HINTS AND TIPS - THE FOLLOW ON
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Uses for Old Brass Track Pt 1
By Ray Richardson
I was going through some of my boxes the other day and came across a box of brass HO track in Code 100. Not much I can do with this I originally thought, but then it hit me, it may not be useful for running trains but it can have many other uses in model railroading. Here is a list of thoughts to get started.
- use it on sidings where an engine doesn't have to run but would use a spacer to push and pull cars off the siding
- use it on dioramas and other static displays'
- use it to model abandoned sidings
- use it in scrap piles- use it in supply yards- use it on MOW rail repair cars- use it as structural steel in a construction site- use it to model a trolley line (one that doesn't actually run trains) on your layout
- use it on a rail float, another instance where the engine would not run on the track
I have found that the brass track when painted with rust colored paint gives a different look than mainline and regular use sidings that have rust on the sides of the rails.
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Uses for Old Brass Track Pt 2
By Several Modellers
I used some old brass rail painted as roof top girders to support large A/C units. (Allan Tenney)
I still use old brass track with fibre ties on lesser used sidings that does not see heavy traffic. Once the rail heads are polished clean, locos run on it quite well and it being more of a darker bronze color, it looks more weathered! I use quite a bit of it in my staging yard as I push most cars into it and rarely need to actually run the locomotives that far. (Nelson Beaudry)
A former member of the model railroad club I belong to used to use old used track, both brass as well as nickel silver to make flat car loads. It is especially good to add weight to cars that are too light without a load and no place to hide the needed weight. (Russ Bellinis)I use brass rail as a structural beam. It is great for scratchbuilding with brass. (Ken Rickman)
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Uses for Old “Toy†train cars
By Ray Richardson
Recently I was given a box full of Tyco HO rolling stock for free. To most serious modelers the response to this is probably Yecchh!
But in looking through the box I found that there is gold in old rolling stock, especially for those of us on a fixed budget for modeling.What can be done with these old cars? Here is a list of things I have found to do with them so far.
· use them as practice pieces for weathering and detailing
·use them as structures in yards
·use them for parts
·replace wheels, trucks and/or couplers on the better pieces so they will be useful on your layout
·use them as a start for building a fleet of cars at low cost
- use them in a diorama
· display them on unused sidings or in distant industries that do not actually see traffic on your layout
It may take work and time to bring some of them up to the quality you want to have running on your railroad, but if you are like me - short on cash, rich in time - then this is a great way to go to get more cars on your layout.
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Making Frosted Windows Pt 1
By Several Modellers
I was scratch building a station building and needed some frosted glass for the toilet windows, and as I was making a cuppa noticed that on the milk bottle there were some small panels of frosted glass looking texture near the handles. When the bottle was empty I cut it off and had a good look at it. It is perfect for the job. You do not get much per bottle, but how much do you need? Not all bottles have it so look carefully at the supermarket and you may be lucky. (Mick Spencer)
From some recent experiments (read playing) with a photo editing app to lighten the colour of some stone effect; it should be possible to print your own frosted transparency material, open a new "image" set colour to a very pale grey or beige; select whichever tool your editor has to allow you to flood or "spray" that colour over part of or the whole page at about 70% to 80% transparency, maybe do a few experiments with the amount of transparency to find the most effective setting.
I just tried on normal paper , drew a square outline then filled it with 10% grey at 70% transparency and printed a square in the centre of a page, result looks as though it should work, might need some adjustment of colour and/or % for printing on transparency if I can find where I packed my transparency material I will give it a go.
The other method I have heard mentioned is to use a fine grade of sandpaper on acetate, not tried it myself. (Mike Boyden)
I just tried on normal paper , drew a square outline then filled it with 10% grey at 70% transparency and printed a square in the centre of a page, result looks as though it should work, might need some adjustment of colour and/or % for printing on transparency if I can find where I packed my transparency material I will give it a go.
The other method I have heard mentioned is to use a fine grade of sandpaper on acetate, not tried it myself. (Mike Boyden)
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Making Frosted Windows Pt 2
By Mike Boyden
I did some trial prints on transparency and it works; I drew test boxes in my photo app then filled them with selected shades of grey from 10% to 30%, and transparencies of 50% and75% then printed to OHP film.
If you are using a laser printer make absolutely sure you have transparency material which is intended for use in a laser printer otherwise you will have a seriously ruined fuser unit gunged up with melted acetate.
I suggest you do a test similar to the above to determine how frosted you want your windows and make a note of the settings. If you are printing your window frames, you can add the frosting at the same time.
If you are using a laser printer make absolutely sure you have transparency material which is intended for use in a laser printer otherwise you will have a seriously ruined fuser unit gunged up with melted acetate.
I suggest you do a test similar to the above to determine how frosted you want your windows and make a note of the settings. If you are printing your window frames, you can add the frosting at the same time.
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Making Frosted Windows Pt 3
By Several Modellers
Old fashioned tracing paper works very well too, if you print on it in grey/light black you can do pub windows, you know, 'Lounge Bar' and 'Finest Wines' etc…Gold for bank windows etc. (Doug Dickson)1. Regular transparent styrene/acetate sheet, #800 emery on one side, circular motion, plain frosted.
2. Overhead transparency sheet, 30-40% grey in CorelDraw or Powerpoint. Add reinforcing wire/dimpled pattern/cobwebs as required. (Nigel Phillips)
3. A combination of a printed acetate sheet with a shop label etc by a piece of tracing or baking paper or a printed sheet of paper with a sheet of acetate to give a glazed effect ties in some of the previous ideas (Trevor Gibbs)
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Making Framework from Plywood Pt 1
By Several Modellers
This was the result of a news group discussion about using plywood rather than dimensional lumber for L Girder framework… the main issue being cutting with a circular saw. These are several of the responses.
By Ron Allbon I have always used 4X8 lumber when constructing modules. 1/2", 3/8", and luan have all worked well, and I have had no warping issues. I have used circular saws, table saws, and sabre saws to cut, as long as you have a steady hand either of the three will work. I don't recommend using a table saw if you are cutting by yourself, as guiding a 4X8 sheet of heavy lumber across a small blade is hard to do. Just make sure whatever lumber you buy is relatively free of black knots. Splintering is minimal, and rough edges can easily be sanded.
By Mike Barnes
You can use a circular saw, but if you have a table saw, it's much easier to do. I woud suggest swapping out the standard blade for a fine tooth blade – i.e. more teeth than the standard blade that the saw comes with. This will reduce splintering. It may not eliminate it, but reducing it is helpful. You can sand off the splinters with a sanding sponge.
If you do have to use a circular saw, you should still swap out the blade for a finer one. You also should able to set up a guide so the circular saw stays as straight as possible while making the cuts.
One final note of extreme importance: WEAR EYE AND EAR PROTECTION!!!!!!
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Making Framework from Plywood Pt 2
By Greg O'Neill
3/4 plywood works great for framework.
Try to use a good quality plywood, like birch, it's a little more expensive, but resists splintering more than AC. If you check with some of the better lumber yards, they may have imported cabinet grade. Good stuff to work with, and can be less expensive than birch. Home Depot and Lowe's caries an AA sanded that works too.
Use a good SHARP/NEW saw blade. Avoid the non-carbide tipped plywood blade. They seem to dull quickly, and I have had just a 24t carbide last a long time ripping plywood. If you want to spend a bit extra, and have a good blade, try a Matsushita. Thin kerf, stays sharp for a long time. HD, and Lowes does not carry them, but they carry lots of choices of thin kerf carbide blades.
Also use a straight edge. if you do not have a straight piece of lumber or metal, you can cut the first rip off of your plywood and use the "Factory" edge as a guide. Clamp it to your plywood and run your saw along the edge to get nice cuts.
When you start to fasten your frame together, pre-drill the screw holes, that way the screws won't split the plies at the ends.
ALWAYS wear eye protection.
Make sure your work is supported firmly, and my favorite; Make sure you finish the project with the same amount of fingers that you started with.
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If you are using fine glass in your models…
By David Keats
I recently cut some .005 glass from using a diamond scribing pen. I used a very light touch and the glass snapped along the scribe line very easily. I was surprised at how well the scriber worked. I was working on a standard cutting mat and the glass pieces didn't slide around under the straight edge. Again, I used very little pressure. Cutting glass is a bit like cutting styrene. All you need to do with the glass is create a fault line where the glass will snap when it is bent.
One small glass cutting point that I learned a long time ago is that cold glass does not cut very well.
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If you are using Hidden Magnetic Uncouplers Pt 1
By Trevor Gibbs
Magnetic uncouplers can be hard to locate, particularly when scenery goes in and you want to keep it realistic. If you have a backdrop or scenic items, you could have a variety of markers that you would know and you could teach your operators, for example a telephone pole that lines up "square on" to the middle of the magnet, a yard man standing conveniently between the centres of two magnets, a small rock outcrop, a small dab of white or yellow paint on the rail side, the leg of a billboard, the corner of warehouse, a traffic light post, a tuft of grass or an area of different coloured soil or a small slough or furrow between the tracks, a small yard hut… it is what suits you…
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If you are using Hidden Magnetic Uncouplers Pt 2
By Several Modellers
A small pile, or spot, of sand will stand out from the other ground cover and will not look out of place. (Bob Shukneckt)
My prototype (Japanese Railways and, probably, others) paints the tie at the clearance point yellow. If that tie is over the end of the magnet closer to the turnout frog you've killed two birds with one stone.(Charles Boyd)
I have a number of visual cues. One has a pickup truck parked next to the track. Another has a track side ditch filled with a little Envirotex "water." A third has a beaver dam. If I were going to go with a "standard" marking, I think I would use old oil drums or barrels. (Kevin Beasley)
Mark the tie ends with coloured paint to simulate a spill. (David Murray)
I use Styrene .100†(2.5mm) Rod painted yellow as an upright post at the centre of the magnetic uncoupler (Wayne Toth)
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By David Gassner
Do you overlap or butt decal stripes if you are short on? If they are truly opaque then the overlap won't show, but if they are slightly translucent then the colour will be brighter (or stronger - however you want to describe it) where the decals overlap. I think it is to decide when you are applying the decals. If you overlap the decals and you can see the overlap then butt them up to each other instead. If you can't see a difference at the joint then the question is answered. I use Microscale decals and I have never had a problem with overlapping joints showing.
One suggestion - let the first decal dry before applying the second one.
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By Several Modellers
Pictures in photographs might not cover the entire area or you might want some blue sky above the pictures. I personally like to cut the sky out of backdrops and just use the mountains and buildings etc onto a sky blue painted wall or backdrop piece. (Dwayne Delaney)
I have done long backdrops over drywall and have had notrouble keeping it attached over the seams. I paint the wall board sky blue and add a few clouds here and there and then cut the sky off the back drop and glue it on using 3M spray adhesive. (Jeff Corbett)
In an earlier false start, I used the 3M spray to adhere a photo background to styrene. The adhesive did not work very well. Maybe styrene is too slick of a surface for good adhesion? On the new layout I am using Masonite, so hopefully this will not be a problem. (Robert Bascom)
I use the fiberglass mesh tape on the seams of my hardboard backdrop. It is way stronger than paper and I find it much easier to work with.
A friend of mine use to teach drywalling at a trade school and one thing I always remembered him telling me was, close your eyes and run your fingers over the join, if you can feel it, you will be able to see it when painted. It was a good lesson. (Brent Coulls)
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By John Busby
The best system I saw for this was a railroad sign in line with the centre of the uncoupler and instead of a W or SW on the sign it had a U. The end result once scenery was all done was something that looked like it should be there, was not too obtrusive but worked.
I have seen the switchman with lantern marker this looks good until the the yard track is empty but the sign looks right every time. If your layout is modernish give the sign a yellow background with a black U and have all other signs around it black on white. Avoid anything red as a marker in the Real Railway world, red is DANGER STOP!!! and just will not look right.
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Using Graphite on Track to keep it clean
By Clark Cooper
I switched to using a Graphite stick on my track. It works. There is a transition period where you have to clean the track and loco wheels a few times, as gunk comes back off the wheels of your freight cars. After that, there is very little messing around.
The key is to not clean your track any more. The graphite has to stay on the track and wheels to do its job. There will be some black come off the rails if you wipe your fingers across, but it will be the graphite. Occasionally you may need to apply some more, but I haven't had to do that yet after 6 months.
If you have to clean scenery materials off the rails, just clean as usual and then re-apply the graphite. One $5.00 2B graphite stick will last you the rest of your life; unlike a brite boy or track rubber.
Turn off the track power before you try it!
The key is to not clean your track any more. The graphite has to stay on the track and wheels to do its job. There will be some black come off the rails if you wipe your fingers across, but it will be the graphite. Occasionally you may need to apply some more, but I haven't had to do that yet after 6 months.
If you have to clean scenery materials off the rails, just clean as usual and then re-apply the graphite. One $5.00 2B graphite stick will last you the rest of your life; unlike a brite boy or track rubber.
Turn off the track power before you try it!
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Keeping Soldering Irons clean
By Several Modellers
I have been soldering for 50 years. I have never used anything but a damp sponge to clean the tips. (Dave Barnes)
I have found a damp paper towel to be a suitable sub for the damp sponge. Then dip the tip in rosin flux and tin IMMEDIATELY. Should be good for an hour or so of control panel wiring. (Charles Boyd)
I have a copper wool scourer which came with my soldering station. I find this superior to wet sponges or rags since it does not cool down the tip. Also to wet the sponge you use use distilled or de-ionised water so as to not have contaminants that will just corrode the tip. The tip cleaner stuff is sal ammoniac, I use it fairly frequently and I'm still using the same tip on my soldering station that came on it 7 years ago. I don't think it will eat the tip or the plating. (Randy Rinker)
Get an old wash cloth and get it wet, squeeze out the excess water so it isn't dripping or saturated but wet. Then take the tip of the hot iron and rub it on the rag round the different sides. Do it fairly quickly so you don't burn up the rag, but enough to quickly rub it and it will come fairly clean. Some soldering stations even have a spot for a sponge used for the same purpose, but I don't have one of those so I use use the old wet wash cloth method. (Mike Lehmann)
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If you have a tight flangeway in a point…
By Dennis Austin and Kevin Robotham
Sometimes Peco points in particular have been known to have tight flangeways in the check rails etc. A tight gauge would cause the wheel flange to ride up the rail giving a heaving motion and clunk as the wheel goes over the tight spot and drops back down. I have seen videos where rubbing a soldering tip back and forth along the spot in question just enough to warm the plastic and then pushing the rail out to the desired gauge and holding it there until the plastic cooled again. Takes just a moment.
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If you are using Hidden Magnetic Uncouplers Pt 4
By Several Modellers
You can show the presence of Magnetic Uncouplers by…
Little spots of sand on both rails - conveniently where the loco starts up when pulling a cut of cars, and thus drops a little sand to help get started. (Randy Rinker)
Making a couple of scrap pieces of styrene into a small battery box. (Dermott West)
While Dermott's hint is OK for one or two locations, half dozen battery boxes in a row would look weird if you are dealing with a large yard (Neil Edmonds)
Man hole covers at ground level as a corollary of Dermott's idea provided you can see the trackside on a shelf width (Trevor Gibbs)
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Deadening Roadbed Sound
By Mike Hattersley
For my latest layout I used caulk to affix the roadbed instead of nails - which is a help. One other area that has to have made a difference is my under table supports. The closer the supports are, the smaller the "drum area" of the plywood. Mine are 18-24 inches, and as a bonus give me a very solid railway.
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Tungsten as Weighting
By Bill Brllinger
For open relatively lightweight wagons, using lead or tungsten putty in the underside cavities will give you more weight since the putty has no airspace. It can also be moulded to the shape of the underside to form it into solid, fitted weights. Tungsten is also far heavier per cubic inch: Lead - 708 pounds per cubic foot. Tungsten - 1224 pounds per cubic foot.
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