How to keep snow white

Keep the huskies inside?

I think the Dwarves need to behave better, myself.

Buy her jewelry?

All jokes aside just take a diluted mixture of scenic cement, spray over the old snow then lightly sprinkle some soft flake snow.  BINGO - freshly fallen snow.

from what i remember about NJ, prototypical snow didn't stay white very long.  spots of yellow, but mostly a light layer of cinder gray.

HA, HA,HA! LOL! Very funny. I didn't see the pun. 

But, I'm serious anyone else have this problem?

I was going to say get rid of the dwarves and treat her right!

For the first few years of the Christmas time "Capitol Holidays Layout" that a friend and I set up every December in the Oregon State Capitol Rotunda, we used baking soda which did eventually begin to yellow; although even that is not so unusual for the snow we see here in the Willamette Valley.  :-)

We then discovered a product called "marble dust" that was totally inert and did not turn yellow in nearly 25 years on the layout.  About five years ago, we refreshed the layout and decided to go with a fall/winter scene with no snow, which is also more typical of our local winter weather.

No telling how much longer the snow might have stayed white if we had not changed the scenery.

Cheers!

Alan

Alan B posted:

For the first few years of the Christmas time "Capitol Holidays Layout" that a friend and I set up every December in the Oregon State Capitol Rotunda, we used baking soda which did eventually begin to yellow; although even that is not so unusual for the snow we see here in the Willamette Valley.  :-)

We then discovered a product called "marble dust" that was totally inert and did not turn yellow in nearly 25 years on the layout.  About five years ago, we refreshed the layout and decided to go with a fall/winter scene with no snow, which is also more typical of our local winter weather.

No telling how much longer the snow might have stayed white if we had not changed the scenery.

Cheers!

Where do you get marble dust? And don't say the  dwarves.

 

Rich Bereswill posted:

 

Where do you get marble dust? And don't say the  dwarves.

From the Marble Orchard?

Hot Water posted:

Rich Bereswill posted:

 

Where do you get marble dust? And don't say the  dwarves.

From the Marble Orchard?

Are all you model railroader's this funny?

Install port-a-potties and have a few snowstorms to hide the yellow and grey spots. I hear there are several marble orchards near Hot water. Maybe he can get you a deal!!!!!!

I google marbel dust and this is what I came up with http://www.jerrysartarama.com/...jOz9MCFY5WDQodvRkC_g

I do not know if this is correct or not.

There is a lot of information on this and what it was intended for.

Rich Bereswill posted:

 

Are all you model railroader's this funny?

Unfortunately, many are.

Marble dust is new to me, too.  Alan ... were you involved in the application of it back then? Any tips or tricks?

Thanks, Matt Ryan

Matt01 posted:

Rich Bereswill posted:

 

Are all you model railroader's this funny?

Unfortunately, many are.

Marble dust is new to me, too.  Alan ... were you involved in the application of it back then? Any tips or tricks?

Thanks, Matt Ryan

I can't find anything in Google about using it this way. 

I would think that if you tried to glue it. It would turn to paste.

banjoflyer posted:

Hermetically seal her up:

Mark

I was thinking more along the lines of shibari.....

Good evening Rich, my layout is winter i know exactly what you mean about the snow turning yellowish.

Normally what I do is use a vacuum cleaner that can be set on low, just lightly vacuum up the snow that looks the worse.

As with nature put a new coating of snow down and everything is white and glistening again.

I know what they are talking about on the marble dust i tried this product and if you terrain is flat it may work for you.

I have several hills and cliffs and the marble dust would roll off and collect at the bottom of the hill or cliff.

I use the real fine styrofoam that you purchase in craft stores, along with some Woodland Scenics Snow from a shaker bottle.

Works for me !!!!!!

Wow, this thread really got going while I was driving home from a weekend out of town.  Just checked in and saw all the activity.  I thought I better clarify the marble dust reference.  The product we used was marketed by Builders in Scale, a model railroad scenery company here in the Northwest.  They sold it as model Snow.  They stopped producing or carrying it quite a while ago.  It was a white powder in a plastic bag (No snide references to drug trafficking, please!).  The bag we received said that it consisted of "marble dust."  We sprinkled the powder on to the layout with a hand strainer where we wanted snow, and then followed with a light spraying of matte medium.  For all I know, the Fredrix stuff Ron H found on the internet could be the same kind of powder.

We never needed to buy more, but perhaps one of the other large scenery companies has a similar product that they market as snow.  Maybe some could be collected from your local marble and granite counter top installation contractor.  :-)

Now that I am home and on my laptop, I can add some old photos of the layout under snow.

Cheers!

Alan

Now we are talking. Both of those layouts look awesome.

I am a detail minded person. I would like to add more detail to the layout, like grasses, shrubs, snow banks, snow tracks, etc. But since I have to put this away every year I don't know how much detail I want to put in to this.  

Alan B posted:

Wow, this thread really got going while I was driving home from a weekend out of town.  Just checked in and saw all the activity.  I thought I better clarify the marble dust reference.  The product we used was marketed by Builders in Scale, a model railroad scenery company here in the Northwest.  They sold it as model Snow.  They stopped producing or carrying it quite a while ago.  It was a white powder in a plastic bag (No snide references to drug trafficking, please!).  The bag we received said that it consisted of "marble dust."  We sprinkled the powder on to the layout with a hand strainer where we wanted snow, and then followed with a light spraying of matte medium.  For all I know, the Fredrix stuff Ron H found on the internet could be the same kind of powder.

We never needed to buy more, but perhaps one of the other large scenery companies has a similar product that they market as snow.  Maybe some could be collected from your local marble and granite counter top installation contractor.  :-)

Now that I am home and on my laptop, I can add some old photos of the layout under snow.

Cheers!

Alan

 

Do you leave this up all year?

Just throwing this out there as an FYI.  May be the reason this product is not available any longer.  I 'm sure once it is coated with an adhesive mixture it should be fine, but leading up to that point, no so much:

RonH posted:

I google marbel dust and this is what I came up with http://www.jerrysartarama.com/...jOz9MCFY5WDQodvRkC_g

 

I do not know if this is correct or not.

There is a lot of information on this and what it was intended for.

I looked up if the calcium carbonate is hazardous and yes it is. Made up of Limestone/marble dust.

If anything is used please look it up first to avoid any health risks.
As James stated above there are warnings and health risk.

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/81-123/pdfs/0090.pdf

RonH posted:

RonH posted:

I google marbel dust and this is what I came up with http://www.jerrysartarama.com/...jOz9MCFY5WDQodvRkC_g

 

I do not know if this is correct or not.

There is a lot of information on this and what it was intended for.

I looked up if the calcium carbonate is hazardous and yes it is. Made up of Limestone/marble dust.

If anything is used please look it up first to avoid any health risks.
As James stated above there are warnings and health risk.

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/81-123/pdfs/0090.pdf

 

I read in another forum that FloraCraft plastic snow is good and that it does not change color with age. Also it could be found nery cheap in a dollar store and Amazon has it for $6.17 for a 4 liter bag. Just google Floracraft plastic snow.
The person who posted this stated that it is set up year long and on some of the structures they are painted with a cheap latex paint and before it dries he just sprinkles the snow on top. He also uses a fine glitter and puts small amount to help represent ice crystals.

I used Department 56 "Fresh Fallen Snow" and it does not turn yellow.  In my case, I applied it to rock formations with white glue and sprinkled it over white polyester quilt batting on the flat portions of my Christmas layout.

HMorgan125 posted:

I used Department 56 "Fresh Fallen Snow" and it does not turn yellow.  In my case, I applied it to rock formations with white glue and sprinkled it over white polyester quilt batting on the flat portions of my Christmas layout.

Looks great.
Makes me wanna think about Christmas, time to get the hot chocolate ready

mwb posted:

I was thinking more along the lines of shibari.....

Martin!!....

Shame on you!

Switch from smoke fluid to clean-burning anthracite:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulmalon/10116634765/

HMorgan125 posted:

I used Department 56 "Fresh Fallen Snow" and it does not turn yellow.  In my case, I applied it to rock formations with white glue and sprinkled it over white polyester quilt batting on the flat portions of my Christmas layout.

Nice!

dkdkrd posted:

mwb posted:

I was thinking more along the lines of shibari.....

Martin!!....

Shame on you!

OMG!!!!  Sister Adocia SSND, 1st grade, 1950,  St Mark's School,  Catonsville, MD.  I still shake at the thought of that evil finger 66 years later.

Marble dust is bad for you? Probably not as bad as the asbestos cement that was recommended by MR & RMC as an easy way to make mountains W-A-Y back in the 50's & 60's. 

To Rich:  

No we do not leave the layout up all year.  We move it into the Capitol just after Thanksgiving and take it out just after Christmas.  Unless it is set up at another friends shop for refreshing or repair, or taken to a train show, it is closed up into a four by eight by four foot box on wheels that we roll into a twelve foot Haulmark trailer for transporting.  The box sides also serve as the frame for the layout when set up.  At the Capitol it is set up with the box frame on the floor, but for shows we add legs that raise it to table height.  Some pictures taken at the 2015 National Train Show in Portland and several years after the snow removal are below.

And to those who posted about the possible effects of "marble dust":

Thank you for the heads up!  The scenic product was readily available when we bought it in the '80s.  We never bought any more or used it again.  So far, no ill effects from cleaning it off of the layout a few years ago.  I must be lucky.  Back in '73 I bought all the trains and  accessories on a room-sized American Flyer layout that was being dismantled.  They dropped off a bunch of the old benchwork and scenery with the last load.  

I didn't have room for a permenant layout back then and had all that stuff hauled off by the local garbage company.  I have always wondered whether any of the mountain scenery, etc. might have been asbestos as the layout was constructed in an era where modelers still thought asbestos was a great scenery compound.  Again, no sign of respiratory consequences yet as a result, but how many of those old layouts were dismantled, torn down and cut up before the dangers of free-floating asbestos fibers were widely known?

Some of the new "snow" products, while not all giving the look of scale snow, are very good.  My wife uses them in her annual Christmas ceramic village display.  Much of it is reusable from year to year, and clean-up is pretty easy.

Cheers!

Alan