Ballast Help Please

No real tricks, just some guidelines. Use a spoon to apply (or a ballast applicator if you want), saturate with some "wet" water (water with a couple of drops of liquid soap or use an alcohol & water mix) to eliminate the tension and then apply a mix of water/elmer's (50/50 or some will do 3:1 or use matte medium (cheap in bulk sizes). You can also use any of the commercial ballast glues but it's much cheaper to use the above. Wipe the track down after application to make sure there's no water or glue on the tops. Two great sources for ballast are Brennan's & Scenic Express among others.

Jerrman

P.S. make sure you keep the ballast away from the "frogs" in the turnouts so your switches work without getting hung up on ballast.

Here is a slightly different approach to ballasting any scale model railroad:

1) First use dried, cheap sandbox sand, for the majority of the ballast profile on the track.

2) Second spread you ballast of choice EXACTLY as you desire it to appear.

3) Third moisten sections to be glued with cheap 70% alcohol, with eyedroppers or pipettes.

4) Fourth using  thinned "Matt Medium", to about the consistency of whole milk, using pipettes, carefully apply the Matt Medium to the whole section that was moistened with alcohol. Keep adding the Matt Medium, until the entire area is well soaked. Two days later, you will need a hammer & chisel to remove the ballast!

Our whole layout is done in this manner, and it works & looks great. One other added benefit of using Matt Medium, instead of white glue, the Matt Medium adds some additional sound deadening to the track.

Does the alcohol help to pull the Matt Medium into the sand and ballast?   Also, this sounds very permanent.  I assume it is difficult to change a section that has been ballasted?

Is there a tool or something you can put the ballast on with to make it uniform ?

George S posted:

Does the alcohol help to pull the Matt Medium into the sand and ballast?

Absolutely, yes. Obviously the entire area/section needs to be moistened with the cheap alcohol, buy the alcohol causes the thinned Matt Medium to follow it all the way to the bottom of the loose ballast.

  Also, this sounds very permanent.  I assume it is difficult to change a section that has been ballasted?

Permanent?  Well yes,,,,,isn't THAT the idea? However, by careful use of a sharp chisel and rubber mallet, I cutout a whole section of the double track main line, in order to add a cross-over, and had no real problems at all. We then re-ballasted the new cross-over with "new looking" ballast so that it looks just like the Maintenance of Way track gang really did install a "new cross-over". 

The Ballast King car saved us hours on 300' + on our mainlines.

cabinet Bob posted:

Is there a tool or something you can put the ballast on with to make it uniform ?

We have always used our fingers and a few small stiff, dry, paint brushes. As I stated, first the sand was spread in order to provide the contour for the thin coat of "finished ballast".

Thanks for the tip on the ballast king car !  and also, the other helpful tips.. Bob

cabinet Bob posted:

Is there a tool or something you can put the ballast on with to make it uniform ?

Micro-Mark carries some ballast applicators from Bachmann. They're available for 3-rail, 2-rail and On30 (ho scale). Not all that expensive, especially if you minimize moving the ballast around and not use a spoon. 

Jerrman

One other thing to keep in mind is the choice of glue.  As Hot Water says, diluted Matte Medium is permanent.  The only thing I know of that will soften dried matte medium is acetone.  I used white Elmer's Glue All, diluted 4:1 (4 parts water, 1 part glue).  Like HW said, soak everything and wipe off the tops of the rails using a dry paper towel.  Go away for 48 hours and it will have dried solid.  The difference is that if you spray it with "wet" water and wait 15 minutes or so, the ballast will soften and can be scraped up.  I've made several changes to finished areas of the layout and re-spraying the ballast made those changes pretty easy.

https://www.reynaulds.com/prod.../Proses/BS-O-02.aspx