My club has an older style of roadbed for our HO scale layout. The style is a flexible material almost like particle board, with notches to curve it, which leads to the issue. We are at the point where we can finally ballast our mainlines, but those notches in the roadbed will suck up a fair amount of ballast. I've patched the part on the shoulders with plaster cloth, but what can I use to patch up the notches underneath the rail (The rail is already in place and wired)./
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
I would think caulk would be potentially messy and tedious. Shredded and diced wet newspaper might work but it also sounds messy and tedious on a club sized layout. How about sand as a sort of a pre-ballast? Less mess, easy to apply and cheap.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Give dry wall compound a try. You can even tint it grey by adding some black craft paint.
Bob
EDIT: Answered without fully understanding your problem. I'd bite the bullet and let the ballast fill the gaps.
Don't Ever Give Up
Something like sand or another dry material will work much better than anything applied wet. Caulk, dry wall mud, plaster, etc. will create a huge mess on the ties, rail, & switches to clean up before you can ballast.
Joe
Use some fine sand. Brush into place until the gaps are nearly full then move on to ballast. Glue it all at the same time.
Rob Spangler
I think I might try the sand, or some form of "rip rap". Thanks guys.
This is the roadbed I was talking about.
Usually the kind with kerfs (the notches) was only used on curves, where it allowed the roadbed to be bent. However, the cheapest fix is what Rob mentioned - a bag of fine sand. It's far cheaper than any specific ballast and will easily fill the gaps up level, and then you can apply the real ballast without wasting it filling in the gaps. One bag of sand will be cheap and probably be enough for 5 layouts.
I'd consider gluing in the sand ahead of time though, between the ballast and sand the gluing agent might not penetrate all the way down the gap and you'd end up with loose spots where the ballast and sand would flake off. Wet it down with isopropyl alcohol, then dribble on white glue diluted with more isopropyl alcohol (I've never had any luck with using water + a few drops of detergent as the diluent, and 70% isopropyl is pretty cheap.)
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
A couple of questions about using sand instead of spending a little extra and using ballast.
1. Using sand makes it a two step process. Thus more than double the time to get the job done.
2. When applying the sand you would need to leave space for the ballast or the ties would be completely covered when ballasting. IMO too easy to get too much sand for both sand and ballast and have to remove some sand.
Time is money and using ballast would be quicker and less trouble.
Just My Worth
superbe1. Using sand makes it a two step process. Thus more than double the time to get the job done.
Not really. You have to fill the gaps with SOMETHING before the final ballast shape starts to look right, so the only thing that's "extra" about the process is watching when to stop dumping sand into the gaps and switching to ballast.
Again not really a problem. Stop applying sand when the gaps start to look filled then switch to ballast. If you have excess sand it takes but a few seconds to brush it away.
I've used the same process many times and it isn't a hassle at all. It saves enough money compared to wasting ballast that's it's worth doing. I've also never had an issue with the whole mass of material not gluing at once, so have never attempted to glue the sand first. I apply wetting agent and diluted glue in one step.
I've used sand for similar situations and it worked fine. As mentioned above, pour in some sand until the gap is nearly full, then your ballast followed by whatever glue or adhesive you will be using.
Wayne
Modeling HO Freelance Logging Railroad.
I use 1/2 thick Homesote roadbed cut from a 4x8 sheet. Cutting creates lots of paper dust and I cut it outdoors on a portable table saw. The sides are beveled to a 45 degee angle using a router bit in a bench router set up with a good dust collector. For curves I kerf the road bed every 1/2 inch with a handsaw. It's tedious but produces a flexible road bed that bends to 24 inch radius or greater. I glue the road bed down after painting all four sides with latex paint with a caulk specified as a panel and construction adhesive. I also shoot 16 gauge 1-1/2 nails in the roadbed about every 12 inches. After glueing down the kerfed road bed I fill the voids with drywall compound before laying ties. I then give the exposed roadbed another coat of latex paint. As I handlay all track, ties are glued to the road bed with Tightbond II adhesive. I have pulled up both ties and roadbed and removed the 16 gauge nails without much effort and reused all the ties after scrapping off the glue and paint.
Ballasting will be done later when I am closer to having all the track spiked down and wired. The suggestion to use fine sand appears spot on if the track is already in place to fill the kerfs in the roadbed.
Jim
JAMES MOON I use 1/2 thick Homesote roadbed cut from a 4x8 sheet. Cutting creates lots of paper dust and I cut it outdoors on a portable table saw. Jim
I use 1/2 thick Homesote roadbed cut from a 4x8 sheet. Cutting creates lots of paper dust and I cut it outdoors on a portable table saw.
Jimmy_Braum This is the roadbed I was talking about.