GarGraves/Ross after ballast?

On occasion, we have to re-align track. Removing the ballast is simply a matter of saturating the ballast with denatured alcohol. It dissolves the glue and the ballast crumbles away. It also evaporates out of the wooden ties, so the track is fine. Keep in mind, the alcohol will also eat the glue on any scenery and will also dissolve paint.

You can pick the stuff up in the paint department at home improvement stores.

John,

As Matt says, water and alcohol will soften the glue. However, to reclaim large amounts of track and clean off all that ballast is not a simple task. The track and switches will be reusable, but don't expect them to look "as new" after ballast removal. They will look fine only when put down again and re-ballasted.

Take particular care with switches and make sure the alcohol has softened the glue completely before attempting to remove. It is easy to pop a rail off the ties if some of the glue is still holding strong.

I have successfully used the same Ross switches on three or four layout re-configurations over the years, but, again, it does involve some effort and careful work.

Jim

John removing you ballasted track will go much easier if you use Elmers School Glue instead of the usual white glue.  It's water soluable even after it dries.

Water will also soften white glue. The School glue simply has less binder than regular white glue. However, we dilute the glue with water when we're bonding the track so that distinction doesn't really matter.  

Denatured alcohol vapors can be very dangerous and good ventilation along the floor is extremely important.  I wouldn't use it in my house. 

John

If you are using Gargraves Flex track which has been bent, re bending to fit another radius can be done, however don't expect the track to be as flexible as it was the first go around.

Since the original bonding solution is normally a mixture of white glue and water, it's really not going to make any difference if you again use water to loosen the ballast.

When someone (like me) says previously ballasted Gargraves or Ross track is reusable, they usually mean the straights, rigid factory-curved sections, and switches. While I'm sure it has been done (and someone will be sure to tell me so ), I wouldn't count on being able to straighten and/or re-bend previously curved Gargraves flex track.

It's bad enough trying to bend the stuff after it has been sitting around a while, as KD pointed out, let alone stuff that has been wet down and dried out (especially with heat). The ties just won't slide easily enough to avoid kinks, despite the use of WD-40.

Jim

I have reused gargraves track.  The straight secetions or exact curve replacement have been possible as with preformed curves.  However, I have had to discard bent sections as they have been impossible to re-form into different curviture.  I had to be very careful with switches and did some damage to some of the switches.

Mike

John I saved all my Gargraves and Ross switches when I move. The trick in glueing down the ballast is to really dilute the white glue. You don't need a strong bond to hold the ballast in place. I even saved most of my ballast. If it glued right is should just crumble back like it was. Don

Yep and that's why I use schools glue.  Also once the ballast has set you can remove the track mounting screws.

The trick for re-bending flex is that you have to get the ties to slide again. A spray of WD40 sometimes does the trick. What happens with the wooden ties is that a bond between the ties and the rail forms from slight oxidation of the rail where the ties are positioned that seems to intermix with the wood.

As Jim P says, be careful removing turnouts. We usually lift them up with a wide-blade putty knife. Sometimes additional soaking with denatured alcohol on a cookie sheet helps.

Also, as said above, use the denatured alcohol in a well-ventilated area. Our building has good ventilation so that's never been an issue.

Except for a couple of spurs and short sections between Yard turnouts, all of my Graves flextrack and 6 of the 17 turnouts[Ross & Curtis],used on my dual main 9x16 attic layout has been de-ballasted and recycled from a 1997 layout dismantled in Oct '09. Warm water,and in a couple of cases on turnouts using alcohol, did the job. As several have pointed out, old Gargraves flex with dry wood ties, including stored new in the box, does not flex easily. As Matt said WD-40, sprayed at the flange/tie joint will eventually loosen it for bending.

In a word, the process is messy and a lot of work, but both de-ballasting and using WD-40 can be done outside in decent weather. Since I planned to reballast [and have done so], I made no attempt to clean every single granule of ballast off the tie sides. On curved 37" sections and shorter, I rebent the track until tie ends were against rulers: 1', 3' & 5' steel straight edges, installing screws as I moved it against the tie ends to straighten. It has stayed straight and I have removed the screws post-reballasting on part of the straights. 

The prior 1997 layout ballast was rubber and was installed by saturating with "wet water" followed with a 50/50 mix of wet water and white glue. On the new small attic layout I have used Brennan's stone ballast following the same practice.

A wide putty knife and even wider drywall taping knife is great for lifting the ballasted track without damaging.

Hi all,

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned using matte medium instead of white glue on ballast and other loose materials. Scenic Express sells it for this purpose. When dry, it is less sticky and more rubbery than glue. I'm in the middle of re-using old Gargraves and the ballast comes off in chunks with fingers or a poke with a screwdriver.

My track is rigid and/or sectional, so I can't comment on recurving it. That looks difficult enough to do well with new track!

Alan

I have Matte Medium and have used it on sections of track ballast. But I see absolutely no stickiness from white glue/wet water after drying nor any advantage over the old tried and true glue mix by using the more expensive Matte Medium.

I vote for the Matte Medium!  Used it on Hi-railer Modules and it is the stuff.

Or you can do like I did and jab out the ballast with a screwdriver blade

I never have liked the idea of saturating anything with anything, makes a mess I don't want to deal with (or I'll make a mess I don't want to deal with).