Good effect

Good effect, Charlie.  Gee, with that telephoto view, it also looks like you use #1 turnouts and 20-percent grades.

I'm a little surprised to see any car parked on the unmaintained spur, brakewheel-less yet.....  Don't mind me, even your works-in-progress look great, and I broke off 5 stirrup steps from some Funaro and Westerfield cars over the last couple of days (sigh).

What type end-of-track bumper do you intend for the spur? crossed ties? dirt pile? or maybe something a bit more substantial because the road is so close?

Looks good

The patchy effect may be a blessing. Maybe you can trickle in some clear acrylic or gloss medium to create some rainy Cascades puddles in the low spots.

nice

I like the effect. The yard I am modeling tended to be overgrown in the summer and early fall to the point it had to be regularly mowed. Brings new meaning to "mow crew". What you did is pretty much the effect I want although in N scale I may have to live with ground foam.

Chris

Wow!

Charlie,

That looks very good...in fact, the first time I looked at the picture I didn't pickup the spur!  I was thinking..."Is this a before picture?"  "Where's the mud?" "Those look like mainline not a siding..."  DOH! )

Then I looked again and realized I was looking at the wrong tracks!

Some ballast on the rest will complete the look I'm sure.

Thanks for sharing!

That is some amazing

Grass

I think that static grass would work for N scale. Use the 2mm and paint dilute white glue *carefully* down the middle of the tracks in question and along the edges of the tracks. Then sprinkle the static grass (with grassmaster). Vacuum up what's not stuck down. Voila, one over grown track that you can still run trains on...

Charlie

Charlie, what a nice effect!

Charlie,

what a nice effect! The static grass looks great, turning a bare track into a less mainteined spur. The telephoto makes quite difficult to see the ballast/mud result, though.

Do you think adding a layer of diluted white glue after the plaster set, can help in keeping the ballast+dirt powder mix firmly in place? I think I need to experiment a little on a test track

Chris

static grass works great in N scale as well. The 6mm is great for overgrown, tall grass fields while 2mm is better for short grass, like in railroad yards, houses backyards, relatively distant backdrop mountains or public green areas. Here is how I used Noch 6mm "beige" and "green" static grass fibers.

Sounds like worth a try

Sounds like its worth a try.. I will need to try to make an applicator. Fairly soon if I want to try it out on my current mini-layout.

Chris

Charlie, did you manage to

Charlie,

did you manage to take a picture showing the track from above? I did some experiments on a test piece of track, but ended up with a total crap The powder dirt messed it all up

I'd like to get the same yard/spur track effect Pelle Soeeborg got here:

Will a light layer of fine ballast laid over the ties followed by powder dirt mix brushed on work? We'll see. I need to build another scrap track test.

applicator

Chris, I'm "almost" local. If you need help with that, and or I have a ton of 2" mm static grass (I bought too much).

Chris, I'm "almost" local.

Sounds like a good idea. My wife is ready to pop any day, but hopefully in the next few months things will settle down after the new baby and I can travel again!

Meanwhile, I am inspired by your frugal applicator and hope to find some budget to build my own sometime soon!

Chris