Q. When handlaying pack, how/when do you glue down the ballast?
Ballast is added in the same fashion for both handlaid and prefabricated pack. The roadbed is prepared and the pack laid in position using your favorite method before any ballast is added. The method
described below also works just as well for grass, dirt, etc. in the rest of the layout.
There are several methods, but the basic idea is to spread the ballast in place (I use a cheap 1" paintbrush to shape it), soak it with some sort of wetting agent, and then flow a fixative into it.
Variants abound - this is a FAQ in the model railroading magazines as well, so look there for alternatives.
The most common wetting agent is tap water with a drop or two of standard dishwashing liquid added to cut the surface tension (the water will just bead up otherwise and won't soak the ballast). This
can be sprayed on with a *fine* mister or carefully dripped on with an eye dropper. The most common fixative is a 50-50 mixture of white glue and water, again with a drop of detergent. This is
dripped onto the ballast and allowed to dry. All of the water will evaporate, so the ballast should be as wet as possible without floating it away; otherwise you may just glue down a top crust which
will chip away later.
1. Get a small paintbrush with loose bristles about the width of the inside of the pack.
2. Get a fine grind, almost dust-like.
3. Mix up in a spray bottle half white glue and half water with a little more glue than water.
4. Fill another spray bottle with water. [Usually it is a good idea to add a drop of dishwashing detergent or rubbing alcohol to the water to reduce the surface tension and allow the water to
penetrate the ballast better.
Ed.]
5. Spray the grind with the water to compact it so when you apply glue ∓ water mixture it doesn't blow all over.
6. Spray with glue ∓ water mix. Do small sections when doing pack.
7. When doing gravel roads or grass, do large sections.
8. Take your time and be patient.
9. Have Fun!!!! 8^)
Q. Also, who makes good ballast material, and do you mix/combine several coarseness or make it uniform?
Woodland Scenics is probably the most popular brand, but at least one poster described it as looking like kitty litter; a bit harsh but not far from the mark in my opinion. Their finest grade should
be used by N and HO scales, and it's really too coarse for N.
The other major source is actual rock. You can just walk outside if you live in the area you model, you can pay the local quarry or gravel operation to see if you can get a small sample, or you can
order it from several operations which advertise in the model railroading magazines. If you use real rock you must crush it, sift it to size, and then remove any ferrous particles with a magnet.
Note that most real railroads use ballast that is available locally, so the color of your ballast will differ based on the area modeled. Most of it is a standard gray, but iron ore roads have a
distinct reddish hue, and RMC just finished a series about a marble quarrying railroad which used marble chips!
Is there an effective way to make Atlas' plastic ties look better? Has anyone tried painting them, and if so, how did it work? Would any of the Floquil colors be good for this purpose?
Almost any old' paint of the right color will do the job. My personal favorite is Floquil Roof Brown. It's dead flat, goes quite far if thinned 50-50, and "just looks right to me". Just airbrush the
rails and ties... the nickel-silver rails are worse to look at than the ties. Then clean it all off the railtops with a bright boy.
Why not Floquil "rail brown"?? IMHO, it's way too light of a color... closer to mud than oily OLD rust.
I use extra fine blasting sand for ballast. A 100# bag is just a few bucks, and will do a lot of pack.
Clay
Just be sure it is V-E-R-Y well bonded. That stuff will turn gears into dust almost as fast as diatomaceous earth [that's the stuff used in some swimming pool filters] I have used the diatomaceous
earth in very small quantities by tramping it into wet brown paint for paths that actually look like the real thing scaled down.
Little Jack
One thing that I've found helped to make clean-up easier was to paint the rails (and letting them dry) before ballasting. Once I'm done ballasting, I take a Bright Boy and clean off the top of the
rails. This way, the ballast adhesive (white glue/matte medium/whatever) sticks to the paint on top of the rails. It seems to have less tenacious a hold to the paint than to bare rail, so it seems to
come off more easily. It's easier to see where the rail still isn't clean, too, since ballast adhesive isn't as easy to see on top of the rail as paint.
It also keeps me from having to clean the rails twice (once after painting the rail, and once after ballasting).
Fritz Milhaupt
I am just getting started into model railroading. I need to know if there is any special preparation of the cork prior to pouring ballast and should i wait until i have some scenery started?
I would not ballast until you have run pains for a while and verified that there are no major problems with your rolling stock... I can tell you from experience what a nightmare it can be to tear up
ballast and pack just to adjust said pack....
Rick Wiemholt
Wait until you are sure the pack is stable and reliable. Also I suggest you wait until you are down with scenery - It's more natural that way. After all, what came first - the grass or the ballast?
Besides, trying to lay down your scenery along the ballast can be a real headache (trying to protect the edge of the ballast).
Ken Bessler
I am currently working on a new section of my layout,and have learned (at least in my case) to first,make sure the pack is flawless,or as close to perfect as possible. Run big engines, small
engines,long slow pains and short fast ones. If you have a "flaw finder" (I have an old Arnold that finds everything) run it every which way possible.
After my pack has proven acceptable,I put masking tape over all of it and apply my ground foam.grass,dirt etc... to the mountains and such and wait until I am satisfied with the appearance. Then I
remove the tape and ballast the pack.
The reason I do that is so my ground foams and such a) don't foul the pack,especially switches and b) I figure that has to be the way it is done on a real railroad,being that the scenery came
first.
Kirk
Need info on the best ballast and how to lay it??
The posted responses break into two threads. One follows REAL ROCK ballast (mine); the other follows ARTIFICIAL ballast. WOODLAND SCENICS is a great company; we use their products extensively.
However, we prefer, REAL ROCK ballast since it is HEAVIER than the ground walnut shells that WOODLAND SCENICS uses. I used WOODLAND SCENICS on a large, personal N scale layout. It looked good and
WOODLAND SCENICS has a wide range of colors available. With proper methods of application, it is fine, but the heavier, real material, is still easier (IMHO) to work with.
Beyond ease of application, there are at least two more factors that should be considered. The first is color consistency; the second is residual powder. Ballast should not be just one color; subtle
(or not so subtle) variations are found in real ballast; the model should also have this appearance. We found that HIGHBALL ballast (real rock) was too color consistent. One can mix slightly
different colors to avoid the problem. The residual powder problem produces "mud", when bonding the ballast, unless it is removed first by sifting.
We have found that Arizona Rock ∓ Mineral ballast has little or no powder so needs no sifting. In addition, this ballast has subtle color variations. Smith ∓ Sons ballast has about the same
characteristics and has a different set of colors. Therefore, either or both might be used.
When all is said and done, we prefer Arizona Rock ∓ Mineral, or Smith ∓ Sons ballast. No sifting is needed and color variations are good. However, if WOODLAND SCENICS has colors you prefer,
then this is probably the choice you should make. While more difficult to apply, it is not that much more difficult.
One final note on real rock ballast is bag to bag color consistency. Since WOODLAND SCENICS is manufactured (ground and colored) bag to bag color matching is excellent. However, the real rock bag to
bag color variations, may be significant - especially if the two bags come from different lots of base rock.
Ross Allen,