The Little-Used Siding

Wanting to suggest that the passing siding on the branch line is not used very often, I tried some weathering techniques I had read.

First, used India ink in alcohol or water but wasn't very effective:

There's a faint dark streak, but not very satisfying.

Mixed some maple and burnt sierra (or some sort of name like that) acrylic with water.  Didn't mix very well, but finally got something that could be painted on.  Then added some coarse ground foam, some ground up dead leaves (especially near the center of the pulpwood yard), an a little polyfiber on the track area.

Hard to see, but also put in some yellow-orange flowering "weeds".

Made a scrawny tree from grape twig, hair spray, and ground foam.  Seemed to fit the scene. 

Most of material was fixed with hair spray or diluted white glue.  Probably need a few bushes between tracks to go with scrawny tree!

Here We Come A-Ballasting

Maybe the last two sections needed to ballast, then some real scenicking!

The spur for the Cotton Factory and for the Cotton Gin were the only track left without ballast.  So, mixed up a couple of batches of fine, light grey ballast with fine, black cinders as used elsewhere on the branch line, and away we went.

Cotton Factory before:
After:

A bit difficult to see, but just behind the loaded pulpwood rack is a small pile of spilled coal from the coal car at the boiler house.

And the Cotton Gin before:

and after: 

OK, hard to tell the difference since the job was already started before documentary photo was taken.

That should be all of that, thank goodness.  Now to plan the "condition" of scenes between the tracks!

Ballast, Ballast, and More Ballast

Used some sand-colored ballast, fine, to start the -- what will end up looking like -- little used passing siding.

Completed the siding; before:

and after:

Then the branch line at other end of layout:

  and after:

Used fine grey ballast with a bit of fine black ballast added to distinguish from mainline!?!

Ditto branch line with passing siding, before:

and after:

Seems it's impossible NOT to use too much ballast compared to prototype.  Will need some considerable scenicking to complete the tracks, plus ballasting the Cotton Factory and Cotton Gin spurs.  Oh well, seems ballasting never ends. . . .

Sanded Grout (Again, maybe)

Before hopping on some ballasting, it seemed some "sanded grout" application was in order.  I believe sanded grout is used between flagstones and such.  In any case, some was left over from the house build several years back and it is VERY fine sand and may have adhesive properties when went.

Whatever it is, first some half-strength white glue -- in process:

Added around team track shed and dirt road to armory.

A little more grass at the end of the blacktop:

Grapetwig Trees

A couple of trees made from grape twigs could almost be seen in any earlier post.  Here's a closer view:

The tree to the left is a Woodland Scenics "as bought" tree.  Well, it does have a little fine ground foam of a lighter shade of green dusted over spritz of extra hold hair spray to give some highlights.

The next tree to the right is the first of three trees made with grape twigs sprayed with extra hold hair spray and twirled in ground foam.  Although all three of these trees look a bit more like dessert trees than temperate forest types, this first one was very satisfying.  The second one, closer to the tracks, somehow looks a bit weird with "green" on the trunk.  Got carried away with twirling.  The little one on the far right is fine.

In any case, pretty quick and easy way to get a few trees on the layout.

Connecting Backdrop to Layout

Well, it seems apparent from the last photo of the previous entry that the blacktop road does not quite "intersect" with the blacktop of the backdrop.  Well, actually, it's not quite that obvious unless you look closely behind the green coupe.

No problem, just make a paper pattern to connect from layout blacktop to backdrop blacktop roads:

Cut a shingle with backside up to match paper pattern:

 Paint new section with some grey paint and add white center line and black tar in cracks:

Glue some corkboard cut to similar shape in place to raise roadbed:

Glue new section of blacktop road in place and weight down; note that existing scenicking has been removed (mostly with a wood chisel):

Add a little Scuptamold (don't like that stuff; will explain later), fine grey ballast, and ground foam of a couple of different shades:

 And, there you have it:

Before putting the backdrop up again, a good bit of ballasting and some additional scenicking is needed.  Made a couple of small trees from grape stems less grapes sprayed with extra hold hair spray and dipped in ground foam.  The one that's hidden looks pretty good; the other one is a little funky with green ground foam on the trunk!  Had a few Woodland Scenics trees sitting around so incorporated them in the area.  More ballasting and scenicking later.