A WORD ON MODELLING DIRT - Model Railroader Magazine

steamage

I model Los Angeles area, but I had tried using dirt from there and found it had too much mica in it causing it to sparkle and it was too light in color on the layout. Looking at a real scene in LA the dirt just looked tanner than it did on my layout. I use my local dirt that is a fine Quartz Oxide taken from a freeway cut and looks good for photographs.

That's the look I need. After seeing all this with real dirt it made me realize I could model my LP dealer with a dirt lot. I know it will be prototypical, I had a 1 day long summer job at a propane dealer that had a dirt lot. I think the propane fumes made me slow, I know that's why I got fired. Yea, I'd like to see them check, and clean, 250 5 and 10 pound tanks in an 8 hour shift under 97 degree sun. Jerks.

I am a little lost though and sort of agree with other posters. A lot of steps were taken to steralize, if you will, the dirt. I see this as pointless, I mean once it's on the layout any 'germs' that get on the layout would germify the dirt too. I can see doing some things to make sure no critters are in it though. Would kind of suck to do all this then one day go and find a 100 foot long worm crawling over my tracks. I do N scale though so the sifting portion I think would be the most concerning part of the process. A small park is on the other side of the street from our apartment complex. It has a smalld diamond.

How is the dirt kept on the layout? I know one fellow mentioned he mixes his dirt with plasture 'o Parees, but would treating the dirt like ground foam work? Just spray it on with a diluted glue mix like balast? I also plan on having something use a gravel drive way which I figured I would use Z scale fine talus for.