Hey guys... Sort of a newb question here, but when laying ballast, how do you keep it stuck onto your layout? That would be a heck of a lot of glue!
Thanks in advance
alexP
Niagara Railroader wrote: Hey guys... Sort of a newb question here, but when laying ballast, how do you keep it stuck onto your layout? That would be a heck of a lot of glue! Thanks in advance alexP
Yep! Sure is.http://www.sceneryexpress.com/products.asp?dept=1193
You can buy it ready made or make your own with Mod Podge Matte Medium from Wal Mart or other craft stores. I mix about 1/3 glue with 2/3 water and a bit of alcohol. Do a search for ballasting. There's a ton of threads on how to apply ballast and glue.
Hey Alex, this has been covered quite a bit in these forums, I searched for subject 'ballast" and came up with several threads, here is a pretty good explaination on how to do this.
http://cs.trains.com/forums/355550/ShowPost.aspx
GS
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
Thank you guys!
A lot of great info in that last link. And it seems I need to go grab some Matte Medium soon! I am going to be ballasting my yard first, so I will be getting some N scale cinders for that. As for building the ballast up (for my yard I want it fairly close to the top of the rails), do you do it in stages? or just shape it and test it with flanges and then just do the whole thing at once?
Thanks again!
Alex
Personally I only do about 6-12" at a time. Most of the time is spent shaping the ballast, the next day when everything has dried completely I run my finger down the top of the ties, and a screwdriver blade along the side of each rail, being careful not to damage the tie plates, and vaccum of the loose granuals. Everyone has there own way of doing it, you just need to find your method and go with it. I dislike ballasting and can't wait to be finished.
Hey GS thanks for the response! What I meant though was the depth of ballast up to near the top of the tracks from the ties! Is that done all at once, or is it layered to get it all stuck together properly?
Sorry for the confusion!
I have only ever done it in the one shot, but I cant think of a reason why you couldn't do it in two layers. It just means going over the whole shebang twice, and I am much too impatient for that. I think many of us ballast with a clothes pin over our nose and wincing...it just isn't a great deal of fun. It is fussy at times, and I feel doing about three-five feet of track is about all one should do at one time. Depends on your personality, I guess.
I feel the vast majority of us do the whole pour and grooming so that the tops of the ties are clear (mostly....we touch up the job later to remove stray stuck grains here and there) and the apron hem (lower outer edge outboard of the tie ends) is nice and tidy as can be. The rest is a controlled pre-wet with a 70% alcohol mixture (drug store purchase), followed by a water/glue mix. Some soak the heck out of the entire ballast with both solutions, I do it halfway through with the glue so that I can break up the entire trackage and salvage most of the flextrack if possible. In any event, soaking the glued ballast will loosen it up if it ever comes to that.
Is that what you are looking for?
-Crandell
As far as height (thickness) is concerned. you will apply your ballast all at once, once you have your ballast like you want it, you will "prewet" the area with your water/alchohol mixture (or water and dish soap), and then apply your glue/water mixture or gloss medium mixture to the ballast, The prewetting allows the glue to soak in all the way through the ballast. Most people apply the glue until the ballast is completely soaked.Once it is glue do not try fix or redo your ballast, it will be a mess if you do. Let it dry for at least 24 hours, and then come back and scrape the ballast off of your rails and ties (or in your case keep them covered). I would recommend practicing on a short piece of track, that way you can get the hang of it before you ballast your layout.
I use a spoon to apply the ballast, and then I come back with a foam paint brush that I cut to fit between the rails. It seems easier to me. A lot of folks use Arizona Rock and Mineral ballast, it is real rock and they say it is much easier to ballast because it is heavy and doesn't float around when gluing down. WS ballast is very light and moves around very easily. Next time I will use AZ Rock & Mineral.
FYI http://www.rrscenery.com/azrock3HO.html
selector wrote: I think many of us ballast with a clothes pin over our nose and wincing...it just isn't a great deal of fun. It is fussy at times, and I feel doing about three-five feet of track is about all one should do at one time.
Similarly, one of the first things I notice about other layouts is how well the ballast is laid.
FYI, I despise the WS ground walnut shells. I always use Highball, and have for years. Real rock, in the right sizes and colors.
I'm with you on the walnut shell stuff, MR. I tried the medium brown stuff on my first layout...never again. I have beaches all around me and find that the fine sand in grey works quite well. I merely screen and wash it in fresh water, run a magnet over it to check, and then use it. Cheap, like borchst.
loathar, the stuff I was talking about is very light, and it was quite a bit coarser than the beach sand I use. The beach sand required some care, as any ballasting in HO or smaller would take (how do those N scalers do it, anyway?!). But the WS stuff was really awful in my experience....it lifted and floated when I applied the glue as if it were bits of wood. You may have an actual rock product? Does WS offer both types?