Too much caulk!!!!

[cowman]

I'd go for painting rather than trying to dig it out too.  Rust-o-lem and Krylon both have textured paints in rattle cans and I'm sure you could find something close to your ballast color.  I used some Krylon Stone paint, "Black Granite".  It's a dark gray with lighter and darker flecks in it.

Good  luck,

Richard

[xdford]

Bruce, I have seen a local modeller here mask off an area and spray bomb track and ballast with an earthy coloured spray, clean the rail heads afterwards and it looks fairly effective. You could use a very fine ballast (WS N Scale for example) as a single layer as suggested for texture. I would slit some straws and cover the rails around your switches unless you have a backup rather than relying on your switch points for electrical contact. Good Luck! Regards from Oz Trevor www.xdford.digitalzones.com for your interest

[bogp40]

Real "bummer", you could try using an Xacto chisel and grind narrower and can bend more "hook", a tedious job, but the chisel cut/ ground down to between tie size may make the task far easier. (Sort of making a modified hook scraper) Keep sharp w/ #600 grit wet/ dry or a fine honing stone.

[DGX GP 38]

Bruce, I second Batmans recommendation. I made the same mistake on a couple of turnouts. Paint, glue and sprinkle. A little added weathering here and there. Should look fine.

[BATMAN]

I would paint the caulk the colour of the ballast and then carefully using a paint brush, brush on some white glue and apply some ballast to the glue. It would be the thickness of one rock deep. The combination of the caulk painted the colour of the ballast and the very thin layer of ballast will reqiure close scrutiny to notice that their was an issue.

[Blind Bruce]

The suggestion to paint the ties was put forth to me by one of the installers but these turnouts are about 6" from the front facia. Maybe if I could mix the paint to be a mix of colors somehow, it could fool the eyes.

[cacole]

Something that might be worth trying is painting the caulk a 'ballast' color instead of trying to gouge it all out.  I hope they never put caulk where the moving parts are.

 

[selector]

I am sorry to hear this, Bruce.  I think it's far too common a mistake.  The caulk only needs to be spread like a first layer of paint or primer...not like peanut butter or jam.

[Blind Bruce]

Some model railroad friends helped me with some complicated trackwork on my switching layout. They did a great job and I appreciate the time and effort they put into the project. The trackwork is layed directly on 1" ridgid foam.

However, they put too much caulk on the foam and placed the turnouts into it. The result is that there is no room for ballast. The caulk is level and sometimes above the ties. Being a shelf layout, everything is "up front" and visable. I have been using a #11 Xacto blade and removing the caulk between every tie. I have 22 turnouts and I am now disccouraged enough to lay off for a while.