Ok so the ties are down at last ready for laying rail. By now the process of laying ties is straightforward:
- Weather the ties by adding wood grain, gouges, and cuts to reflect the usual wear and tear of a poorly maintained branch line. Further weathering will be done while ballasting.
- Then stain with a light Indian ink and alcohol mix. I will do a proper coloring of the ties later with my Winsor Newton markers.
- Lay the non-turnout lengths with 1 PCB (printed circuit board) tie followed by 5 wooden ties. The PCB ties are stuck down with two part epoxy and the wooden ties are stuck down with PVA (white) glue.
- On the turnouts I lay two PCB ties followed by two wooden ties as I need to make sure I have PCB ties available in several key areas.
- I used 19′” spaces between the tie centers but varied it to once again reflect movement of ties over time and poor maintenance.
Here the result so far:
![](http://thedepotonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2017-05-20-21.12.jpg)
![](http://thedepotonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2017-05-19-22.36.jpg)
![](http://thedepotonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2017-05-20-21.28.jpg)
![](http://thedepotonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/town163w.jpg)
I’ll start laying rail Monday. I’m going to work on the diorama tomorrow.