SP Hacienda: Ready for Rail

Posted byTrevorPosted inCalifornia Dreaming in Proto:48, Layouts I have designed or built, SP Hacienda Branch in P:48, Track and Turnouts
The ties at left, in staging, are nine-foot finished to “main track” standards. The ties at right, for tracks serving a row of packing sheds, are eight-foot finished to “spur” standards.

I spent a couple of enjoyable days in the layout room, distressing and staining the ties for my Proto:48 Southern Pacific switching layout. I used various hobby knives to add texture to the ties and three concentrations of black ink diluted with rubbing alcohol to stain them.

An example of severely distressed ties on the spur tracks to the packing sheds.

Despite my decision to distress and stain the ties one-by-one, the work went quickly and I’m really pleased with the results. I used some dice to randomize the frequency of more severely distressed ties so I would not fall into a pattern.

There sure is a lot of clutter on the layout in the distance. That’s trackwork for you…

As reported earlier, I had planned to apply ballast before starting on rail. But I’ve always done rail before ballast in the past and decided I would go with what I know. Stay tuned…

Published by Trevor

Lifelong model railway enthusiast and retired amateur shepherd who trained a border collie to work sheep. Professional writer and editor, with some podcasting and Internet TV presenting work thrown in for good measure.