The three most important things a railroad right-of-way needs are drainage, drainage, and drainage. Excess water in the railroad infrastructure decreases, degrades, and ultimately destroys tracks, ties, and turnouts.
On The Hills Line, I’ve not modeled lineside ditches. Instead, the track is laid directly on the foam board sub-roadbed to replicate the not-as-high-speed-as-the-main look present on the prototype. However, there are some opportunities to include a few drains, pipes, and culverts in key areas on the layout.
At Eldon C. Stutsman in Hills, you can find all three where the entrance road to the Ag complex crosses over the two spur tracks. Since this scene is one of the first things you see when you enter the layout space, it became an excellent candidate to give the drainage and ditch treatment.
Fortunately, my friends at Iowa Scaled Engineering offer a variety of culvert pipes in various dimensions as a part of their Grain Belt Models line. They’re easy to cut to length as needed for a scene, and I’m always happy to support their efforts with a simple purchase.
I started by marking and carving away the foam board on either side of the road to create the ditch itself. I’ve come to prefer my oscillating tool to cut extruded foam. It’s a considerably faster and somewhat cleaner process than using a rasp or surform tool. However, I still have my shop vac at the ready.
With the ditch carved I cut holes for the culverts themself. Two sets of 36-inch diameter pipes did the trick. Since they’ll ultimately be covered by the road, I only worried about the ends. Fortunately, the Grain Belt Models culverts can be easily cut to length with a razor saw.
The ditch was then sanded to clean up the cuts and painted with my standard earth color, Behr Paint’s Wild Rice. Once dry, the culverts were lightly weathered and glued in place. Scenic material will be added as I make more progress in the area.
Fortunately, I had enough culvert left over to make a small addition. A drainage pipe was added to the Iowa River. After all, all that water has to end up somewhere in the end.
The Hills Line 
That’s a great addition! Too few layouts include prototypical drainage considerations. As you noted, drainage is a key concern for railroads to stabilize their roadbed. Look forward to seeing your completed scene.
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It would help if you piled some of that rip-rap up to the drainage culvert at the river to avoid washing away the soil with the water discharge from the culvert. Some even have the rip-rap all around the pipe to protect from soil erosion. The scene is looking good.
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Are you thinking of modeling the stone arch over the old Willow Creek channel or one of the railtop or stone box culverts along the line?
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Working on it. Since I don’t model the portion south of the Iowa River to just north of Hills, a lot of the culverts along the line are not present. However there are some potential opportunities for future inclusion.
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