Hi,
Before I put my turnouts down, I paint the roadbed a black or dark gray color so if I miss any places, they won't be too obvious. Once they are down, I ballast as usual by applying it dry, then spray lightly with wet water. Then using an eye dropper, apply a 50-50 mix of wet water and white glue. I keep the ballast away from the throw-bar, and well below the tops of the ties from the points to the frog. The water / water glue mix will still seep into places that you don't want. Now to my secret step: I spray some WD-40 into a cap. Then get it into an eye dropper and apply it to the throw bar and the pivot points / rail joiners of the point rails, whatever is used on the turnouts I am using at the time, and on the tops of the ties next to the point rails. The WD-40 will, to an extent, repel the water (and the glue) from nonporous surfaces like plastic and metal. I then just let it all dry over night. I come back the next day and find that some initial sticking does occur, but it breaks loose easily. I then work any ballast out of the point and throwbar area with a dental pick and pick it up with a small hose attachment on a vacuum cleaner. White glue will not glue plastic or metal, and will come off. You just have to be patient in picking it out if you use too much water-glue solution. You shouldn't flood the area like you do with regular track.
Hope this helps,
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
I fasten my wood ties to the layer immediately below with grey latex caulk, so if there's no actual ballast stone there it still looks reasonably good. Then I follow the prototype's lead, which is that the headblock ties on either side of the throwbar are laid ON ballast, not IN ballast.
My throwbars are PC board, less than half the thickness of my wood ties, so they never contact the (very thin) layer of caulk below.
Likewise, ballast in the point area is kept well below tie-top level. Other than that, the only issue is keeping grains of ballast out of flangeways. Adhesive is applied with an eyedropper, not with a watering can or spray gun.
Like the Fram Filter man says (paraphrased), "You can take the time to do it carefully now, or you can waste the time cleaning up the rush-job problems later."
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on hand-laid specialwork)
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Actually not too many days ago there was a pretty active thread on just that topic. And as it happens I am about to give an NMRA Divisional meet clinic on the topic of ballasting and my final part is about turnouts/switches, so I have been thinking about this lately.
The short but not helpful response to your question is "very carefully." Both the ballast and the glue have to be kept away from the throw rod, the moving points, and not come between the points where they meet the stock rails. You also don't want ballast in the guard rails and frogs. It can be done and the secret seems to be, use somewhat less ballast under the moving points than you might feature elsewhere (in other words not right up to the top of the tie), and perhaps no ballast at all under the throw rod. If you nail your track, let the switch float a little. If you use latex caulk to secure track, then use it only on the three ends of the turnout, not under the throw rod or moving points. Instead of "flooding" the ballast with cement or matte medium, use perhaps a pipette type applicator or something with good control that allows a fine amount of liquid exactly where you point it. Move the points fairly often while the cement is drying or setting.
Alternatives? Well, former MR editor, now publisher, Terry Thompson suggested a few which I feature in my clinic. The first might be called the "Oh I give up" solution, and that is, purchase a good brand of track that has the roadbed integral with the track. Atlas, Kato, Bachmann, and Life Like all make this kind of track. With careful painting and weathering it can be made to look very much like the rest of your track. A few grains of ballast on the sloping side can blend it with your ballasted track.
Terry Thompson's second alternative involves using a spray can of stuff that comes out looking (a little) like stone. I think Krylon and RustOleum both make versions of this. Krylon has it in gray and pinkish, and the pink is not too far from C&NW pink lady ballast. I blended the two colors and it looked OK. But warning, the spray heads get clogged much more easily than with normal paint. Also I cannot say the results are really all that convincing. But it looks better than bare cork and when viewed from a distance, while cross eyed and distracted by a dancing monkey on YouTube, you can almost fool yourself into thinking the turnout has been ballasted.
The third idea was one posted on this forum. That is, apply duct tape (I used black) to the bottom of the turnout under the moving points (but NOT under the throw rod) and then install the turnout. Toss some ballast on the duct tape that shows through the spaces between ties. I tried this and darn if it does not look pretty good! True the ballast is not very high but then, it is not very high on some prototype switches either.
The final idea I tried on one turnout on my layout and that is, I followed the advice above about letting the central part of the turnout "float" just a bit higher than the cork roadbed. Under the floating part, I slipped in a precut piece of rather rugged sandpaper which i had weathered. Then instead I tried a piece of styrene on which I had cemented a thin coat of ballast. IMHO this was less satisfactory than the duct tape idea.
Dave Nelson
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!