Ballast question

Hi Bill. Your description of what you want to do is a bit vague. Is your track going to be in a final place or is this just for Christmas? If it is not permanent, ballast would be quite hard to do. As far as what to use, you can use most anything including sand but you should glue it all in place. Most small particles will eventually get into the  gears of any locomotive. I can review how I ballasted my track with you if that is how you want to do it. I have used for most of it Brennan's real crushed granite ballast. There are several good brands and any will work fine I'm sure. You can see  some of my ballasted track if you go to " What Trains Did Run Today" and look at what I did and see if that is what you want your track to look like. Bill

@Bill at the Beach posted:

Greetings all!  I’m in the process of doing my Christmas layout. Placed my O Gauge track on snow blanket on top of platform. The blanket is “shedding” small amounts of the cottony stuff that are occasionally getting caught in the train trucks. I feel I need to ballast the track to stop this. Any reason I can’t use white play sand as ballast? Or, should I just use traditional “Woodland Scenics” type?  A friend and fellow model railroader says he fears the sand might be drawn up into the engine if oil or grease is present! Thx in advance

Bill, I might be missing something, but it would seem to me that ballasting the track wouldn't stop the shedding from the snow blanket. And to echo what Bill Park wrote, it would be difficult to secure the ballast with glue if this isn't a permanent layout. I never used a snow blanket, but I'm just wondering if you could cover up the track temporarily with blue masking tape and then spray the snow blanket itself around the track with a water-glue spray (or with hairspray as I've seen mentioned here) so that it can't shed white stuff. May not work, it's just a thought.

John

Sounds like you are putting tubular track right on the batting... then yes that will be a problem.  Commercial ballast will just fall into the batting and be a waste of money, sand will do the same and the fine particles will dirty up the track and get into the gears.  This is not a real railroad dont forget.  I'd recommend you put the track directly on gray painted plywood or whatever your base is, then cut the batting in shapes to abut, but not be under, the track.

I like John's idea of fixing the snow blanket with a sprayed glue-water mixture.......I also like Joe's idea of painted plywood.....what about painting it white......if it is a temporary layout and on the floor, a sheet of Luan paitnted would do.

Peter

If it is just for Christmas time, something you plan to do every year, go get some MTH or Lionel track spray paint the plastic white, and put it down on the snow blanket.  If you are shooting for that snow covered ballast look.   Dedicate it for the Christmas layout and put the track in the box with the tree lights.  Just a thought.

@Bill at the Beach posted:

Greetings all!  I’m in the process of doing my Christmas layout. Placed my O Gauge track on snow blanket on top of platform. The blanket is “shedding” small amounts of the cottony stuff that are occasionally getting caught in the train trucks. I feel I need to ballast the track to stop this. Any reason I can’t use white play sand as ballast? Or, should I just use traditional “Woodland Scenics” type?  A friend and fellow model railroader says he fears the sand might be drawn up into the engine if oil or grease is present! Thx in advance

I had a similar problem with white batting, and solved it by buying some light tan felt (I wanted white, but tan was as close as I could find in the local fabric store!) and cutting sections out to fit under the track. Visually, the felt nearly disappeared, and the fiber problem disappeared (or was so minor it didn't interfere). After using it on the main layout, I reused the batting and felt sections on a temporary holiday version of my test bed layout, shown in the video below. If you look carefully, you'll see the felt sections peeking out from beneath the track, and over the batting:

Since the issue is that the snow blanket is shedding and how to stop it, I would suggest:

1. Vacuum it and hopefully that will remove most of the loose fibers.

2. Then put it in the washing machine and wash it which should remove any remaining loose fibers.

@Richie C. posted:

Since the issue is that the snow blanket is shedding and how to stop it, I would suggest:

1. Vacuum it and hopefully that will remove most of the loose fibers.

2. Then put it in the washing machine and wash it which should remove any remaining loose fibers.

The problem (at least if the OP's batting was like mine) is that such batting is nothing *but* fibers, very loosely woven together but easily teased apart. in other words, there's little to no "there" there, from which to remove fibers. Short of my earlier felt suggestion, I think I'd try a heavy dose of cheap hairspray along the planned track route before installing the track, which should at least reduce the tendency to produce "fly-away fibers"!

As an alternative, rather than using batting for our Christmas layout, I have a couple of white shag rugs and use Fastrack.  I simply place the Fastrack on the white shag rug.  The rug keeps the Fastrack from shifting and keeps the noise level down.  I have been doing this for close to 10 years and have never had a problem with fibers coming up from the rug and getting into the gears/wheels.

@Steve Tyler posted:

The problem (at least if the OP's batting was like mine) is that such batting is nothing *but* fibers, very loosely woven together but easily teased apart. in other words, there's little to no "there" there, from which to remove fibers. Short of my earlier felt suggestion, I think I'd try a heavy dose of cheap hairspray along the planned track route before installing the track, which should at least reduce the tendency to produce "fly-away fibers"!

Wouldn't that leave the blanket with a "sticky" feel to it or does the hairspray dry out to the touch ?

@Richie C. posted:

Wouldn't that leave the blanket with a "sticky" feel to it or does the hairspray dry out to the touch ?

Nope, perfectly dry IME.

FWIW, I doubt generations of style-conscious individuals would have sprayed it on their heads (sometimes liberally!) if it stayed sticky. There *are* adhesive products that act that way, but cheap hairspray does not, at least IME (I suppose extremely high humidity might modify this some, since hairspray is generally water soluble, or at least is supposed to wash out in the shower!).

I was going to suggest Fastrack but VinceL already has.  If you're adventerous, it is available in white, I believe, as well as with holiday lighting, at Lionel prices, per track piece, of course.

Thanks guys for all your help and many suggestions!  The layout is only up for a few months but reusing the “snow” is not an issue. After reading all the responses it seems I have 2 sensible options. Remember the board is down and painted white. The blanket is down. And, the track is attached. So that leaves the “hairspray” option or the “pieces of felt” option. I assume if I do the hairspray I would have to be very careful to get as little on the track as possible?  Will it have any long-term effects if some of it gets on track? And, the felt will require me to undo sections of the track. I’m running 4 trains on an 8x10 layout. Thanks again everyone. Final thoughts?

@Bill at the Beach posted:

Thanks guys for all your help and many suggestions!  The layout is only up for a few months but reusing the “snow” is not an issue. After reading all the responses it seems I have 2 sensible options. Remember the board is down and painted white. The blanket is down. And, the track is attached. So that leaves the “hairspray” option or the “pieces of felt” option. I assume if I do the hairspray I would have to be very careful to get as little on the track as possible?  Will it have any long-term effects if some of it gets on track? And, the felt will require me to undo sections of the track. I’m running 4 trains on an 8x10 layout. Thanks again everyone. Final thoughts?

Mmm, well, in suggesting hairspray,  I'd envisioned first removing the track, spraying the batting under the ROW, then reinstalling the track.

However, I'd say you *probably* would be O.K. spraying straight down through the installed track (to get the best 'wetting' of the batting underneath), then immediately going over the track contact surfaces with a damp scotchbrite-type pad to remove most of the hairspray, followed by a soft cloth to dry the rails and remove any lingering hairspray. I wouldn't spray over any switches or other track-related gear (particularly anything the hairspray might 'gum up!). You still might need to do further track maintenance if you end up with intermittent issues. Good luck!

I wouldn't be inclined to try the felt idea unless the hairspray idea (with or without track removal) fails to curb the problem.