My Ice Skating yard - Model Railroader Magazine (2024)

jacon12

• Member since
  November 2002
• From: US
• 4,640 posts

Looking at my yard, at this stage, it reminds me of a blue ice skating rink.. perfectly flat and boring as all get out. Now, I know yards should be flat what with all the switches and cars etc. but this is a little much. My base is blue extruded foam and I'm wondering how to make the area more believable before I paint it the basic earth color. I've thought about after I get the tracks laid, I'll take a wire brush, a knife and whatever implements of destruction I can find and score it up this way and then that.
Good idea or bad?
How did you do this area on your layout? Use real dirt or other methods? Most yards I've seen, and they're very few.. had very little ballast around the tracks.
Jarrell

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HAZMAT9

• Member since
  December 2004
• From: The Great American Southwest
• 403 posts

Ever thought of digging into your foam and adding a culvert or canal with a bridge crossing? I have a few areas with switching over a narrow river which I added a plate girder here and there. You can add activity to the canal/culvert area below the switching yard. Just an idea.

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Anonymous

• Member since
  April 2003
• 305,205 posts

Jarrell - Our layout suffers from the same predicament. I don't know if you've ever looked at our pictures (http:\\www.railimages.com\gallery\peterjung), but you'll see the layout is basically flat.

After looking at our very small yard area, I had to come up with something. Basically, I started putting pieces of "scenery" in the yard - barrells, workers, etc., to break up the starkness of the flat contour. Unfortunately I don't have before and after pics of this on the website, only the before pics... But it helped a little bit.

Good to hear that you're thinking ahead on this one.

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nbrodar

• Member since
  June 2005
• From: Phoenixville, PA
• 3,495 posts

Depends on how old the yard is. The older the yard is, the closer the tracks are to ground level, and the less ballast there is. Newer yards have the tracks raised up slightly, (although usually not as much as the mains) and have plenty of ballast. The yard that I work in has fine walking ballast, and an asphalt road, running along the ladder, level with the top of the ballast.

On my layout, I just laid roadbed and track on the flat foam and left it at that. I then covered the exposed foam with brown paint, and WS Fine Blended Earth ground foam. After that, I ballasted the track, making it level between the tracks. I added some roads, made from fine ballast between some of the tracks, and left the Earth showing between some others.

Nick

Take a Ride on the Reading with the:Reading Company Technical & Historical Society http://www.readingrailroad.org/

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jacon12

• Member since
  November 2002
• From: US
• 4,640 posts

No Steve, I hadn't thought of culverts but it's a idea. That would help to break up the monotony some.
Thanks!

Pete, ya'll have some serious bridges and a monster of a roundhouse! They look good! Maybe after I get further along more ideas will come to me. Not having done a layout before, when I look at that blue styrofoam, that's all I see.. blue styrofoam.. :) I think the adding in of the details will do the trick.

Nick, thanks for the suggestion of the Fine Blended Earth and the roads. I see if I can't incorporate a few little roads into the area.

Jarrell

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HAZMAT9

• Member since
  December 2004
• From: The Great American Southwest
• 403 posts

I was kinda thinking more in terms of a culvert/drainage pipe which is placed under a bridge of some sort. The drainage pipe flows into a small stream area with a very narrow bank....maybe add a hobo camp with hobos cooking on the narrow bank or wading in the not so clean water. If you need other ideas, contact me on the side and I'll jpeg some ideas to you. hazmat9@hotmail.com

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SMassey

• Member since
  December 2005
• From: Spanaway, WA
• 787 posts

You may want to consider trying some plaster cloth on the flat parts. It makes a slight uneven surface that resembles dirt, then paint it dirt color or darker for dirt mixed with oil then ballast the yard.

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MisterBeasley

• Member since
  December 2004
• From: Bedford, MA, USA
• 21,256 posts

I skim coat the area between the tracks with Gypsolite. It's naturally gritty, so the flatness gets broken up. I add some cheap brown acrylic paint to the Gypsolite before putting it down to save on having to paint it. Carving out some depressions and adding a few mounds, even just a quarter-inch high, will improve the look. I use small Hydrocal rock castings, too. A pair of ruts with a pickup truck becomes a dirt road pretty easily.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.

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