Brown Sand?

[Mike Nowakowski]

I am looking to start to put the details on my Powder River Coal Basin line and in all the pictures i have seen there is a road next to the track in the heavier traffic area. So where can i get brown sand to simulate these roads?

 

[kenw]

Any beach west of the Mississippi......

 

[Mike Nowakowski]

I hope to go there one day but in the mean time on the internet can i find any? I already checked my hobby shops and no luck.

 

[Larry]

You can get brown sand at Joann's Fabric or their ETC centers. Also, at WM in the craft dept.(most stores), Hobby Lobby & some Ace Hardwares have it. I use it as ballast on my layout. I mix 2 diff. colors of brown, black, gray & white in a 2 gal. bucket. At Joann's it's $2.99 a bag.

 

[Beachbum]

You can get brown sand at Joann's Fabric or their ETC centers. Also, at WM in the craft dept.(most stores), Hobby Lobby & some Ace Hardwares have it. I use it as ballast on my layout. I mix 2 diff. colors of brown, black, gray & white in a 2 gal. bucket. At Joann's it's $2.99 a bag.

Also at Michael's Craft stores. Might be a little sparkly though. I've experimented with the white stuff for ballast.

 

[Selector]

Just a question: would the sand, of any colour, be of a reasonable scale size for a road in the country, or even a track maintenance lane? I would think something quite a bit finer would be better. A typical grain of sand in HO scale would be invisible, even if your eye were 4" from it and you were able to focus. Conversely, a real grain of sand would typically be a rock measuring 1.5" X 2", a very coarse roadway that would be very hard on tires.

If I were you, I would sift some garden soil through some pantyhose, add some plaster of paris and maybe some portland cement, and spread it about 1/4" thick where you want it. Roll it with a small baby food bottle or something, a pill bottle, and try to fashion very shallow depressing along the axis representing the tire erosion of vehicles using the road. Then spray it with alcohol/water mix, and finally a thin glue/water mix to get the cement and plaster to set.

It may seem too dark once it sets and dries completely. No worries, make a heavy wash of some tan paint and some white (so this will be a very light caramel colour), and spritz the roadway once or thrice until it looks good and natural once it dries completely. Note...do always let each application dry entirely...probably 10 hours or more.

-Crandell

 

[kenw]

my experience says that regular sand ("playground" as labeled) is way too coarse for HO scale sand/dirt roads. This pic shows that even with a lot of thinned Elmer's glue soaking it, it still looks a bit large.

 

[ikallio1]

I second Crandell's suggestion about the garden soil. I have used water fractioning
to extract really fine material. You need 2 large buckets for this method. Put
a spadeful of soil in on bucket, then add water. Let the bucket
overflow to get rid of light floating bits - keep vigorously mixing the soil while
doing this. Then let the bucket settle for a few seconds. This will allow the
larger particles to settle to the bottom. Then decant the water to the second
bucket. Let it settle for a minute or so, then pour out the water (discard). You
should now have a fine silty mud on the bottom of the second bucket. You can
use the pantyhose method to get some of the excess water out. Now you have
perfect "sand" for your road It looks very realistic and if you're modeling a
local road to you, it will be prototypically correct

Adjusting the times above allows you to extract any fraction according to
particle size (settling speed really). With mutliple buckets you could pull out several different fractions at the same time.

You sift the stuff on the bottom of the first bucket for various coarser sizes
for ditches, forest floor etc.

-ik

 

[Larry]

For a dirt road--Sandpaper works the best. About 400 to 600 grit. I buy it in a pack of 15 sheets at Dollar Tree.

 

[cct70]

Go to the pet shop and get you a small bag of terrarium sand. It is VERY fine, almost powder, and takes chalk weathering well after the glue dries. I paint my roads with tan colored latex paint, then add the sand (the paint acts as an adhesive). Works GREAT and is fine enough that it makes playground sand look like rocks.

 

[zoegraf]

I am looking to start to put the details on my Powder River Coal Basin line and in all the pictures i have seen there is a road next to the track in the heavier traffic area. So where can i get brown sand to simulate these roads?

Sometimes I use ground up chalks to create dirt, mud, and finer sand in HO.
I rub the chalks on various size grits of waterproof drywall sanding screens to create dirt and sand. Some times I use actual rocks and rub them on the sanding screens. I did this in my ballast quarry area to tame down the ballast and ballast piles to maintain consistency in the quarry's colour. This way I matched the colour of the actual type of rock I'm modelling with a real rock and some commercial ballast. The chalk settles nicely between the rocks and ballast. Also scenes with grass if you want some dirt exposed. Anyhow, I made the larger rocks by mixing powder from a real rock with a touch of grey acrylic paint with some plaster then smeared it on tin foil. When it was dry, I smashed it up into the various sizes I wanted.

 

[stationmaster]

The dirt roads on my layout came from my yard. Please note that it will turn a bit darker when you spray it with your setting glue. Looks real enough, maybe because it is. And I also use limestone "dust" that I get from a local quarry. A 5g bucket lasts FOREVER it seems. Give the "gravel road" appearance.

Play sand is about the finest sand one can buy. Pretty fine stuff.

Bob

 

[zoegraf]

The dirt roads on my layout came from my yard. Please note that it will turn a bit darker when you spray it with your setting glue. Looks real enough, maybe because it is. And I also use limestone "dust" that I get from a local quarry. A 5g bucket lasts FOREVER it seems. Give the "gravel road" appearance.

Play sand is about the finest sand one can buy. Pretty fine stuff.

Bob

Hi Bob,

Do you have a photo sample of the use of your limestone dust and play sand. It would be nice to see how you used it.

Cheers.

 

[Beachbum]

Sometimes I use ground up chalks to create dirt, mud, and finer sand in HO.
I rub the chalks on various size grits of waterproof drywall sanding screens to create dirt and sand.

Interesting! You could maybe use different colors for chemical spills, etc. Hmmm...

 

[Mike Nowakowski]

I think i will buy the sand and crush it up with a tamper.

 

[NWCanuck]

I think i will buy the sand and crush it up with a tamper.

I used a technique I learned from a great scenery book by Pelle Soeborg (Essential Model Railroad Scenery Techniques). I got some gravel from a local dirt road, just a couple shovel fulls. Take that home a run it through a strainer like an icing sugar strainer over a cookie sheet. Next I put the cookie sheet in my BBQ for 30 min at 350 degrees C. This dries the dirt but also bakes it and darkens it. I use this sand for my overall base layer which I lay over full strength white glue. Next I soak that with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol and then cover it with 50/50 white glue and water from a pipette.

After that dries I take the same sifted sand from the same road and bake that for only 10 min at 350 degrees C. This only dries the sand but does not make it darker. I then poor this sand over the first layer which makes the dirt road. A very nice technique that is both cheap and realistic and nothing looks better than the real thing (Dirt from a road).

The nice part is that the bigger rocks that you sifted out can be used as talus and larger rocks on your layout.

I will post a pic asap.

 

[stationmaster]

Brad, you just gave out my secret. I use many natural materials that can be found around in nature.....for free. I am a great fan off Pelle Soeberg as he has always been an advocate of the use of such materials. Now the whole world knows how to scenic a large layout on the cheap. Well, maybe not the whole world but everyone on this forum.

Bob

 

[NWCanuck]

Now the whole world knows how to scenic a large layout on the cheap. Well, maybe not the whole world but everyone on this forum.

Bob

I agree Bob, if there is anything that I could say on this forum that would help anyone than this is it: "Pick up either "Essential Model Railroad Scenery Techniques" or "Mountain to Desert" by Pelle Soeborg". The guys isn't paying me to say this but if you want flawless scenery techniques that are up to date and modern, look awesome and anyone can do, than these are the books for you.

I am by no means a professional and I still ask lots of questions myself, but I have learned more from these two books than I could ever have imagined, in a short period of time.