Let's say that ballasting is just about my least favorite thing to do. Somedays it is tedious, gets on my last nerve and tries my patience. (Ask me how I really feel). So, i have been looking at your pictures - some of you are very precise ala Cody Grivno precise and others of you just seem to spread it and not worry.
Now I understand for realism sake there are different looks - but what camp do you favor and why? Are you in the 'very precise' camp or in the 'let's spread it and get it over camp?'
Just askin......
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
Let's put it this way. I try to be very precise and I try to groom it nicely.
But, the end result looks like I just spread it and let it go at that.
For all of the ballasting that I have done, I have yet to perfect a method for nicely grooming it.
Rich
Alton Junction
I try to get it to look good, but often it doesn't make the grade. Like others , I find it's one of the most tedious jobs in the hobby. When done right it looks very realistic but, like many other things, it's certainly not my strong suit. Maybe it's a patience thing.
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
Ballast? Ballast? Whats That? LION builds subway train, does not need too much ballast, not in tunnels or on elevated structure. It is required on embankments and in open cuts.
LION uses no built up roadbed. Trains running in an open cut need it not. As a matter of fact even the embankments on the NYCT seem to be innocent of roadbed.
Ballast? LION buys ballast in 25 pound bags at Walmart. Him has over 14 miles of mane lion railroad. Actually, it is CAT LITTER! :) LION sifts it through a window screen, and give the big lumps back to the cats.
LION spreads it where needed, but does not glue it. Gravity works just fine, thank you.
Here is NYCT on an embankment:
Here is NYCT in an Open Cut:
Here is LION in open cut:
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
From what I have seen ballast in the real world is not nearly as neat as folks try to make it on their model RR. If I have a few specks on my ties and a little uneven shoulder it looks more prototypical than a perfectly groomed track. As long as it does not interfere with operation and you can live with it, don't lose any sleep over it.
eaglescout From what I have seen ballast in the real world is not nearly as neat as folks try to make it on their model RR. If I have a few specks on my ties and a little uneven shoulder it looks more prototypical than a perfectly groomed track. As long as it does not interfere with operation and you can live with it, don't lose any sleep over it.
I will agree with this assessment.
The old Rock Island tracks are very near my home, and they are now used by Metra for its commuter trains. When I stand on the platform and look down at the tracks at the station and beyond, it is not pretty and there are definitely pieces of ballast on the ties.
I try to do a good job with my ballast, but I'm not always successful. On the other hand, when I'm done it doesn't look "inadequate." In all likelihood, we are our own worst critics on stuff like this.
I do scenery slowly, a few square feet at a time, and the ballast is generally one of the last steps. So, I try to keep up with "finishing" each small scene, and that involves a few feet of ballast, at most, in one session. That way, I don't have an overwhelming amount to do all at once, so the task isn't so dreadful.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Once again I'm the odd man out..I like to ballast my track as you would see it on a urban industrial branch and that means I lighty ballast with a mixture of cinders,dirt, and dark gray ballast.For "dirty dirt" I lighty overspray the track with a mist of Floquil Grimy Black in the rattle can.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I pretty much do the same as Mr.B. Ballasting is one of those things that really needs to be done. I only work on one area at a time, roughly about 1 to 2 feet only, and I stay with it until it is completed. That last step is to ballast that 1 to 2 feet, and then move on to the section.
Sam
I actually find ballasting sort of fun. It calms my heart rate and gets me happy. However, the amount of my layout that has been ballasted is maybe only 25%. I don't apply the ballast until the adjacent scenery is completed and on much of my layout, the scenery is only shelled up.
As far as having any philosophy about it, I only try to make it look like the real thing. I can get it so it is graded perfectly; but, when I use wet water to wet it down and dribble on the scenic cement, it can get moved around and the last thing you want to do is try to move it back into position when it is wet. I know this from experience!
I see that there is a ballasting car made by Ballast King, for $239.00. The advertisements says it will cut your ballasting time by 90%! Maybe it's worth it, for those of you who hate the job.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
richhotrain eaglescout From what I have seen ballast in the real world is not nearly as neat as folks try to make it on their model RR. If I have a few specks on my ties and a little uneven shoulder it looks more prototypical than a perfectly groomed track. As long as it does not interfere with operation and you can live with it, don't lose any sleep over it. I will agree with this assessment. The old Rock Island tracks are very near my home, and they are now used by Metra for its commuter trains. When I stand on the platform and look down at the tracks at the station and beyond, it is not pretty and there are definitely pieces of ballast on the ties. Rich
I have seen both neat and messy.
If you ever watch train MOW crews, the last step is redistributing the ballast which involves running a shovel blade over the sides giving it a very groomed appearance. I imagine over time the ballast settles and gets moved by trains, and mother nature giving it a less groomed appearance.
However I have seen Penn Central and Forrestry track that was just the ugliest thing you ever seen.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
BRAKIE Once again I'm the odd man out..I like to ballast my track as you would see it on a urban industrial branch and that means I lighty ballast with a mixture of cinders,dirt, and dark gray ballast.For "dirty dirt" I lighty overspray the track with a mist of Floquil Grimy Black in the rattle can.
Your not the only one Brakie, at least as being odd man out. I don't get it, whats all the angst over ballasting? Maybe it's me being weird but I've always enjoyed it.
Karl
NCE über alles!
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).
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.
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 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.
Rob Spangler
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
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."
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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).
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.
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
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
as for which camp am I in, whichever one has a campfire and some s'mores.
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.