DeadheadGreg wrote:anybody have anything to say about the MLR ballast spreader?
A waste of money MHO. Doesnt work with a darn, especially with anything other than code 100.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
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Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Sawyer Berry
Clemson University c/o 2018
Building a protolanced industrial park layout
Packer#1,
Please share with us some pics of your trackwork and ballasting. I'm sure everyone would love to see how you've put such great advice to work on your layout. It sounds like your an expert on the subject, so please share.
Use Cody Grivno's article for their project layout. He shows a good technique.
basementdweller wrote: I love to ballast!
I love to ballast!
GREAT! Want to come over and do about 300' of it for me??
TRX450R racer wrote: i think it worked well might have pics tomorrow er somethin so everyone can find my flaws lol
i think it worked well might have pics tomorrow er somethin so everyone can find my flaws lol
you better double-check to see if you wired it properly. You don't want different colored ballast causing short circuits when you run a train over it. And use heavy wire to make sure the current gets there.
1. Spread and shape the ballast, take time to get ballast off the top of ties.
2. soak ballast with straight rubbing alcohol from sparay bottle. (remove rolling stock, buildings etc from surrounding areas)
3. dilute elmers glue 50/50.
4. drip elmers glue mix, straight out of the emlers glue bottle, onto wet ballast, should soak right in. Get the ballast good and soaked with the glue. If glue beads up just spray with more alcohol. If ballast messes up wait until it dries before correcting it.
5. Wipe off rail head with alcohol soaked rag.
6. Once dry run a screwdriver around the inside of the rails to remove and ballast that has stuck to the rail and that will cause a derailment.
7. Turnouts - just take your time here, spread ballast and just make sure no ballast in in the guiderails, work the turnout plenty of times to make sure it moves freely. Spray with alcohol, and then use a small medicine dropper to put a drop of glue between each tie. Do not get glue near moving parts or it will stick the turnout in place. Take your time here and you will be fine.
it looks pretty good for a spur to me but holy sh- er um COW! that is a slow and tedious process! lol
Yes it is! Something that I do is make sure I sand the cork shoulder nice and smooth. I then paint straight white glue on the shoulders and apply a coat of ballast to that first. Let this dry and then do the rest of the ballast as mentioned above. Keeps it from washing off the sides when you apply the diluted scenic cement.
ok got some done today,
well what i did is dilute white glue 50/50 with water and some dish soap
then i spread the ballast between the ties how i wanted it ahen i sprayed it w/ rubbing alcohol and let it soak a min then dribbled the glue in between the ties
on the shoulders i took a paint brush and spread a generous layer on the cork and a little bit onto the styrofoam and sprinkled ballast on that
and once that was dry i put the final layer on that and spread it w/ piece of cardboard then wet it w/ alcohol and dribbled glue on it until i knew it was all through the ballast and i had it
BUT how do you learn if thay dont?
oh btw a small syringe works really good for this i found it had A LOT more control than an eye dropper
thanks for the info guys i dont know where i would be with out this forum!
DeadheadGreg wrote:make sure you ballast is DCC compatible first, or else your styrofoam won't work.
make sure you ballast is DCC compatible first, or else your styrofoam won't work.
what do you mean DCC compatible? styrofoam wnt work?
There are several techniques but Greg put it pretty straight for you. I use the diluted Elmer's white for securing the ballast once it's set in place. And use a Pipette to droplette your glue in, that ballast is really light and you'll end up washing it all over the place or have to put more on to cover up bare spots which will change your uniformity. Some others have also put the ballast down, then soaked it with alcohol to "wick it". Then when you put your glue on it'll soak down through the ballast and glue it all together, not just the top layer. One other bit of advice is to do small sections at a time. Most people I've asked do like a foot or two of track at a time. Oh, one more thing, after you're glue is try besure to vacum up the extra, very important.
Good luck.
ballasting is easy. When you get it spread how you want, what you want to do is dilute some elmers glue with water and a couple drops of dishwashing detergent. The detergent acts as a wick to get the glue to seep all the way in. Some people do this first with a detergent/water mixture known as "wet water". Either way, you'll want to apply the glue with a pipette/eyedropper so that it doesn't wash away the ballast.
I've thought about spraying Scenic Cement myself; does anyone know if this and/or simple hairspray would work?
hi i just laid track and are wanting to begin ballast but im not sure on the process of how to go about doing it, i think i have a general idea. mainly what im asking is how do i glue it good im using woodland scenics coarse ballast
is there something i can make out of some regular glues like elmers white or something like that, or do i have to go ALL the way up town to the LHS and get some scenic cement or something
plx help