Decrepidizing ties ....

I just made up that word, at least I think I did. Well, in the last post I had a crummy photo of the monitor that showed the abandoned track alongside the Delaware Lackawanna. Since I am trying to model the Cresco, PA area pretty faithfully, I really wanted to model a very decrepit right of way.

One of the first things is that rotted ties have a tendency to appear hollow, well, how would you do that? If you dig out from the top, while it might look okay, it won't look hollow. So I was able to start out doing these first five ties ...

So here are the ties after installation on the layout and application or Miniwax Ebony stain, a little bit of ballast and the addition of weeds. The weeds are paint bristles off an old paint brush that had been stained white already ...

I put the first ties down with carpenters glue, but then I remembered that I had pre-colored as per the directions on Joe Fugate's videos on scenery. That is the grey material above the unstained ties ... I did this to use as cement for the ties, but to also have them appear to be sunk into the earth ...

My process for adding the weeds is pretty slow ... I put a bottom layer of Aileen's Tacky Glue, then put in some ballast to help hold the paint bristles upright and then adhering that ballast with Future Floor Wax.

I added in a couple sprigs of Super Trees materials that I spray painted with grey spray paint and then glue some cigar leaves.

I hope you enjoy the photos and I hope to get more frequent blog updates .

A needed detail ....

One of the things that I believe is sorely lacking on model railroads is that omnipresent ground cover ... leaves. They are everywhere, at least they are nowadays. Here are a couple photos illustrating my point. The first is pretty bad as it is a photo of the computer screen, but it was the best photo I had available and the second is a better one.

If you notice, leaves are everywhere, so the question is, how does one model leaves? Well, some people have tried using real leaves, the problem is that real leaves are too thick. So, I tried torn up cigar leaves ... I think that it turned out exceptionally well ...

That's the torn up leaves and the result is in the two photos below ...

The only problem is that I have to tear up a gagillion more leaves .... ugh.

Work has continued, but posts haven't ...

I am very sorry for the lack of posts, but my internet connection is sometimes a little sketchy. So, while I might have time to do a little work on the railroad (the model one), it is much harder to get posts out as you all might want.

I will start off with some posts that have gone out to the Model Rail Radio mailing list, but I have not posted here. That happens because I take the pictures with my iphone and I am able to send them to the list from that. Whereas, I am not able to send photos to the blog from my iPhone, or at least it has been sufficiently difficult that I have not pursued it.

Anyway, I have been working on the abandoned track that is going to run alongside the main line here and I have been moving along slowly, but then again, I always do ...

So this all makes sense, I am going to post bits and pieces, instead of loading it all into this one post.

Well, just so you all know, I went down to Craig Bisguier's this weekend on then Acela. It was a late afternoon train and I was able to get this photo with my iPhone as we tooled along at around 100mph.

I never cease to be impressed with the camera in the iPhone. It takes about the best model photos I have ever taken and there is no way in the world I could have gotten a picture like the above with my other cameras, at least not without a lot of prep, that was just fired out the window.

When I arrived, Craig's wife picked me up at the train station in Clifton, NJ and brought me over to his friend, Dave Ramos' house for the operating session that was on going when I arrived. It was very cool and I had a great time, even though the engineer I worked with first only killed me about 4 times ... It only hurt a little.

Today, Craig and I drove out to Scranton, PA to get research photos to help me with my Delaware Lackawanna modeling. We started out in Steamtown, where we both bought t-shirts at the store and then were greeted by CN 3254 being turned on the turntable and then backed onto a string of 6 coaches.

That photo was taken later, in Moscow, PA. After visiting the DL shops, where we saw a number of the stable outside, including 2452, and various others, as well as the rather impressive deadline, we decided to chase 3254 to Moscow, as that is in the direction of Cresco, PA, our ultimate destination. We were assured by one of the trainman that we would have no problem chasing her as she would only be going 25 mph up the hill ... Well, due to several factors, we got smoked (no pun intended) It is very difficult to believe that they were only going 25 ...

 After spending some time in Cresco getting lots of photos, we were greeted by PT-98, which we chased towards the East, which just happens to be towards Craig's ... very convenient. I think this bridge needs to be modeled ... But then again, I want to model everything ...

Modeling updates are to follow ...