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I apply the first droplets of glue/water by touching the droplet to the outside of the rail or the tie ends, letting its surface tension pull it down into the ballast. Once a pass like this is made, then I go ahead and dribble into the center of the ties and down the ballast slope, because the glue has already infiltrated to some extent. And, another hint is that you don't need to fear sculpting the ballast profile while it is wet; I just use my fingertips to pu***hings back into place if they get gullied out. Yes, this is delicate, since you can end up with large amounts of ballast sticking to your fingers rather than staying on the ground where it belongs, but go ahead and do it and you'll get a feel for what can be done. One final hint is this: you don't have to ballast it all in one pass. You can come back later and add a top coat of ballast, just to smooth out the aberrations, and when you glue that thin layer of granules, they won't move as readily because the previous ballast is holding them in place. You might even consider a two-pass approach as the norm, reserving finer and more expensive ballast product for the visible topmost layer. Also, this would allow you to replicate new ballast (perhaps even of a different color) applied over older, weed-grown rights-of-way or cinders. <br /> <br />Actually, that's my favorite way of scuplting still-wet ballast, which is to sprinkle a little bit more dry ballast on top; this way the fingers don't stick.
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