completed. And so it happens that I took a scrap of MDF baseboard mouldning, covered it in cork roadbed, measured out three lanes of track, and laid a row of ties (or "sleepers" as they're known in much of the world.)

     Before I tackle building stub switches, I want to get a feel for just plain "laying track." I have an abundance of Campbell HO basswood sleepers, a thousand Micro Engineering spikes, and a bundle of ME code 70 rail in 18" lengths. I'll need to pick up some Future floor wax for when it comes time to ballast (we MRR listeners know all about that) but for now I've got enough to get started: sleepers, rails, spikes, gauges, and endless patience.

     I used some old atlas HO sectional track to draw my guidelines on the cork (a sharpie works great) and sorted out a bunch of ties of similar dimensions. The old Campbell ties have a lot of variation, but I got them really cheap, so I don't mind a little fussing. In the future, I think I'll use match sticks instead. The dimensions are almost identical (though they're square in cross section) and they have a nice beat-up texture. Besides, they're soft enough to push spikes through without splitting. Basswood ties I'm probably going to have to drill. and at four spikes per tie, that's a lot of drilling.

     I glued them in with yellow carpenter's glue, letting it pre-dry a little, so as to get nice and tacky. Then I dipped the sleepers in one-at-a-time, eyeballing the spacing so as not to get them too perfect. In hindsight, I think I need to make an actual effort to jog them around a little bit, since I'm naturally meticulous. Once they dry solid, I need to sand the tops down to an even level. In some places, a lot of wood will have to come off.

     So far it's been a lot of fun and very relaxing, almost meditative in fact. The three-track yard is 31" long, and will comprise this stretch of straight track, a Fast-Tracks turnout or two, and right in the middle, my three-way, double stub-switch. In the end it will be a glorified test track, or maybe even a micro layout if I can surround it with some scenic backdrops. Mostly though, it's my practice yard for track laying. I'll keep posting as I go along.