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I would suggest that you do not bond the ballast near the sleepers (ties), as this inhibits their slight movement; which is important particularly whebn a gbig unit comes down at speed. They need flexibility to to allow for a small amount of movement to cushion the rails against forces both vertical and horizontal. I have sealed my ballast in a part of my layout and i regret it, too many derailments, compared to elsewhere. However it is important to seal ballast down on embankements to stop it washing away particularly in a downpour such as we get here, when the monsoons arrive. I use simple portland cement cheep and it works. We have made a "salt shaker" type of device out of a tupperware container with holes drilled in its base and we put a fairly thik layer on in this way and water it in well with a light spray straight out of your garden hose. Leave for a day or so and its as good as gold, nice and solid with no outward sign of how it is all held together. We also use decrative ballast as it looks a lot nicer than fines, if you like i will send you a few photo's of what we have doen about a year ago and its still just perfect. email adress if you like. I don't know if you have fish and chip shops in USA but they have great big salt shakers to salt a lot of fish and chips quickly and that is what we want to do with our cement. Hamburger shops may do the same over there i'm not sure. Here in Australia cement is what they use to make concrete out of I know you Americans have a problem in differentiating between cement and concrete, but it is cement that we want not concrete mix. If you have a section of rail that gets the ballast washed away regularly like i did; you use a mixture of 3 parts fines to 1 part cement mixed to a dryish consistency and fill the hole up with that and it is unlikely to be washed away again! Regards ian
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