Fastrack balasting

I would suggest Sculptamold. Easy to work with, and it cuts away easily with a utility knife if you wish to make changes later. 

 

Sometimes, you can get away with just running the surrounding ground cover up against the sloping sides. Even a little extra ballast around the edges seems to reduce the apparent height of the roadbed. 

 

Jim

 

 

 

 

 

Jim

Thank you, Jim.

 

You have an impressive layout and I am amazed at the level of detail and realism you have. I really appreciate your advice and the accompanying photos.

 

Below are pictures of my recent attempt. I used 1/4 inch foam board, painted it grey and glued on ballast. It comes up to about 3/4 height of the fastrack. I might add a bit more ballast or other scenery material. The ends will be filled with scultamold to make a nice transition to the other areas.

 

 

Below is the overall "city scene". The area between the sidings and the mainline will also be raised as well.

That looks like it is going to work fine for you. It hides the angled roadbed look between the tracks very well. The Sculptamold will also fill any gaps very easily. I find it very easy to work with. 

 

Jim

Have you considered dying the added ballast to more closely match the color of the Fastrack?  Seems to me that if you did so your approach would be just about perfect.

In my small yard I used two  layers of black foam core, cutting each layer at an angle to match the slope of the plastic Fastrack "ballast". I then glued the foam core to the pink foam, weighing the layers down with assorted canned goods. Once the foam core was firmly attached, I smeared white glue on it and sprinkled on various cinders and ballast mixtures.

I've had particularly good results with unsweetened sliced peaches.

Fusionfiber

tint apply add ballast and let dry. If you ever need to take it out afterwards just mist it with water to soften it.

Some folks say Fastrack looks totally unrealistic. But it's not too far from the truth.

 

The Fusion fiber is very easy to use. You can build it up near the track and create a ditch effect between tracks. Very easy to tint to color desired using inexpensive craft paints and easy to redo areas that don't turn out the way you wanted.

I used cardboard from boxes that "stuff" (usually model train stuff) was shipped in.  I would cut perhaps five layers of it and placed it between the Fastrack, increasing width as I worked up to grade level, gluing it down as I went.  It was cheap, fast, and  filled in most of the volume - then I covered the top with a thin layer of spackling past, painted in gray when dry, , and glued down a thin layer of  ballast.