Making Tracks

I don't want this blog to start by solely being about what i'm going to do on PnC and moaning about how i think some commonly used products don't help realism of modelling, reading back through this is how it comes across to me. I don't want it to be of this opinion, what i'm trying to get across is that i'm by no means a fantastically talented modeller, but i want to try and create as realistic a layout as i am capable of, to do this i'm planning on using some different materials that suit my method of working better, and hope to share these with you as i go through both the planning and then construction stages of the layout. The thing i really want to create is the atmosphere of the line, and this may mean lots more scratchbuilding than i've done before to avoid using things like a GWR/LMS/Wills Freelance signal box for example, but this is something that i'm looking forward to.

One of the first products i found when investigating for PnC was Fast Tracks - this is an American company who produce... err... track making bits and pieces.

Their products i'm interested in using are:

Micro Engineering Spikes - actual spikes to spike the rail to the track rather than use chairs. This seems to have been common on many Irish lines, and therefore has been adopted for my PnC due to their similar nature (rolling stock, operation etc).

Micro Engineering Spikes source: www.handlaidtrack.com

The Tillig track i've used on Dunbracken gives a good effect of trackwork as can be seen below, but i would still like to try using more finescale appearing trackwork on PnC.

Parkside Dundas Vale of Rheidol guard's van sitting on Tillig HOe track on Dunbracken.

Wood Ties - actual wooden sleepers which will give a more realistic colour than pcb or rtr plastic sleepers. Some pcb sleepers will have to be used in the production of points, but this article is very useful for combining the wood and pcb and getting an even result from both mediums.

Wooden Ties (sleepers) source: www.handlaidtrack.com

PnC is very much inspired by Irish narrow gauge as well as Welsh and Scottish, and there is a photo of the Tralee and Dingle Railway which shows some very nicely wooden coloured sleepers with some light rust and grime staining. I think that to achieve this it will be much easier to start with wooden sleepers in the first place. At present Fast Tracks are the only i company i have managed to find that produce sleepers precut to close to 009 standards. They also produce some very useful looking point building tools which may come in handy when trackwork construction starts.