Klemptner Bros. Salvage - first steps.

I'm using the space between the outer most track and the next one in.  Buck & Loretta are excited about a salvage yard coming to the area so that they can get some "new" stuff!  Buck was overheard saying: "I ain't never understood why people done throwed away purfectly good stuff just cause it got a few scratches, dents, and rust!"

I didn't change the elevation of the tracks so I needed to add cork to raise the area.  I started by gluing down track bed upside down with the angled edge against the existing angled edge.  Yes, if I had planned better I would have put solid cork down in the area!

I like using the "PowerGrab(tm)" adhesive to put down my cork and also to affix my track.

After I got the pieces of upside down roadbed track in place I put paper on top and used my fingernail to indent a line to mark the edge of my template.

Next I used a marker to highlight the lines I made with my fingernail.  I then put the template on a piece of sheet cork, pinned it down, and used my hobby knife to cut it out.

Here's the cork cut out and in place in the yard area.

I'll let the glue dry before going on to the next step.

It occured to me that I am

It occured to me that I am going to have a problem with fencing the track on this yard.  There is very little space between the yard siding (second in from the right) and the next track.  I'm going to have to either live with it (NOT prototypical) or move the siding in away from the other track.

What do you have planned...

for that area behind those set aside engines?  Just a suggestion.  You are real good at building mountains.  So, how about an off layout junkyard?  All you need is a mangled tin sheet fence 20 feet high, a gate at an angle, think privacy and beatification, barbed wire to keep out the thieves, a "mountain" of rusted junk metal appearing about 10 - 20 ft above the fence.  Maybe an old appliance pile further back.  Could be a photo. Add a crane boom with the magnetic plate, boom was originally painted safety yellow, but now rusty also sticking above the fence.  The banged up gate can be both for vehicles and scrap hauling gons. You could even have rails passing under the gate.  Add enough rail for one gon to go in.  Loaded gons would be pulled out to be parked on another siding until you deem enough gons have been loaded.  Make the appearance that a fully modeled scrapyard is there.  Use your tricks to fool the eye.  It would look more realistic than anything you could put between those tracks.  Place a storage siding there for the loaded gons.  Creates more switching opportunities.

Den

Den - Thank you for your suggestions

The area by the locos with the far left track is the mainline.  I've already installed the printed backdrop in that area so I'll stick with the salvage yard being located between the far right track and the next one to the left.  I like your ideas about what the yard could contain and have some of the components already.

It would be tight

but you ought to be able to run some sort of fence close to your siding and far away enough from the mains that it won't hang.  The DC Metro - right out the opposite side of my building at work -  has fencing separating it from the CSX main, and theres' probably not more then 2 feet from car side to fence on the metro side.  I'll try to get a picture at lunch and post it.

Thank yoou Phillip H.

I believe that you are correct in that I will have space for a fence between the two tracks.  Problem solved!

Scrap yard

I recently completed a scrap yard on my layout, Not part of the original plan, but I had a space between a siding and the main that was either going to be vacant lot, or I could put a revenue producing industry in. You can see what I did at https://northernpacificproject.wordpress.com/.

Just check you rrolling stock overhang.

The prototype may put a fence 2 feet from a track, but due to our tight radii, model trains tend to hang over curves much farther than the prototype, especially locomotives.  You might find that the anti climbers on your locomotives will "harvest" a fence 2 scale feet from a curved track.

Fence...

...Not sure of the spacing but from the photos it looks like you have room. With only gons and flats going around the curve overhang should not be a problem.

What are you building your fence from? I have always liked the idea of a series of old boxcar doors which I saw somewhere a while back. I have a bunch saved up from kits that gave optional doors. these are one sided of course so I will have to be careful of sitelines.

** UPDATE 3-26-16 1st layer of Zip texture added

I added some thin foam sheets over the cork to bring the surrounding area level with the top of the ties and added my first layer of Zip texture.  I'm using the "Red Dirt" formula which is: 1pt Yellow powdered tempera, 2pts Brown powdered tempera, and 9pts plaster of paris.  I ran out of dirt after doing about 1/3rd of the area so I had to mix up a bigger batch and filled a plastic quart jar.  The zip is still wet in these pictures and will dry to a different shade.

I used a spoon to add the mixture along the tracks and then spread it with my finger.  For the larger areas I used a tea strainer to add the mixture on and sprayed everything with water.

You can see it's still wet in this close up shot.  The idea is to have the ties mostly obscured by dirt.  I'll add weeds and other landscape material.

Rick it looks good but a

Rick it looks good but a quick question,

I am guessing plaster of paris, but yellow and brown what? Rit dye, powdered pigments of some kind, actual paint? Inquiring minds want to know. See if your work did not produce good results no one would want to know but since it does. 

Thanks, Rob in Texas

You are correct - it is plaster of paris.  The colors are powdered paints as described by Joe Fugate in his process of using zip texture.  I've edited my post to add that information.  Here are some links about the process:

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/magazine/mrh-2010-SepOct/zip_texturing_resurrected

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/16189

** UPDATE 4-13-16 grass & fence work in process

Due to work I haven't been able to make much progress on my layout recently.  I have been doing some basic ground cover work and started work on the fence.

I added ground foam in the area where the fence will be installed and will next add long static grass that will be along the fence line.

I happened to have some Walthers(R) "Corrugated Fence" that can be used for salvage / junk yards.  I chose not to use it for three reasons: 1.) I don't have enough of the product for the entire area; 2.) The fence is too thick scale wise; and 3.) I want a fence that I can easily "beat up" to look more realistic

I started by cutting strips of foil from a heavy disposable aluminum pan that the wife had (don't tell her!).  Next I used the Walthers(R) fence as a form to emboss the pattern on the foil.  I'll beat up the fence, paint it, and weather it before installing it on the layout.

Here you can see me using a wooden skewer to emboss the fence. One of the wife's pans should be enough to get the job done (but she does have another!)

That's looking pretty good

That's looking pretty good Rick. Just remember, If you take the last foil pan from your wife, you'll have to tell he cause she will miss it. Your safe for now though.   However, since you have such an understanding and supportive wife, she may even pay for the replacement......

Carry on. I am looking forward to how this progresses.

Randy

About the ZIP Texturing

I also found some time back some techniques that Joe Fugate used and is demonstrated well in the Ten Mile Creek DVD series. I downloaded the whole series a few years back. The ZIP texturing is shown in the 5th DVD (Numerated as DVD 4 - "tenmilecreek-p04-dvd.mp4") starting at about 10 minutes into the video. Since making this series, Joe had changed some of the formulation of the "slurry", so do read the article that Rick had referenced earlier in this thread.

I found the series to be basically a complete tutorial on model railroad layout construction, including some of the scenery elements. I was not able to find a complete table of contents for the series, so I created one from the titling in the videos. Here is the table of contents:

Rick, those pans are

Rick, those pans are generally inexpensive and come in multiple packs go buy some more and stash the extras in the train room. She will notice if one is missing.

Great progress

The yard is coming on really well Rick. I love the look of those tracks buried in the dirt.
The foil pan and embossing idea is really neat and although I haven't spent any time giving it deep thought yet, it looks like a technique that has a lot of applications

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Fencing...

How do you plan to support the Fence? I have that same kit - I painted it up, but the whole thing just feels a little oversized and coarse - your method looks much better, so i might give it a go. Just wondering what you use for the posts?

Randy & Rob - good advice

I bought some foil pans so the wife will be happy.

Thanks, Rob Clark.  I

Thanks, Rob Clark.  I appreciate you kind words.  I still have lots of work to do in this area.

Paul C. - I haven't decided

Paul C. - I haven't decided what I'll use to support the fence.  I thinking either brass / copper soldered together or styrene.

** UPDATE 4-27-16 Salvage yard structure build beginning

My salvage yard won't have a great deal of space, so the office structure needs to be small.  I decided to bash the GCLaser #1255 Yard Office kit and combine it with the Bar Mills #0742 H.J. Simpson Feed & Seed kit.  Both structures are small and when combined will give me something unique.  Here's the two kits on my work table:

How am I going to combine them?  That is yet to be determined.  Stay tuned for more.

** UPDATE 5-15-16 Salvage Yard fencing

My salvage yard must have a fence, so I started with the Walthers(R) "Corrugated Fence.  As soon as I unpacked it I knew that I didn't like the looks of the corrugated material as it is (in my opinion) WAY too thick - probably about three inches thick!  As I noted previously I cut up some of my wife's aluminum pans (which I replaced!) and then used the Walthers(R) corrugated sections to emboss the foil.

Here is a view of me doing the embossing:

My plan was to use 1/16" brass tubing with brass bar stock to create the poles and horizontal supports for the fence. I used a jig and my hobby knife to score and break the tubing into sections.

Next I cut the head off of straight pins and glued them into the tubing with CA.  The wife will never miss a few pins......hopefully!  So far, so good.

Next I attempted (note the word "attempted") to solder the polls to the horizontal supports.  For whatever reason this didn't work out.  Let's just say that I made a mess, burned myself several times, and scared the dog with my shouting!

Well, if you don't first succeed, then try, try again.  Since soldering didn't work out I next tried gluing the polls to the horizontal supports.  It worked great! - but created a VERY fragile finished product which fell apart when I attempted to install it on my layout.  More shouting and scaring the dog!

Well, if you don't succeed, then try, try try again!  I studied the problem and realized that I don't have a problem with the Walthers(R) fence supports, so I decided to do a hybrid using their supports and corrugated copper.  Why did I switch from the aluminum to copper?  Because the CA wouldn't stick to the aluminum (go figure).  Here I'm using my high tech clamping system to clamp the fencing to the supports.  Now I'm getting some progress!

After the CA dried I dented up the fencing a little and then painted it blue.  For this picture it is just sitting on the layout.

Next up I applied a little weathering using powders.  It's not permanently installed - placed for the picture.

Sorry about the quality of this picture, but for comparison purposes you can see the difference between the thickness of the Walthers(R) fence material and the copper foil.  I'm happy with the way it looks and ordered more of the Walthers(R) kits for the supports.

Wait, wait... hold the phone!

You can score and break brass tubing with a hobby knife?
Can you explain this please? 

This is a secret I've never heard before and if it's as easy as it sounds, it might solve a big problem for me.