Concrete for ballast?

[Anonymous]

Has anyone ever tried it? I was thinking you know mix it with a little sand and stuff and then put it on. I wonder if it would set weird from using alcohol instead of water. The reason I want to try it is because I'm outside and I think it would be more durable.

[cacole]

For what scale? I have G outdoors and have used dry cement (post mix) sprinkled between the crossties, and then dampened so it would set, on a short section of my layout. I use battery powered locomotives or live steam exclusively, so I don't know what affect cement might have on track power, but it shouldn't be detrimental.

I don't think I would use cement for my entire layout because outdoor track needs to be able to flex with changes in the weather.

[Anonymous]

I'm doing HO, but thats a good point about the flexing. Then again for G scale, like if you're laying it on the ground you prolly don't need to even glue the ballast or anything. I'm up on a deck and I don't want loose stuff coming off the layout all the time so I think I'm gonna at least try the concrete out and see how it goes. There prolly won't be much flexing from the HO stuff.

[Curmudgeon]

Nice thread on one of the large-scale forums about that.
Concrete holds moisture and can literally short out the tracks (actual examples given, I can re-post here).
If live steam of on-board battery r/c, no problem, but track power could be.
Thjat's if you wet the stuff to make it set up.
If it's dry (and never use concrete, always Portland Cement), lord help you if it gets into the gears.
Can you say Mount Saint Helens?

TOC

[Anonymous]

Well, then clearly what I need to do is just get some water proof white glue.

[Anonymous]

I suggest you look at recent threads on ballast to see what the ballast is doing in the prototype. You are doing this to a smaller degree,

Back in the 60s / 70s my Dad ran 0 Gauge in the garden on a deck which started at about 4' high. The deck was made of two 2x1 timbers about 6' long with 1x1 cross braces about 12" apart. There were also some diagonal braces on the wider decks that supported multiple track and/or curves. Between the 2x1s a surface was provided by perforated zinc sheet. This was naturally weather resisant and drained freely.

Track was a mix of home made wooden sleepered and (when it came on the market) Peco... would you believe that no-one knew how it would stand up to exposure to the weather? Peco has proved to have no major weather problems.

Now then.... BALLAST... we used aquarium gravel and fixed it in place with good old fashioned creosote... the fence preserving stuff that came from coal/coke gas production and stang worse than nettles if you got it on your skin. The creaosote gave the ballast a good colour and glued it absolutely together without blocking the spaces between the pieces of gravel... this means that the ballast itself drains... you don't get water retained in it and therefore you don't get ice in winter and that doesn't disrupt the track.

Any using cement will give you a concrete track bed withno drainage and no flex. You will also have to break out concrete if you do any maintenance or changes. There was never any trouble removing the creosoted aquarium gravel.

Have fun!

[TomDiehl]

I'd avoid using alcohol when mixing concrete. The strength comes from slow drying.

PS: Portland cement is a component of concrete (stone, sand, cement) and has very little strenght on its own.

[Leon Silverman]

Recommend mixing a test batch of the concrete and alcohol. Concrete chemically combines with water during the curing process. It does not evaporate out of the concrete like it would from sand. Since Alcohol is chemically different from water, the concrete may not harden if it is mixed with alcohol.

[trainboyH16-44]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Curmudgeon

If it's dry (and never use concrete, always Portland Cement), lord help you if it gets into the gears.
Can you say Mount Saint Helens?

TOC

Did many people lose engines from that?
Trainboy

[Martin4]

Concrete may contain metal particles and therefore be a partial electrical conductor ! You may have a short that will suck all of your power pack current.

Martin
Québec City