The James River Branch Z Scale Model Railroad: Roads

Roads, Part 2 of 2

Grade Crossings

Following typical practice for the grade crossing, I installed stripwood railroad ties along each side of each rail. Owing to the fact that the road crossed a turnout, this required sixteen pieces, all but two of which had to be carefully shaved to shape.

After several iterative shave-and-test-fit cycles, each piece was positioned by pressing the tip of a sharp knife into the wood, dipped in CA, and carefully positioned. Then I sanded all of the parts down smooth and flush with the rails. Finally, I applied India ink wash to age the wood.

To make the tiny pieces of blacktop that fit in between the ties, I made a paper template by rubbing a pencil over a piece of tracing paper placed across the turnout, then traced the shapes onto .030-inch thick black styrene with a sharp knife.

The styrene pieces were cut, sanded, distressed, painted, and bonded in place with CA. Finally, I weathered the finished crossing with powdered chalk.

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Stripwood pieces are carefully shaved to shape and bonded in place with CA.

Once all of the wood parts are installed, they're sanded smooth.

India ink wash is used to age the stripwood.

Tiny slivers of black styrene fill in the spaces between the ties.