Salvaging ballasted track

[johncolley]

I have done this several times, but a lot depends on how you lay the track and ballast, hmm? I use grey paintable caulking to fasten the track down, using canned goods to hold it down overnight to set the caulk. The ballasting I do with diluted white glue. Now to take it up I very carefully with a very thin bladed 1" wide putty knife. I also carefully remove the ballast before trying to lay the track again. jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA

[delray1967]

I agree with conagher.  If you build your layout in smaller sections, say 2'x4' , you can easily 'practice' on the first module you build and then move on to the next module, modifying and improving your techniques.  When you are satisfied with your skills, you can go back and update your first modules without tearing up too much track or scenery.  I think we all do this to some degree or other, that's why we 'plan for change' early on in our layout designs.  I understand you probably want to run trains right away, but don't rush it, trackwork and benchwork are the hardest to upgrade and the most important.  Take your time and enjoy all aspects of the hobby while working on the current phase of your layout.  It's much better to have trains running perfectly through not perfect scenery, than to have trains wobble, stutter, and derail through perfect scenery.

[conagher]

Hi!

I'm a long-time-lover, first-time-builder. Due to space restrictions, the layout I'm building is located some distance away from my home, so I don't get to spend too much time on it (I accept it's going to take me a lifetime to get it finished). To that end, I'm building a much smaller (2500x400mm) layout on which I can practices my techniques, hone my skills and determine how I want to build things in the real layout.

One question that is bothering me is: if I ballast my track on this "training" layout, how easily can I recover it for use on my real layout. Perhaps I'm just being a skinflint, but my training layout is just that, and I don't want to have to commit to it anything that I can reuse later. Proper ballasting seems to be a one-way avenue as far as this is concerned.

On my proper layout I have achieved a compromise of having realistic ballast with the track layed on top. I know it's never going to look as realistic as having a fully-commited track-embedded-in-the-ballast approach, but I'm just paranoid of committing (expensive) track to a layout that I might want to change.

Ideas on how to achieve a realistic ballast look that leaves the track salvageable?

One of the most important requirements of good-running trains is having good trackwork. One wrong twist or bend ripping up that old track might prove to be years' worth of frustration on the new layout. You're entering an expensive hobby....cutting corners on the track is not the place to try to save money.

And there's no such thing as The Perfect Layout. Why not just begin your "proper" layout and learn as you go. There are tons of How-To books and forums such as this available to help with every element of layout building. Most of us begin with limited modeling knowledge anyway.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I used a matte-medium and water mix once, and only once. I destroyed most of the track trying to get it up for use on another layout. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. Usually I use a 50/50 white glue and water mix to secure the ballast in place after soaking the ballast with 70% isopropyl alcohol. Reclaiming the track at a later date is made much easier by simply soaking the ballast with water. The glue softens and the track can then be pulled up and quickly scrubbed clean. Some brands of flextrack (I will not name them here) do not take kindly to being scrubbed as the rails easily detach from the ties.

[delray1967]

My old layout had AMI instant roadbed (sticky rubber like strips) with the track pressed into it.  I carefully(!) pried the track from the roadbed and found some sticky stuff still attached to it.  I reused all the turnouts from my old 4x8, threw out the flex track.  It was easy, but time consuming, to get most of the sticky rubber off the bottoms of the turnouts, but worth it.  Any minor damage was repaired by spiking the rails into proper gauge.  One reason for throwing out the flex track was old flex track was code 100 and had poor details, new flex track is code 83 and has better details.  I saved the code 100 turnouts because newer ones were expensive.  I had the old layout since I was three, the new one began on my 21st birthday.  I'm 34 now and planning a 10x27 layout which will be all new track and turnouts, code 70.  No problems with my trackwork so far.  I've heard you can soak white glue with water to loosen it up some, then scrub it with a toothbrush.  Sounds like a lot of time and effort though.

Who knows, after 10 years (about how long 'temporary' layouts last) there might be better products available.  Try laying ballast on a smaller diorama and leave the layout's track bare, or paint the cork (or whatever roadbed you use) grey to minimize visual impact of bare roadbed.

[loathar]

I tried cleaning some used track up once. It was so time consuming and such a pain in the butt. It didn't look good when it was reused. I ripped it back up and replaced it.

[jimk]

It depends on how you attach the ballast.  I use the white glue diluted with water method.  I barely use any white glue and find it brushes off after I remove the track.  Flex track is tougher to reuse though, like baron said, it just won't bend right after you have bent it into shape and left it that way for any amount of time.  I don't have any trouble with sectional track that I have ballasted, though.

Jim 

[baron9]

 If this is just a (training layout) then why ballast the track? I found that after the roadbed and track are down and ballasted, it is somewhat hard to take it up. I tried to do this with my flex track down and found that the track would bend out of shape. Maybe if you just laid the ballast down without using any glue just to see what it would look like.  Don't ruin good track.

[Dada Mungo]

Hi!

I'm a long-time-lover, first-time-builder. Due to space restrictions, the layout I'm building is located some distance away from my home, so I don't get to spend too much time on it (I accept it's going to take me a lifetime to get it finished). To that end, I'm building a much smaller (2500x400mm) layout on which I can practices my techniques, hone my skills and determine how I want to build things in the real layout.

One question that is bothering me is: if I ballast my track on this "training" layout, how easily can I recover it for use on my real layout. Perhaps I'm just being a skinflint, but my training layout is just that, and I don't want to have to commit to it anything that I can reuse later. Proper ballasting seems to be a one-way avenue as far as this is concerned.

On my proper layout I have achieved a compromise of having realistic ballast with the track layed on top. I know it's never going to look as realistic as having a fully-commited track-embedded-in-the-ballast approach, but I'm just paranoid of committing (expensive) track to a layout that I might want to change.

Ideas on how to achieve a realistic ballast look that leaves the track salvageable?