Ditto on the hidden track problems. I have a spiral loop with much of
it hidden. I ran the area before scenery (BS)) with only a rare
incident. After adding more longer cars, different cars and a
tunnel/scenery (AS) my incidents are become more numerous. Luckily it's
mostly a uncoupling issue. If I knew what direction to go, there's
almost enough room in the tunnel to shave away or add some roadbed
material as I sure hate to 'blast away' some scenery only to make a
slight change.
I might caution you on the use of hairspray. It has a lifespan and
after that it gives up. Face it, it's purpose was to make the ladies
(and maybe some guys) look good for the evening! I purchased a bunch of
very nice and fairly expensive pine trees that were commercially
available at the time. After a few years I noticed much of the
flocking/foliage was now on the ground and the trees looked like they
were dying. The builder had used some form of lacquer to hold things
together.
When I build my trees, I let the water-based paint hold the initial
material to the branches (aka the McKenzie Bros method) and then use a
mist of latex to further adhere the material. I was able to re-flock my
purchased trees and then replant, but it was a unnecessary pain. My
process should hold much longer, but only time will tell.
Bob Werre (the little old tree-maker and re-flocker)
On 2/25/12 6:16 PM, gsc3 wrote:
I bought some bags of poly fiber from Wal-Mart and colored it with
cheap latex green paint. Turned out just barely acceptable. Now
spending seemingly endless hours doing tree shapes. Next using hair
spray I cover the shapes with ground foam. I made a mistake by using
the same blend of foam for all the trees along one wall's backdrop.
Since I'm putting these trees on the backdrop behind a 8" high hill I
put some painters masking tape over 4 empty AM loco boxes to raise the
start of the tree line up enough to clear the staging yard tracks in
front.
Yes, it's true. Most track problems are occuring in the semi-hidden
staging yard. Trains that run flawinglessly elsewhere love to jump the
track in hidden staging. I'm considering nameing the staging yard
after Murphy.
George Courtney
