Another great video. I have always liked the look of painted and ballasted track and when building a Lionel railroad that was to be permanent. I am in the process of building yet another Lionel layout with my grandson and part of the plan will be to have stained wood ties, painted rail and ballast. Thanks again for the great video as it keeps me motivated to get mine up and running.
Back in the 60's my grandfather set up a layout at our house, he used white rolled roofing to make the track bed area, which gave the look of ballast, and he cut wood ties from 1/8" thick produce crates. He then dipped all the cut ties in dark brown dye. The ties were held in place by the track which when screwed down through the strips of sheet roofing became trapped in place. The green areas were done with a mix of paint and fine sawdust applied with a roller directly to the whole sheets of plywood beneath it all. Lakes and streams were made with aluminum foil and tinted clear paint done with an air brush.
I recently began digging out his old trains and track, what I'm finding is that what ever paint or ink he used on the tracks washed right off with a quick dip in rubbing alcohol. I remember him referring to it as 'ink', not paint but it was something he brought home from work at the refinery.@@ToyTrainTipsAndTricks
The center rail is hidden better by painting it the same color as the ballast or sort of camouflaging it with gray and white to break up the straight line and making it blend with the ballast.
Very nice! I like that look of the ballasted rail. I'm debating on whether or not to do this to my layout, because I have three mains on a 24x18 L and that is a lot of ballast. Either way, great job. An excellent video, as always.
Another good video. I have FastTrack, which is ok, but a little too plastic-looking. I finally took a chance and painted the outer rails, lightly weathered the plastic roadbed and ties, and added a little gravel ballast in spots. It's probably the single thing that most improved the look of the railroad.
Ever notice with old Marx O-27 track, with the end ties set inboard a bit from the ends of the rails, if you put one intermediate tie between the center and end tie, total of five ties per section, when you join them, the tie spacing looks pretty even?
I agree that the center rail isn't widely used here in the USA, but several years ago I discovered that the London Underground uses the centre rail quite extensively.
I get a cheap bag of play sand spread it out on top of the track bed then go over it with the ballast. It’s a good filler and my ballast goes a long way.
I found out that Gargraves uses a black oxide process on their center rails so as to be electrically conductive, is this something you may try on a later experiment? Hopefully you will and we can all benefit, great tip!
I do not have any Super O, but I have seen it. It's very hard to find since it hasn't been made since the 1960s. It has very realistic ties and a thin metal strip as the center rail. (You can start an argument with Postwar operators over whether the strip wears out pickup rollers faster than the standard rail.) Turnouts were very finicky as well. FasTrack is actually a totally different animal that came along 4 decades later.
Great video as always. I have seen some people lay a strip of N scale cork roadbed along the outside of the ties with the sloped side facing out. That helps to trap the ballast inside the track. Also, I wish you would have given us a brand name on the craft paint you used.
For the glue mixture I just use a squeeze condiment bottle, and if it doesn't soak in quickly or much at all because the finer ballast is a pain, I just drop some 91% isopropyl onto the stubborn areas and the next day everything is great
I went through the whole ballast glue cork Road bed thing with my HO trains. I prefer Mike's train house track with the road bed included. Since the track is brass it will not rust. I prefer the early solid rail track to the late model template style track because I find template in my book to be cheap all the scale rails use solid rail like the Prototype. Plus if you're going to have anything bigger than a 4x8 layout you're going to have to have a lot of terminal feeders because there's lots of resistance in the old style track with all the connections. I had an outdoor layout with old Lionel track and new Lionel track and in a year the new Lionel track turn black and then crumbled away and I had to replace it all with American made track. Of course I will use the old style track for your trackage and for siding.
Nice video and great ideas...only question i have is why the huge gap between the sections of track. You should not be able to see any part of the pin that connects them. Not only can this cause electrical problems but the noise and running problems it can create are BAD!!! Not to mention it just looks like BAD!!!
Well, here's the situation. When the track was laid in the Spring, the gap was closed. But the 40" straight on the right sits directly under an HVAC vent. In the summer, the repeated blasts of cold air causes the steel rail to contract, opening the joint. In the winter, repeated blasts of hot air makes the rail expand, closes the gap, AND pushes the unsecured rail on the left slightly out of gauge. Things return to normal in spring and fall.
Since my old gauge trains include subway trains as well as running electrics with the pantographs down just like the New Haven ep 5 had 3rd rail shoes when they were in New York Central territory. When my uncle took me to the Long Island Railroad they were signs everywhere saying Beware of the third rail. I can accept the rail being in the middle instead of on the outside because I am not going to go to outside third rail and nobody has made stuff for outside third rail since World War II.
It depends. If you like the classic tinplate look, that's perfectly fine. If you want a bit more realism (as much as 3 rail allows), this is an option. Rule #1 is your railroad - your rules. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Hi Mike, I really look forward to your videos. I was just trying to download your ties from thingiverse and received a 404 not found response. Would you be willing to check or share the link again please?
Funny. It looks like ALL of my files are missing from Thingiverse! Here's the link on Tinkercad www.tinkercad.com/things/5gptXynHAte?sharecode=1uyGtj8fnNhPY7dvuPf-PQuaAxCm96-4a6kcW_Xy-74
I have a couple Lionel locomotives that spark a lot when in use. I had both clean and lubed by a Lionel authorized dealer. I clean the track and still have same issue with sparking. I was told to not use the old track to buy new track. Is there anything you could suggest for me to try? thank you.
A few things: 1) They all spark a little. 2) What are you cleaning your track with? If you're using an abrasive of any kind, you are putting microscopic pits in the rails that trap dirt. The best I have found is a two step process - wipe down the rails with mineral spirits, then add a light coating of CRC cleaner, which will clean, improve contact, and convert and prevent rust. Many modelers in the scale world use NO-OX instead of CRC, but it doesn't play well with traction tires. After the above treatment, I find just wiping with a clean, dry cloth when needed works fine for months.
It is both locomotives. I was also told to use rubbing alcohol and soft cloth. the Lionel set was purchased back in 1961 by my dad a few days after I was born to set up around the Christmas tree. it has sentimental value and would like to pass along to my son or daughter.
