The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[chuck geiger]

[davefoxx]

DFF

[davefoxx]

I got the next styrene piece fit nicely to the outside rail, finishing the rough-in of the three-track crossing at right in the photo below.  I need to contour the road and parking lot to the final shape, but the real trick will be fitting the other end of this road section to the track that is the other leg of the wye.  There's little room for error to get this piece fit to the rails.



EDIT: Oh, man!  I’ve got to remember to paint and ballast the other leg of the wye before permanently installing the road sections.

DFF

[wm3798]

Are those crossings all asphalt across the tracks?  Would it help you with your fine cuts if you did some timbers laid parallel to the rails then bring the pavement, or as we like to say in Eass Bawlamer, the Payment, to them instead of the rail?  It might help you maintain your voluminous hairline...
It's also a fairly common prototype practice.



Lee

[davefoxx]

Those crossings are all asphalt.  I posted a picture in a previous post.  Since the tracks are curved, I think modeling asphalt throughout is easier than fitting all of those timber pieces.

DFF

[CRL]

Maybe make a template out of poster board or cardboard,

[davefoxx]

Maybe make a template out of poster board or cardboard,

Not a bad idea.  I have one made of copy paper, but it's flimsy.  My plan is to use the template and then just cut the styrene wide of the mark and whittle it down to the final shape.  That worked well on the other smaller pieces, but, for this larger piece, I won't have a lot of wiggle room here to fit between the two rails that are maybe fifteen inches apart on weird, curved angles.

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Not a bad idea.  I have one made of copy paper, but it's flimsy.  My plan is to use the template and then just cut the styrene wide of the mark and whittle it down to the final shape.  That worked well on the other smaller pieces, but, for this larger piece, I won't have a lot of wiggle room here to fit between the two rails that are maybe fifteen inches apart on weird, curved angles.

DFF

This is all giving me terrible flashbacks to constructing the curbs and sidewalks in York. Get the angle slightly wrong at one and and you're inches off on the other.

Good luck brother.

[davefoxx]

This is all giving me terrible flashbacks to constructing the curbs and sidewalks in York. Get the angle slightly wrong at one and and you're inches off on the other.

Good luck brother.

No kidding!  This is why I whittle, whittle and check often.  As I get closer to the right radius with no glaring gaps between the styrene and the rail, I go from file to sanding stick and hone in on the final shape.  It takes a while (a road section every night!), but I'm satisfied with the outcome so far.

Oh, and here is a cheat.  When doing the section of road between the rails, I get the one side perfectly fit with the flangeway and then use the NMRA gauge to scribe the other side by running the gauge along the cut I just shaped.  Cut along that scribe line and, boom!, gets it real close with only minor work to finish that piece.

DFF

[pdx1955]

The trick is to use carbon paper . I have a whole pad of it that was bought at a craft store. Lay a sheet down and use a pencil to trace out the rails on either the inside or outside as needed. Then put this on a piece of styrene and trace over the markings which transfers to it. Cut it out on lines and trim as necessary . I did all of my street track that way.

[DKS]

My trick is to simply lay a plain piece of paper down over the tracks, and rub a pencil along the rails. Then I trace these lines on to the styrene with a knife tip.

[davefoxx]

My trick is to simply lay a plain piece of paper down over the tracks, and rub a pencil along the rails. Then I trace these lines on to the styrene with a knife tip.

^This is what I have been doing.  Worked well.  And now, this complicated piece is finished.  Whew.



DFF

[Point353]

Late to the party, but the last time I did this I used a paint marker to paint the tops of the rails, then immediately pressed the sheet of plastic down onto the rails to pick up the wet paint. Wiped the remaining paint off the rails and cut the plastic to the paint lines.

[Steveruger45]

Late to the party, but the last time I did this I used a paint marker to paint the tops of the rails, then immediately pressed the sheet of plastic down onto the rails to pick up the wet paint. Wiped the remaining paint off the rails and cut the plastic to the paint lines.

Me too but I used one of my wife’s lipsticks to mark the rails.
(Yeah, I got caught) 

[CRL]

This is one of the great things about RW... several different techniques to accomplish a given task. That way, a modeler can find one out of the several offered that fits that modeler’s skill set.

Great advice from all... except the lipstick technique. Could cause arguments about shade, color wheel, etc. Take my word for it... avoid using beauty products. I absconded with my wife’s best makeup brush to use for spreading ballast years ago and she still gives me the stink eye over it.