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Should I use ballast at the edge of EZ track?

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  • Member since
    November 2018
  • 26 posts
Should I use ballast at the edge of EZ track?
Posted by Hexxoid on Tuesday, November 6, 2018 5:50 PM

In an effort to make ?Nickel Silver (grey roadbed) EZ track look more realistic, should I buy fine color- matched ballast and add it to the edge of the tracks? I don't want to actually ballast the entire track, just where the edge of the roadbed reaches the ground. 

  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: SE Minnesota
  • 6,845 posts
Posted by jrbernier on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 3:07 PM

  Getting an 'exact' match may be difficult.  I remember that Kato had a matching ballast for their trackage.

Jim

Modeling BNSF  and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin

  • Member since
    October 2018
  • 117 posts
Posted by Bigjim7 on Thursday, November 8, 2018 6:45 AM
Yes it will make it look better. I only ballast the outside of the rails on my layout. That to me if good enough. So try it in a area and see if you like it. I think you will. Post pic.
  • Member since
    March 2011
  • 1,950 posts
Posted by NVSRR on Thursday, November 8, 2018 7:33 AM

If tou could get the track off the roadbed base,  i would paint it to match what you find.  Also reduces the. "Same as everybody else   " Condition.    Or just cover the base in ballast.    Ironically. Paint is the best "adheisive". To bond scenery material to plastic.  

A pessimist sees a dark tunnel

An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel

A realist sees a frieght train

An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space

  • Member since
    April 2009
  • From: Staten Island NY
  • 1,734 posts
Posted by joe323 on Friday, November 9, 2018 7:18 AM

I understand not wanting to ballast EZ Track can't stand how the roadbed looks sectional and toy like without ballast so I bit the bullet and just did it.

Joe Staten Island West 

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Mpls/St.Paul
  • 13,776 posts
Posted by wjstix on Friday, November 9, 2018 4:36 PM

Unlike Kato or Atlas 'click track', Bachmann's EZ track is not meant to represent a track with ballast. Rather it's track with roadbed attached - the gray part takes the place of using cork roadbed. Once the track is in place, you're supposed to add ballast between the ties and along the sides. Bachmann has been running an ad off and on for a decade or so, with a Ken Patterson photo clearly showing the tracks in the process of being ballasted.

 

Stix
  • Member since
    January 2017
  • From: Southern Florida Gulf Coast
  • 18,255 posts
Posted by SeeYou190 on Saturday, November 10, 2018 4:25 PM

Yes.

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Even if it is not an exact match, it will be a big help in appearance.

.

.

-Kevin

.

Living the dream.

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