The 'weeds' in the middle of the spur track is coarse turf from Woodland Scenics. The tall grassy area in the foreground between the loco and the caboose is a product from Hobby Lobby called Pot Toppers. It comes in 4 inch round sections and is placed in the top of a flower pot to dress it up. Alas, the last time I tried to find it that no longer stocked it, but I have seen it online. I don't use Pot Toppers alone though, it looks much better when other products from Woodland Scenics or Scenic Express is intermingled with it.
Jarrell
LNEFAN What materials are you using for weeds? They look very good. Thx. jacon12 The photo below shows different track and it's ballast on my layout. Main on the left, a more weedy unkept spur on the right. It gets even worse in some areas, but not much. I agree that if you're going to do this make sure the ballast and weeds you leave on the ties is glued down good, and remove it completely from the tracks especially on the inner side.
What materials are you using for weeds? They look very good. Thx.
jacon12 The photo below shows different track and it's ballast on my layout. Main on the left, a more weedy unkept spur on the right. It gets even worse in some areas, but not much. I agree that if you're going to do this make sure the ballast and weeds you leave on the ties is glued down good, and remove it completely from the tracks especially on the inner side.
The photo below shows different track and it's ballast on my layout. Main on the left, a more weedy unkept spur on the right. It gets even worse in some areas, but not much. I agree that if you're going to do this make sure the ballast and weeds you leave on the ties is glued down good, and remove it completely from the tracks especially on the inner side.
I am a perfectionist I guess haha, so I am in the "ballast must look perfect" camp.
Modelling HO Scale with a focus on the West and Midwest USA
I will side with Eaglescout as well on this. Unless a Ballast work crew has gone through and rehabed the roadbed, even the "pros" don't keep it looking neat and perfect, so I won't worry about making mine look neat and perfect. As long as it looks good, then I'm a happy modeler.
//signed// John Powell President / CEO CNY Transportation Corp (fictional)
http://s155.photobucket.com/albums/s303/nuts4sports34/
Hunter - When we met in January of 2000, you were just a 6 week old pup who walked his way into this heart of mine as the only runt in the litter who would come over to me. And today, I sit here and tell you I am sorry we had to put you down. It was the best thing for you and also the right thing to do. May you now rest in peace and comfort. Love, Dad. 8 June 2010
I love you and miss you Mom. Say hi to everyone up there for me. Rest in peace and comfort. Love, John. 29 March 2017
richhotrain Jeremy, I really like the look of your ballasting efforts. Nice work. Rich
Jeremy,
I really like the look of your ballasting efforts. Nice work.
Rich
Thanks Rich.
My layout is set in the late 70's-80's and I notice in alot of pics I have from that era ( mostly CN and CP pics ) that there is alot of soot and oil staining the ballast in and around the tracks. Here is another pic showing that ( again not my pic )
Alton Junction
I ballast fairly heavily, since it's a mainline mountain route and subject to intense weather changes. The ballast is from a large gravel pit on the Yuba River, and is good old Sierra Nevada granite. Running from left to right is the 'house' track for Wagon Wheel Gap, the mainline (double guard rail extended from sheer cliff running outside the bottom of the picture frame) and overgrown siding at the cattle pen--mostly dirt. It's not pretty or manicured, it's just heavy, lol.
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!
Rich:
I have weathered the ballast around the ties, as in this pic ( not my pic )
Of all the MR disciplines I hate ballasting the most and for all the reasons posted... But I tend to be a "perfectionist" only because the results make the layout standout. Ballasting to me makes or breaks a layout.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=5959
If one could roll back the hands of time... They would be waiting for the next train into the future. A. H. Francey 1921-2007
I ballast my layout a few feet at a time. Not my favorite project but just part of building a layout,
Jeremy, that is an interesting look. Is that a different colored ballast under the ties or is it painted?
I enjoy ballasting, here is a side spur on my layout. I just try to keep as much off the ties as possible. Every now and then I still have to poke some off
By the time I'd laid all my track I had 325 feet of mainline, some of it double track plus yards and a branch line. I needed a quick way to ballast everything without breaking myself financially. I wanted a heavy duty 1950's mainline, a lighter duty branch line and essentially level yards. The material I chose was medium grit sandblasting stone which sold for about $10.00 for a ninety lb. bag, more than enough for the whole job. I laid the mainlines in Code 100 on top of cork. I used sheets of luan plywood to bring the yards up to the same level as the cork. The branch line was laid on top of Instant Roadbed mastic which I regretted later because the stuff doesn't like switches. N scale cork would have worked better! After spreading and shaping the stone, which was easy because it's dense and heavy and retains the shape you give it better than orthodox MRR ballast, I soaked it with dilute white glue and it set up solid. Next step was to free up the switches. After that I over sprayed track and ballast with Rustoleum ruddy brown primer cleaning off the rail head before the stuff could fully cure. Once the ballast was firm I added sifted dirt and fine turf mixture next to the ballast for ground cover. The effect is like a mainline where the ballast has taken on the color of rust that's leaching off the rails. It also seems to reduce the apparent size of Code 100 so it looks more like Code 83 and it blends in any ballast that might be laying on top of the ties. For variations in track coloring I used weathering chalks, black around engine servicing tracks and white to simulate ground up locomotive sand on my grades. Neatness is advisable because the prototype can get away with stuff that a modeler can not! One caution! Make sure all the ballast stone is firmly glued in place because it can play hob with your switches if it's not. I present this as a "quick and dirty" way to get a large ballasting job done cheaply and effectively.
as for which camp am I in, whichever one has a campfire and some s'mores.
SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide
Gary DuPrey
N scale model railroader
I am with Guy! being a narrow gauger, the old narrow gauge lines never spent the long buck on tidy ballasting. Most all sidings and in town/yard situations were ties buried in dirt, like some of Guys pix.
I am tearing up what track I have on cork roadbed, doing away with it entirely and putting the track on the table with minimum balast on the main and all track will be buried in dirt where switching and yard work is done.
My road doesn't even run passenger service save in a goose or combine caboose so there are no streamliners or crack limiteds drifting over the main, just a bunch of swayback flats and gons loaded with ore.
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
I'm in both camps:
Mainline, Class one RR - Neat and tidy - no stray ballast.
Run down shortline - Dirt ballast covering the ties
Both approaches require time and careful work to get good results.
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
Same here in the seattle Sub. NP2626, the main get's lots of love. the only bit's of rough trackage is the track that heads to the yard in Centralia, and the line out to Shelton. though recently there's been lotsa class 1 action.
That's the way it is also here in central Georgia. The NS mainline is very well groomed, but when you get into the spurs around industries not so. Some look like they haven't had any fresh ballast for years and years but with the light traffic I suppose it's not needed. You really just have to look around the area you're modeling and see how the prototype does it, unless you're modeling an era years ago and then photos are your only recourse.
I don't hate ballasting it's just not my favorite part of the hobby by a long shot.
NP2626 The old mainline of the Northern Pacific/Burlington Northern and now BNSF in my local area is very well groomed. I am talking about the tracks between towns, not in the towns and cities along the way. Staples Minnesota, which is a division point on the BNSF, has a 1.5 mile long, 8 tracked yard that appears to be ballasted with dirt. (An interesting feature of looking at this area on Google Earth is that the layout of old roundhouse at Staples is still visible. Te same is true at Dilworth, near Fargo).
The old mainline of the Northern Pacific/Burlington Northern and now BNSF in my local area is very well groomed. I am talking about the tracks between towns, not in the towns and cities along the way. Staples Minnesota, which is a division point on the BNSF, has a 1.5 mile long, 8 tracked yard that appears to be ballasted with dirt. (An interesting feature of looking at this area on Google Earth is that the layout of old roundhouse at Staples is still visible. Te same is true at Dilworth, near Fargo).
While I don't love ballasting, I don't hate it either. I fall into the well groomed category I guess and do take quite a bit of time to complete the task. I ballast after scenery (without vegetation) is complete. Since I model in On30 ballast can be pretty optional or be even just dirt. My main line (pictured) is well groomed just because I wanted to do it that way. My long branch line will be less tidy using a combination of stone, dirt, sand etc. to represent the more rugged character of a logging/mining area. In any case, I feel ballasting and also track weathering is an important part of the modeling process and deserves attention to detail however it's accomplished.
jerryl I think using a foam brush makes this tedious job a little easier. I trim a 1" brush so it just fits between the rails & drag it along at about a 45 d. angle. It doesn't dislodge the ballast grains like a bristle brush does. jerry
I think using a foam brush makes this tedious job a little easier. I trim a 1" brush so it just fits between the rails & drag it along at about a 45 d. angle. It doesn't dislodge the ballast grains like a bristle brush does.
jerry
Jerry, I agree wholeheartedly about using a foam brush. No matter how careful I tried using a bristle brush, those stray grains would end up on top of the ties. And, because of the flat surfaces of a foam brush, tamping down the ballast at the sides of the track is a lot easier.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
eaglescoutI model the 50's-60's when ballast would not be as neatly done as with modern machinery.
If that's what photos of your prototype show, it may be something of an exception. Prior to the advent of modern track maintenance machinery ballast edges were often much more tidy in appearance. Steam era photos of major mainlines, and even important branches, frequently show careful grooming that went away quickly once machines did the work.
Rob Spangler
I model the 50's-60's when ballast would not be as neatly done as with modern machinery. Do the best job you can and utilize techniques that have been mentioned but don't apologize for a less than perfect job.
LION has built retaining walls using individual stones. I plastered a section of wall with caulk, and then one by one placed the stones.
Maybe you can do something similar if you can find some square stones, mosaic chips, or something like that.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Ballasting the track is certainly among those chores I like the least (only soldering is worse), so my next layout won´t see any ballast. Before you start to say "for crying out loud" - all of the track will be set in cobblestones, each individual stone carved out of a layer of modeling clay. Guess what´s easier to do!
The only area I find ballast not looking as real as it should on some layouts is around turnouts. Some are all neatly groomed following the shape of the turnout. Sometime the prototype is like that, but more often than not I see prototype turnouts surrounded by a lot more ballast. Sometimes it looks like the turnout is sitting on (or in) a large island of ballast. Not following the shape of the turnout at all.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Ah ballasting. I used to cringe the thought of ballasting. Now i have a different approach and its not that bad. On my main layout, I laid all the track and never finished all the ballast, because it looked like a daunting task.
In my extension room layout, I've taken a different approach. Now I'm laying track, and finishing the scenery and ballast on each scene. Now I don't have to worry about going back and looking at all the tracks that need to be ballasted, and thinking Oh My God thats a lot of work. Its already done!
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
I work from photographs and try to convey what they show. In the machine maintenance era ballast doesn't look the same as when track was maintained mostly by hand. It also varies between adjacent tracks. Bear in mind that sloppiness tends not to scale down, so to make your model ballast look "right" it may be necessary to employ more care than your prototype does.
I thought it was pretty fun and went through it pretty quickly granted it wasn't the best. This time around I'm going to be far more conservative about the way I ballast. code 55 doesn't sit very high. I was also going to borrow a play from the Model railroaders "Building the BN" by putting electrical tape on the bottom of my switches and ballasting them. then flipping them over to rid myself of extra ballast.