Sidings

"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com... : According to Essery (and photos in books) sidings were often not : ballasted as such but filled with earth rammed down to the top of the : sleepers. Has anyone reproduced this effect on a layout using : ready-made track? :

More likely to be ash, earth (soil) holds water and thus would cause the old [1] sleeper rot to accelerate. Hence why most scenic ranges have ash in their range.

[1] sidings tend to get laid with track and sleepers that have already had years of service first on the main lines, then on secondary or branch lines

ed

I have tried this by using the fine black/dark grey powder sold as asphalt finish. I thought it looked the part.

As others have already pointed out, earth wasn't generally used as ballast as earth holds water, and ballast needs to be much more porous. Typically, sidings were ballasted with cinders and ash rather than the granite chippngs commonly used on the mainline.

There's an article by Chris Nevard in the December issue of Model Rail on reproducing cinder and ash ballast. Chris suggests using Humbrol Air Clay on top of sand - start by ballasting as normal with the sand, and then press the clay down on top of it so that it fills the gaps in the sand. Essentially, the sand is representing the cinders, and the clay is the ash. Finish off by painting it the appropriate colours.

You can see an example of how it looks on one of Chris's layouts here:

This also neatly illustrates the difference between the cinder/ash siding ballast on the left and the main line granite ballast on the right.

Mark

Was sand also used for this?

"Mark Goodge" wrote

The North Eastern Railway used ash ballast extensively on their main lines too.

John.

I think you will find that was slag from the blast furnaces rather than ash, which is very friable. Slag on the other hand can be like granite.

George

"furnessvale" wrote

It's certainly referred to as 'ash' in several publications, but without describing the origins of the material.

John.

Thanks, I will order the back-issue. Sand followed by clay sounds perfectly feasible, I was thinking of starting with sand anyway as it flows easily. Guy

ed

I tried sand and regretted it. Not only did it find it's way into the most unwanted places but had a totally incorrect visual impact. Some of my best effortd employed plaster suitably coloured during and after mixing but it is a one off as the track is difficult to recover once laid.

I've used plaster of paris 'painted' on with a brush in the past with good results (for 00). A dusting of grit can add texture. From my time wandering around yards, unless the track has recently been re-layed (usually with second hand track), the surface was just years of spilled coal and general oil muck with pot holes filled in with anything the engineer had lying around. Except where tamper drivers had been training, where real ballast would emerge to the surface. The down yard 'Stone Sidings' at Westbury were another exception, these were new and were fully ballasted.

Cheers Richard