Model Railroading > Urban railroad trackage - an interesting challenge

On my small bookshelf layout I'm interested in making some fairly detailed trackage, and replicating what I see in the Chicago area. Recently I've grabbed a few prototype photos of trackage that seems notable for modeling.

1. Tank cars at some sort of food related plant at 38th and Morgan street. Satellite images show a few more tracks for storage were recently added to supplement this undulating track encased in cracked pavement.

2. The original lead from that track does an S-curve next to a junk yard where mud is up to the rails.

3. A bit farther it passes under Pershing road, again largely in dirt and mud.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/13 19:18 by inRVA.

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4. A nearby chemical facility has this weed and grease covered tail track.

5. Moving to the near North side, Blommer chocolate has a neat two-level track arrangement for cars. Behind me on the elevated UP West Line a spur goes directly next to the plant and recieves covered hoppers. At ground level, a spur of the UP North Line. evenutally makes its way down to the ground level of the factory, where product in tank cars is delivered.

6. Farther north is a spur to Morton Salt which has what seems like a really tight radius runaround within the plant. I noticed this switch is largely ballasted/paved in, except for the points.

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Apologies for the quality on these, I only had a camera phone.

7. Another filled in switch, but the frog stands out. No need to model ties here!

8. This is something I want to replicate: a switch cutoff just after the frog. Certainly would make wiring easier...

9. Lastly, the bumping posting on the tail track for switching the facility. Despite all the gravel, mud, weeds, and trash, you can see the wheels traveled through this.

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The interesting challenge is that you found a place where no one has spray painted crap all over the walls and fences.Sure there is some on the B end of tank car but that could have been done anywhere.Good photos.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/21/13 20:02 by Fredo.

Look for a couple of those hideous AHM trucks with the extra deep flanges. As you smear plaster up to the rails let it dry a bit and then clear the flange ways by shoving these trucks down the rails. Clean the wheels often, you might spray them with Pam to help keep the crud from sticking.

Let the ground cover dry then sand it flush with the rail tops.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

fbe Wrote:
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> Look for a couple of those hideous AHM trucks with
> the extra deep flanges. As you smear plaster up to
> the rails let it dry a bit and then clear the
> flange ways by shoving these trucks down the
> rails. Clean the wheels often, you might spray
> them with Pam to help keep the crud from
> sticking.
>
> Let the ground cover dry then sand it flush with
> the rail tops.
>
> Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Genius...either them or tyco trucks...available at nearly any train show in the trains as old as dirt section.......

You will have a very interesting layout with such track modeling, which greatly increases the realism. I "paved" the 7 tracks from my turntable into the roundhouse (HO). Getting all the flangeways cut out was a real pain. Painted the inside areas concrete and the outside asphalt. Well worth it. Scratch building the roundhouse structure is yet to come.

inRVA Wrote:
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> On my small bookshelf layout I'm interested in
> making some fairly detailed trackage, and
> replicating what I see in the Chicago area...

I'm really enjoying watching your layout develop and Like where you are going with it. Please keep posting.
D

fbe Wrote:
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As you smear plaster up to
> the rails let it dry a bit and then clear the
> flange ways by shoving these trucks down the
> rails. Clean the wheels often, you might spray
> them with Pam to help keep the crud from
> sticking.
>
> Let the ground cover dry then sand it flush with
> the rail tops.

That is a very good idea, thanks.

You will still have to clean the scenery from the inside of the rails with some kind of a scraper for electrical contact. Switches need extra care especially where moving parts are involved.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

I haven't implemented this full scale yet, but I experimented a few years back with a technique for simulating street trackage, and the preliminary results were encouraging.

Using a little, little hot glue gun, I dropped a few dots of hot glue on the inside edge of the tie plates, with a tiny drop about every 6 inches or so. Then I cut a piece of cotton string, ran it semi-taut along the inside of each rail, and anchored it down in the spots of glue. At that point, I had a string tucked along the web of the rail, in between the head and the base. this will be important later on, because this string will be yanked through the almost-set plaster to clear the flangeway.

Now I applied the plaster. I use a slow-setting plaster cement called Ultracal 30, which is way easier to work with, but hardens even harder than Hydrocal. If I did it again, I'd probably mix a little bentonite in there o soften it up, but it worked OK this way as well. When Ultracal begins to set up, there's about a 15 minute period where it feels like fine, wet sand. You can easily work it with a blade tool like a glazers knife (basically a putty knife with a triangular protrusion on one side). The last few minutes before its totally hard, it is brittle but weak. That's helpful, and important.

Once I had the Ultracal in place and scraped down to the elevation of the head of the rail, I slowly but firmly tugged up on the string. It broke through the not-quite-hard plaster and cleared out the flageways. It left a lot of shrapnel behind. STOP, don't touch this stuff, if you work it now you will pushit back into the flangeway and ruin what you just did a few seconds earlier. If you absolutely must intervene, blow the shrapnel loose with a shot of compressed air or an air blast can.

Like I say, I only did about 2 feet of this on a test diorama, but it looked great--nice clean flangeway, plus the plaster "pavement" had a somewhat irregular, jagged edge facing the rail that looks a lot like the chipped pavement you typically see on street trackage.

Give this a try--it's a cheap experiment, but do it on a scrap piece of track first.

Thanks for posting these photos. It's great to know of modelers interested in urban railroads.

Do you have or have you seen the book "The Milwaukee Road in Chicago?" The chapters on branch lines in Chicago have photos of street trackage in the Milwaukee Road, Canadian Pacific and Chicago Terminal Railroad eras. The book is no longer available from its publisher, the Milwaukee Road Historical Association.

Model Railroader also had a couple of articles on modeling the Kingbury Branch. The first was in April 1975, but I don't remember when the second article was published.

I look forward to seeing your work posted on this board.

Fredo Wrote:
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> The interesting challenge is that you found a
> place where no one has spray painted crap all over
> the walls and fences.Sure there is some on the B
> end of tank car but that could have been done
> anywhere.Good photos.

LOL, that almost made me spit my wine on my keyboard. Now that was funny.

atsf98 Wrote:
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> I'm really enjoying watching your layout develop
> and Like where you are going with it. Please keep
> posting.
> D


Ditto.

Chris