Ballasting turnouts?

[mcouvillion]

I tried something on the club layout last night (Thursday, Feb 10th). We ballasted the turnouts in the yard so well last month that they all stuck together. I had been using a dental pick to break it all loose, one turnout at a time. I had one end of the yard finished and started on the other end then broke a ground throw. One of the guys suggested using wet water to re-hydrate the point rails and throw rod so that the ballast there could be removed easily. He then suggested that I use oil sparingly on any surface that would move to prevent the glue on it from re-setting. I tried it and it works great! The glue re-hydrates in about 10 minutes, and after picking the loose / errant ballast out of the way, the little bit of oil under the rails makes the turnout work like a brand new, unballasted one. I think I did 10 turnouts last night and they all performed extremely well after the procedure. I want to do this to all the turnouts on the layout.

Unknowns: 1 - I don't know how much trouble, if any, the oil will cause if and when it collects dirt. The oil was applied to go under the rail, so it is not on the railhead where it will get on the wheels and get spread around. 2 - I don't know how long the oil will stay in place. It may settle down into the cork roadbed. It was applied on the plastic rail surfaces underneath the moving point rails and on the sides of the throw bars.

The idea was suggested by one of the Lionel guys in the club. It made a bunch of stiff / stuck turnouts work like brand new again.

Mark C.

[jhugart]

One suggestion used in a book on an N-scale layout (Burlington Northern in Wisconsin?) was to use black electrical tape on the bottom of the turnout, then press ballast against the track, and knock off the excess into the bin. This way you weren't gluing the points down, but you were also avoiding the peek-a-boo cork.

I also noticed in some mid-20th century views of a local (and no longer existing) yard, the ballast is noticeably absent around the points and switchstand. Painting the cork a dark color, as mentioned above -- maybe even your base earth color -- would be good.

(The yard I was looking at was in 1966, a shot of the St. Paul East yard on the Chicago, St. Paul, and Omaha --and I may have that name wrong -- but it was the place where 3M, Stroh's brewry, and the Whirlpool manufacturing plant got a lot of their freight from. There's only a couple of tracks going through these days, and a few passing tracks in the "sand yard" by 3M. The most noteworthy thing was that the East yard was on a 1.3% grade!)

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bobchuck

Dave, I'm not sure what you mean by household filler. Do you mean something like drywall putty? Thanks for the tip.

That will be similar. We have a variety called PolyFilla, that is a general purpose household or repair gap filler of the 'old' non-plastic kind. A gypsum mix but with additives that 'hard-set' for permanence. Selleys make a range.

Its usually water soluble to a point and can be weakened to fill small gaps- of course curing time requires dryness/ heat to aid water dispersion and set. But I use it a lot for scenicing small bases (e.g. model soldier scenes), building up walls and contours on cardboard frameworks, and a 1000 and 01 other uses... and have just carried this over without a thought to model rr plans.

trust this helps explain, regards, davew
[8D]

[Anonymous]

Dave, I'm not sure what you mean by household filler. Do you mean something like drywall putty? Thanks for the tip.

[Anonymous]

Originally posted by challenger3802

Hi Guys,

I'm having trouble balasting turnouts, without the ballast the cork shines through, with the ballast in place (and glued down) it makes changing the turnout very hard.

challenger3802
In N I have used without fail so far a layer of household filler, runny but not wet, coloured with powders, ink or paint mixto approximate raodbed colour, or black, they are often very balck areas.
Poke the filler between ties with an old broken brush or stiring stick/ girls eyelash wand!!- then when enough is used, gently spoon a single layer of ballast across the top, tamp gently (clean fingers are ok) and wait to dry and set (+/- 24 hrs).

A toothpick or another stiff bristle brush can be used to dislodge any 'excess' from areas not wanted- and a sharp knife can always be used to scrape off any excess if the height was too much for the blades to traverse the gap.

It will only take one or two to gte the knack right...
cheers, dave

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