Sleek and accurate frog and guardrails

Contrary to popular belief, guardrails are not always aligned in parallel with the frogs. In this case, I measured the real thing and replicated it as closely as possible; I also tapered the ends rather than bend them to replicate the real ones. The frog flangeways were filled in by placing bits of PC board in between the ties under the frog, and lining the flangeways with epoxy.

An aside about cleaning rail: I prefer to us an old-fashioned abrasive block. While it does a great job, it also cleans the tops of the guard rails and frog wing rails, which in real life remain rusty. After every cleaning, I must re-paint these surfaces.

Image specs: These images were captured with a Canon 20D digital SLR.

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