Any experience w/ ground rubber ballast?

[sgriggs]

Does anyone have experience using ground rubber ballast (such as "Ballast King" brand) on a hirail or toy train layout? I plan to use it on my layout and am hoping that it reduces the noise level. I have heard it is a little difficult to spread. Any experiences would be appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I've got Ballast King rubber ballast on my layout. It spread OK (I tapped the edge of an open can to distribute the ballast and made any touchups with my fingers; I didn't use a ballast spreader). Using a spray bottle, I wet the ballast with water and a few drops of dish detergent to get the glue to penetrate, then used a lot of a 50/50 mix of white glue and water dribbled out of an old Elmer's glue container to hold down the ballast. It took a few days to dry. The ballast is flexible, but holds together and has been fine now for a few years. As far as sound goes, it didn't make trains quieter (the dried glue is probably transferring sound to the plywood), but I expect if I used stone ballast things would be louder.

Neil Besougloff
editor, CTT