Quanah, Acme and Pacific (QA&P) - West Texas - Fictitious Model Railroad Layout Agriculture Industry

When you painted your track, did you use markers on the rail?

And all the ties?

 

Patrick,

I don't know what you mean by markers.

Apparently another item in model railroading (and maybe the real thing) that I'm ignorant of.

Please educate me.

 

Using those rail markers in particular is excruciating and can leave shiny spots around the spike heads.

https://www.amazon.com/Woodland-Sce...MIg7Dj7_HNgwMV3YVaBR08DwI7EAQYBSABEgLYT_D_BwE

Painting the track with a spray can is a lot easier but it can foul up switches and takes a lot of cleaning to get it off of the rail head.

 

First I tried a weathering solution.

It worked better on the flex track in the yard.

Then I used a small paint brush and brushed on railroad tie brown.

Slow and painstaking and you still have to thoroughly clean the rail tops.

 

Sorry about that, my mind tends to be very literal.

When you first asked about markers I was thinking about some sort of indicator, not marking pens.

I do have one of the weathering markers. At first it worked well. being used for awhile, the tip started fraying and then it made a mess like you mentioned. It came with two tips, so I changed it. That one wore out fast, as well.

It would be difficult to spray Kato track since the ballast is built into the roadbed.

 

I sprayed Bachmann EZ Track brown along with the road bed.

You have to cover the roadbed with the new ballast and once you do that it really looks great.

 

Sorry, that is marker painted EZ Track.

But the gray roadbed is totally covered with ballast.

 

Spray painted EZ Track with ballast applied.

 

A little movement on the QA&P this evening. No steam operating today--just diesels.

 

I’ve always really liked West Texas, it was where I was going live my life 45 years ago before events conspired to direct it elsewhere.

Some people say there’s nothing there. I disagree and say that there’s plenty, especially if you really like long distant horizons and big skies.

I still feel a mystical connection to that country that I have always felt since day one, but I’ll doubt I’ll ever get back there.

 

Spray painted Kato track.

It was truly fortuitous that a light coat left the ties a little darker than the ballast.

No applied ballast needed in my opinion.

Code 83 rail rocks. I am sorry I didn’t use it from the beginning on the other layout.

 

Big skies and the horizon with great views, that is exactly what drew me to areas like this.

We like it pretty well. The only regret is that we did not settle a little farther west.

 

Looks fantastic.

 

A few more shots of the layout.

 

I like it.

 

A little Mandarin orange and white running through the agriculture of west central Texas.

Think Quanah and cotton.

 

Bought some structures from David Gaines and have been doing a tiny bit of modifying. The Frisco Transportation Company building received a new sign and a larger parking lot. The structure that was here was a small county jail that had been converted to a business, so there was no room for trailers.

One odd thing I noticed is that the trailers aren't at the same height as the dock. Not sure how to fix that...Maybe the building was originally designed to align with the height of a box car, but why would there be three doors on the building so close together?

The sign may get a black border and some light weathering. It's a little too bright. Looks like I need to set the bench next to the door back on it's legs. It needs some people and a car or pickup or two, but it's close to being done.

Thanks, David!!!!

 

Your layout looks great Paul. Thanks for mentioning me. I think I see ay least 3 of the cars I sold you in the earlier pics. Maybe your pics will generate some business for me as I try to liquidate my HO stuff at the prices I paid for it.

Dave

 

There has been some fairly major reconstruction to the layout over the past couple of months. All of the narrow gauge equipment is gone (sorry Karl). My fumbly fingers don't work well with HOn3 anymore. People are paying ridiculous amounts of money for HOn3 equipment, so I sold it all.

As a result, the portion of the layout that was Colorado is now standard gauge. Actually, it's not anything yet, but will eventually be. I tried hard to find a way to incorporate the peninsula into the around-the-wall loop, but I'd have to completely tear it down and start from scratch.

There will be a small yard, a team track and another storage track "south" of the yard and team track".

There's now a small neighborhood (the farm house and the freight house are both from David Gaines). The office near my main yard got the boot when the Frisco Transportation Company building took it's place. As a result, that office building is now in the portion that used to be Colorado. That's just as well, because it's next to the machine shop. Both the machine shop and the office are modeled after friends I have in Colorado Springs.

I'm still trying to figure a way to incorporate a wye or a turntable with no roundhouse. That way you could at least turn a locomotive so it could head back the way it came without five finger switching. But it's not looking likely.