In the past I have had success ballasting flex track on cork roadbed using thinned white glue and water with dish soap added. But now I am considering trying to ballast the plastic base of HO EZ track. Has anyone had success ballasting EZ track or similar plastic based track and how did you do it?
I have and it came out rather well too. My layout is all EZ-Track with the exception of one very short spur, which is not shown here.
I think that's enough to show that it is doable.
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
It can physically be done, yes, but having tried it (as well as seeing other people's examples), I don't like the results.
The ties don't look right--they don't sit in the ballast correctly because they are already embedded in the plastic roadbed. SImilarly, the ballast profile is way too shallow, because the ballast has to follow the shallow angle of the platsic roadbed.
I just don't think ballasted EZTrack looks at all like the real thing.
Yup.
The Yuba Pass portion of my MR is wide radius (34") EZ track simply because I couldn't trust laying flex-track around a portion that drops off almost 6 actual feet onto a concrete garage floor, in some cases vertically. The EZ track, when soldered together works just fine for me and the rail joints fit much better than might have happened had I used flex-track with joints that might go flying any direction due to the temperature changes in my garage. As to the ballasting, you have to do a lot of careful brushing between the ties, and no matter what you do, it's going to look like really HEAVILY ballasted track, whicn on my MR--heavy duty mountain railroading in the Sierra Nevada--is exactly what I wanted. I just did what I usually do, the old ballast, very thinned white glue and 'wet' water (water with two or three drops of liquid detergent in a spray bottle) and treated it like flex track. It worked for me.
But remember, it's going to look like VERY heavily ballasted mainline track, something akin to what mainline track out here in the West in the high Sierra looks like--especially on the old SP (now UP) Donner Pass line, with the ties sunk well into the ballast. Which is exactly what I was looking for on the track laid over Yuba Pass on my own MR (elevation 6800 feet). So it may not represent 'typical' mainline track (whatever that is) in other parts of the country, but it sure looks like what the track is up around Donner Pass. I'm happy with it. So are my trains, I haven't had a derailment on that section in the seven years the railroad has been in operation.
So, yes it can be done, but you'll have a REAL heavy-duty mainline. Here's a photo of Yuba Pass and the EZ track.
http://pic15.picturetrail.com/VOL573/3198599/6525832/103391731.jpg
You'll have to click the blue link to upload the photo, its on PictureTrail and it doesn't load automatically onto the new Forum.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Yes, I ballasted my EZ-Track on my first layout. I didn't like the plastic, so I used fine local beach sand, and I think it improved the looks immensely. You just need to be patient and to lay it on as thin as you can. I found the bit I could get between the ties was quite convincing. If you take your time and patiently groom a two or three foot section in one session, you will be rewarded I feel.
Here is a small 24" diorama I made with EZ-Track that I ballasted with the beach sand. You can decide for yourself if you think it looks realistic.
As most of the previous posts say, it's not the best looking ballast job on EZ Track. But, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!!