I had some very old Life-Like Brass flextrack laying around and decided to use it for an abandoned line in an un-scenicked portion of my layout. I cut out a few random ties, twisted some others and then painted the rails and ties brown I even tooka tack hammer and punded the rails in vearious locations to make the rails rise and ip in places. I have the track tacked down and I am going to have some shrubbery and small trees growing up through the tracks also to give it some detail. Now the problem is what color ballast? I have seem on some layouts black ballast was used and spread very thin. On others I have seen A Dark Brown ballast, and others the simple medium gray. Which is most prototypical for abandoned trackage?
Pat - we have some old (and I do mean OLD trackage on our railroad. The rails are very rusty; those ties that can still be seen are fairly bleached out; and the majority of ballast has been covered by silt over the years. The ballast that remains in view is probably about the same color it was when it was put down. It would seem that you have a very wide choice and that nothing would be the wrong choice.
I'd offer that most abandoned trackage does not have much ballast visible. It's usually covered with higher grasses, tree debris and so on that all you can usually see are the rails and the ties poking through.
In Maine loads of abandoned trackage have been paved over - if you're looking for further ideas. Charlie
In this area the abandoned track has little or not ballast. The ties may not even be visible because of accumulated dirt and decaying vegitation. Often the dirt has filled in to the extent that only the top, very rusted, surface of the rail is visible.
