Ballast............... May I throw a few stones ???

[Graffen]

Strange....

No one mentions how the sound is effected by what kind of ballast you use!?!

Real rock ballast combined with plywood, white glue and hardshell scenery is a good recipe for a lot of sound.... 

Soft roadbed combined with either WS ballast or Chinchilla sand glued with transparent latex caulk on foam scenery on the other hand .... Now we are talking quiet!

[wp8thsub]

Graffen

Real rock ballast combined with plywood, white glue and hardshell scenery is a good recipe for a lot of sound....

That describes my layout.  It's also pretty darn quiet, and visitors often comment on how quiet the operation is.  Solid construction helps a lot.

[Graffen]

The most quiet layout I have ever heard was Fleming Ørneholms Eagle creek. It is ridiculously silent.... And that is understandable as he invented the super soft roadbed. :-)

[singletrack100]

I'm sorry if I'm entering into this late. I tried to Quote DrWayne regarding the Dixie cup but couldn't get the quote part to work. Anyway, he mentioned using a small cup, I use a spoon, and essentially do the same thing with it. This gives a small amount to work with, maybe too small for some, but works for me. I've used both play sand for my mains and WS HO Fine for my mine/log route and have no issues with strays. When doing the sand, I have a couple of old large spice bottles that I can spoon out of as I go; the large bottle of WS has the two flip caps, one that a spoon can go into. As DrWayne mentions, pre-wetting is all important, getting it damp first. I use soapy water. On large, tall slopes, I've had good success by 50/50 glueing lightly at the base of the ballast slope, then going back over at the rail edge, allowing them to wick to each. This seems to alleviate the dreaded washout for me.

As mentioned several times, there is no right or wrong way, just finding what works for each. Pre-wetting, regardless of water or alcohol, and not dropping giant drops of glue mix- they seem to be key.

Happy RR'ing! Duane

[BroadwayLion]

Graffen

The most quiet layout I have ever heard was Fleming Ørneholms Eagle creek. It is ridiculously silent....

Silent? Who wants silent. LION is even going to mount microphones and speakers under the tracks to amplfy the sound. Make is sound like a real subway station down there. That will attreact people's attention when a train is passing a particulrly lovely corner. Well, the whole subway is lovely, but even without the enhancement, onve visitor commented on how loud the trains were when they were running.

 

YES! Subway Trains!

ROAR

[delray1967]

You can always go back and cover any stray ballast with more ground cover, or try ot paint the bright ballast with a dirt color (drybrush it so it blends in).  I use WS fine for my HO branchline modules, real stone probably is easier, but I've had decent results (and couldn't commit to buying a bunch of a new product I've never seen in person before; one real rock ballast company has a minimum 3 bag order I think).  One problem I had is bubbles form when wetting the ballast before (and after) applying glue.  I didn't have this problem when I ballasted me last layout.  I've used wet water first, then I tried straight 70% and 91% alcohol and letting them soak in for anywhere from a few minutes to about 30 minutes, rewetting it and then applying the diluted white glue.  It's like the wet ballast trapped air underneath the soaked area, sometimes bubbles would appear after applying the glue then dry as small voids (craters).  I'll fill these with weeds (this is a branchline after all) using extra fine ground foam one piece at a time (yes, a bit tedious but I don't mind at all, I'm a pretty patient person, especially with trackwork).  The best way that works for me is to not pre wet the ballast, but to apply the diluted glue to the base of the ballast, letting it wick up into the ballast, once the ballast has sucked up the glue, I can apply the glue to the wet areas so it doesn't have to wick as far.  I do the shoulders first, then between the rails.  My thinking is the air will escape from the ballast as the glue is sucked up from the bottom.  It took a couple weeks to ballast my 2x12 switching layout and I didn't eliminate the step of prewetting until the last few days; I wish I would have figured this out earlier.  It goes against everything I've read/been told/seen in videos, but it worked so I do it that way.  Ground foam and sifted dirt ground cover gets wetted first, then glued (for some reason, I don't get the bubble issue with ground cover, even when it's 1/4" deep).  One place where the ballast is contained around the cork roadbed by styrene strips (like the prototype I used for inspiration, actually they used concrete curbing, not giant strips of plastic. lol) is 3/16" deep; when the glue dried, it pulled the ballast up and away from the styrene strip, leaving a gap...like the glue shrank as it dried and took the ballast with it.  Not a big deal, I'll fill those areas with weeds (or maybe try to tear it out and do it over).

[mobilman44]

Thanks again folks for all the good advice.   I'll be working on the "chore" over the next week as that oncoming cold front makes doing stuff outside difficult.   I'm more and more convinced that I was just in too big of a hurry and put down more ballast than needed and did not clean it up as well as I could before applying the water/glue mix.  

Thanks all!