Large Scale Central

Hewn log ties

Track and Trestles
#1

For my indoor layout I am doing a more or less backwoods lumber and mining railroad. As such I want to have the look of hewn log ties as opposed to milled ties. My MIK project is the first thing being made for the indoor and it is the engine house. I needed some ties coming out the door so it was time to figure out how to do it. Awhile back someone on here gave me the idea of cutting limbs to length then sanding one side flat and then gluing them to a board and then sanding the opposite side flat to a uniform thickness. So that’s what I did. I cut twigs ranging from 3/8 to 1/2 inch in diameter 3.75 inches long. Then sanded one side flat and since the limb is green dried them in the kiln (the oven) for about 15 hours at 175. This seemed to dry them out pretty well. Then they were glued and pinned to a piece of 3/4 MDF at a spacing of 11 or 12 to the foot and then sanded on my belt sander to a uniform 1/4 inch thick. I only did two small sections to fill in the left over rail pieces sticking out of the engine house. The track is not spiked down yet. Oh and I used some very dark stain to kill the bright white of the wood. I like the look a lot. Really did capture what I was after. And since the indoor will be only like 30 or 40 feet of track it won’t be to awful tedious to do.

Edited because I forgot poctures

#2

Me like!

Good place for those handmade tie plates too (the ones Patrick showed us of his in the other thread), but loggers probably just spiked the rails down?

#3

No tie plates. That would be way to fancy for this road. Throw the logs in the mud and spike the rail down. I am going to go the extra mile and ballast the main line but the sidings and yard will be dirt.

Thanks for the vote of confidence

#4

John Passaro said:

Me like!

Good place for those handmade tie plates too (the ones Patrick showed us of his in the other thread), but loggers probably just spiked the rails down?

Yep. Like this…notice they didn’t even flatten them logs!

#5

As long as its going to be indoors, why not get 15-20 really good ones and cast them in resin?

#6

Lol OK Joe it won’t be quite that rugged. It will have a tad more permenentcy than that. It will serve mining operations and a mill.

I do like that photo though. It looks as if they cut the trees to clear the right of way bucked them up laid them down and nailed the rails down. Very cool.

#7

That looks good, Devon. I’ll have to file that idea for future use. What kind of wood did you use? I guess it really doesn’t matter since it will be inside.

#8

See my post above.

#9

Steve Featherkile said:

As long as its going to be indoors, why not get 15-20 really good ones and cast them in resin?

I had thought about that but then decided that for the amount I will need it would probably take as long or longer to cast them and paint them than it will be to do it this way. Plus this has the bonus of being totally random and authentic looking. It took me about half an hour to make twenty of them. I figure I will need about 400 of them or so including switch ties. Once I am rolling with a system I bet I can get 100 of them an hour ready for the oven. A days work and I should have all the ties ready for the kiln.

#10

Locust. A branch fell out of the tree due to heavy snow. I am recycling it. Wife looked at me stupid when i drug it into the garage.

#11

Once dried, will they survive spiking without splitting?

#12

I thinks so. That’s why I dried them in the oven for 15 hours first. After drying them I sawed and sanded one to see what kind of moisture was left and they are pretty dry. Ultimately I would weight them then start the drying process until they quit losing weight. These few will be a good test to see if they start to split. If they do start to split then for. Sure I will switch to casting them.

#13

FYI; Spikes are cut with a chisel edge that are oriented to cut the grain not split them. (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Drill your holes slightly under size for a snug fit in glue.

John

#14

Those look really great!
I need to find a way to incorporate that somewhere.

Would a logging line like that ever tie into or off of a main line?
Or would it have been just a self contained, point to point thing?

#15

Patrick McGrath said:
Those look really great! I need to find a way to incorporate that somewhere. Would a logging line like that ever tie into or off of a main line? Or would it have been just a self contained, point to point thing?

That would depend on the size of the operation. Most of the time track laid that way was temporarily put down to get into an area to be logged out. Once that was done it would be pulled up and used to go into another area. Usually in and around the sawmill area a more permanent roadbed would be laid since it was in use all the time. And if it did tie into a mainline RR, the RR they were tying into would more then likely be laying the roadbed so it met their standards.

A smaller operation may just lay a siding next to mainline and finished product would be transferred from their cars to the mainline RR’s cars.

Of course the only logging RR I’ve ever been to see was Cass. And it’s roadbed was the same as the mainline it tied into all the way up to the top of Bald Mountain.

#16

Maybe we should clarify a little bit. Logs laid on the ground with little to no road bed prep like in Joe’s photo are without a doubt only temporary and ran a short distance into a patch of woods being logged at the time. These feeders would have ran to a more permanent mill or log deck where the logs were processed or loaded to be transported to the mill.

Now what I am modeling is a whole different deal. These were most assuredly permanent lines. Road beds were graded and prepped and ties where cut to length and hand hewn (spelling?) flat on two sides. The rails were then spiked down normally. I don’t know how many large mainline Railroads used them but many narrow gauge lines did. Many times mills were not close by and shipping in milled ties would be expensive. Logs were plentiful and did the job quite nicely. Sometimes these lines were ballasted but many times they were not.
But even if the ties were not ballasted usually the bed itself was at least in freezing climates to prevent frost heave and to keep the bed sinking into the mud.

So to answer your question Patrick I would say it depends on where you are going with your road. Here’s my two cents. With those nice wood ties your doing (there size, shape, and spacing) and the tie plates your making, your line “looks” narrow gauge to me or at least a smaller but permanent mainline. Couple that with the fact that you want it to be steam era and i think you could make a very plausible argument for a spur line to some place that had this sort of construction. This is a game of “is it plausible” and yes it is plausible. Many times as areas evolve a small existing railroad line will get tied into a more modern expansion. Happens all the time.

If you really want to get creative make it 32mm track and tie it in as a dual gauge line into a yard.

Now a word of caution. This is going indoors so wood choice is of no concern. Outdoors to do something like this would require first access to a source of rot resistant twigs, cedar would be easy for me but i don’t know about anywhere else. No matter what you use they will need to be treated with ??? and you would not be able to attach them to MDF as I have done. They would need to be attached to something that will hold up.

#17

Real wood looks a helluvalot better on a diorama than plastic, Steve. (in my opinion). :slight_smile:

#18

John Bouck said:

Real wood looks a helluvalot better on a diorama than plastic, Steve. (in my opinion). :slight_smile:

Well that is another aspect. Since it is a very small indoor layout it that will be at waist height it will be more or less a working diorama. It will be scrutinized for its detail much more than a sprawling outdoor layout. People will be looking close. These real wood ties will have frayed bark, color variations, and even splits that just won’t be able to be captured in plastic. So It is an attempt to do it. If it works great if it doesn’t well then I have the casting option. But at the end of the day this will look better especially on that track that is right out front in your face.

#19

Devon Sinsley said:

John Bouck said:

Real wood looks a helluvalot better on a diorama than plastic, Steve. (in my opinion). :slight_smile:

Well that is another aspect. Since it is a very small indoor layout it that will be at waist height it will be more or less a working diorama. It will be scrutinized for its detail much more than a sprawling outdoor layout. People will be looking close. These real wood ties will have frayed bark, color variations, and even splits that just won’t be able to be captured in plastic. So It is an attempt to do it. If it works great if it doesn’t well then I have the casting option. But at the end of the day this will look better especially on that track that is right out front in your face.

Are you the one to tell Ray he can’t do this?

#20

Sean McGillicuddy said:

Devon Sinsley said:

John Bouck said:

Real wood looks a helluvalot better on a diorama than plastic, Steve. (in my opinion). :slight_smile:

Well that is another aspect. Since it is a very small indoor layout it that will be at waist height it will be more or less a working diorama. It will be scrutinized for its detail much more than a sprawling outdoor layout. People will be looking close. These real wood ties will have frayed bark, color variations, and even splits that just won’t be able to be captured in plastic. So It is an attempt to do it. If it works great if it doesn’t well then I have the casting option. But at the end of the day this will look better especially on that track that is right out front in your face.

Are you the one to tell Ray he can’t do this?

Ray is the exception to the rule. He would do it outdoors and it would look 100% authentic including the frayed bark and little splits and even termite tracks.