Glue the Ballast YES or NO

Your ballast and layout look very good. All ground cover and ballast on my layouts is glued down. Otherwise it's messy. Having had a locomotive lock up due to a piece of loose ballast in the spur gears, I prefer to have it glued down. I have had to replace only two or three pieces of track on my 20-year-old layout, so it's not that much of a problem.

MELGAR

Glue it.

Mine is glued. It can be cleaned up easy enough with a little water to loosen the glue.

Ground cover too.

Interesting idea.  Good topic. 

I can see doing that on some layouts in certain conditions.  But, I glue it.  I like to be able to run a quick vacuum over the track and along the sides to clean up debris and dust.  Plus with a smaller layout where room is tight, I want the ballast and other scenery material to stay where I want it, I don't want it spreading out and otherwise wandering, or ending up all over the floor. 

What I have learned since when I first started is that diluted white glue doesn't make it permanent, it just holds it in place until I want to move it.  I was so concern about this, and for some reason it took me a while to realize that if I have a track problem, I just need to crack up the ballast, remove, fix the track, and replace or reuse the ballast.  

With two-rail (especially narrow gauge) you have to glue stuff down:

I also like to run grass and debris into the roadbed as it is in real life. The further from the main line, the more green stuff there is.

I had to use two curved turnouts, so I had to go HO scale for those as nobody makes a curved On30 turnout. One is to the far right of that photo. I covered it in cinders completely to hide the ties. The other I haven't done anything with, but I'll put ground foam over that eventually as you can clearly see the difference in ties.

Good discussion.  While modeling in HO and N scales, I always glued ballast.  When removing track for reuse, it never occurred to me to wet it to loosen it, so I lost a lot of track, especially in N scale.

Now in O gauge 3-rail embarking on my first O layout, I copied an idea from someone here on the Forum to spray rock texture paint on the roadbed first, then lay track.  It looks presentable until you get to the point where scenery is in and you want to ballast.  Yes, I am an advocate of ballasting late in the scenery process. 

I think when I get to the point of ballasting, I will just leave it loose and see how it goes.  Since I have never ballasted in O gauge, it may be heavy enough to just stay where I want it for the most part.  

I glued mine with 30/70, the larger portion water and Elmer’s white glue. It’s very practical and making track cleaning and light vacuuming much easier. 

I badly wish I'd painted the roadbed a grey color before laying track as I didn't ballast the turnout points and you can see the cork underneath in a few spots. Using that stone finish spray paint would be great for that.

I say glue it, how can you get dust and all with out problems while doing so. I personally glued mine and I could run a vacuum over it to get dust and all.

On the subject of cleaning, has any body tried using a swiffer duster, I'am and so far it's doing a great job. 

Simple answer and procedure.  Don't glue it until you realize you ought to glue it.  Teach yourself a lesson.  Heavy engines move ballast.  John in Lansing, ILL

Wow,

What great responses.  I am so glad I mentioned this, if for no other reason than to see the fantastic scenes you guys have posted. 

I mostly just wanted to get people to consider all the angles of the issue.

Thanks for responding.

Mike

At the moment I'm in the No Ballast at All camp, reason being, this is not a scale layout I have. I still have one remaining 031 curve and of course there is that wacky center rail that basically announces to one and all that these are toy trains. So even though I have about 300 feet of Gargraves track and a whole lot of Ross switches on a 17 x 28 layout when it comes to ballast I ask the question, what's the point? Just because it looks a bit more realistic?

Having said all that, I am in scenery creation mode at the moment, have about 10 lbs of the stuff sitting in a bucket, and have been hemming and hawing about whether or not to use it. I may try a couple of areas without gluing and see how it looks.

Short answer?   Yes!

Chief Bob (Retired)

I have tubular track and the ballast is ground up asphalt I found on the sides of roads near my house.

My ballast is way too big, grossly out of scale, but so are the rails of my tubular track and my Postwar accessories, so I think it works.

For many years, I did not glue any part of the ballast. Trains were not affected by it because my ballast is little asphault pebbles that are too big to clog any locomotive mechanism.

After many years with the same track plan, I decided I'm content with it and this would be my final layout. So I re-considered using spray glue on the ballast.

I ended up doing a half measure. I decided to use a medicine dropper and apply the spray glue only to the ballast outside of the outside rails, not between the rails. This has worked very well for me. I have replaced a few sections of track and recently re-positioned a switch track and siding after applying the spray glue, and it was no big deal.  With some elbow grease I dug up the glued down ballast with a putty knife, and broke off the remnants on the outside of the outside rails. The track is still good and can be re-used.

I also sprinkled some gray colored kitty litter over the asphalt pebbles, again using spray glue only on the outside of the outside rails. I did not sprinkle the kitty litter between the rails.

Arnold

I have used much of the same ballast on three layouts. Elmer's glue, water and a few drops of dish washing soap. That makes the "glue" soak into the gravel. Don

No glue for my ballast.  No problems with locomotives picking up stray pebbles. 

I wonder how you handle this. I have not ballasted yet and was wondering. When I peruse my layout I always find miscellaneous pieces/parts on the layout. Things like missing screws from the cars or engines, traction tires, pieces from cars or engines that just happen to somehow come lose and fall off.

With ballast this may be a different issue. Right now I’m missing several different parts on various engines.

Maybe a better way to present this is to ask - can you still find these pieces/parts when you have ballast on the layout they gone for good????

GEOJR, A mention was made in another Forum topic about the problem of detail parts falling off the exquisitely detailed engines and cars we have today.  At that point I just commented I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one it happens too.  If you don't ballast at all or while you are test running before ballasting, a part can fall between the ties and you may never see it lands just right so it is shielded by a tie or shadow.  Now if you ballast, you may find it, but if not it is probably lost.  I can see that once you ballast whether glued down or not, there is a better chance of seeing it.  It may over time vibrate down into un-glued ballast.  As you said, I am just throwing these comments out for further comment.  I don't have a pat answer.  I will say this.  My eyes aren't that good.  In many cases I may never miss the lost detail part. 

I glue the outside of the track ballast and leave the middle unglued.  I seem to bump into my layout when I work around it, so I need some stability.  I figured if the middle is loose that will help when it comes time to disassemble.

If not... Then I have a great excuse to upgrade my track. : )

Have Fun!

Ron

Hey,

The devil is indeed in the details!

Patrick,

What a fantastic looking railroad you have.  I love all the extra stuff like the loose ties and the people.  My railroad has not had the finishing figures and extra details that make it truly come to life added yet.  It was begun in March of 2018.  The pictures remind me of what I need to do to get my line looking better.

Thanks for posting the pictures

Mike

An occasional scan of your right-of-way with a  strong magnet will unearth many interesting treasures.

I agree with just glueing the outside of the track not between the rails. Started doing this two years ago and love it so far and if I need to run wires or whatever its much easier to conceal.

I actually do a little of both. When making a mainline track, I start by tracing the track on a sheet of Homasote, and cutting it out cookie-cutter style, beveling the edges:

Then, I paint on some white glue and cover the Homasote with a layer of kitty-litter ballast:

You can then fill in with loose ballast or other landscaping materials to match the terrain.

Water soluble adhesive,  track can be scraped up easily. 

To reuse track simply turn it upside down and stiff brush it after soaking it in tray of water.  Also, in nice weather, I hose it off outside. 

That upside down track thing....it is a great way to curve fragile 0n30 flextrack. 

With inverted bending you are actually holding the ties in place as opposed to popping the rail off of the spike heads when bending 0n30 M/E track right side up..

Tom Tee posted:

Water soluble adhesive,  track can be scraped up easily.

Which one? Elmer's School Glue (diluted I suppose) or something else?

Pete, That is quite nice looking Super O track, ballast, and surrounding scenery!!

Crocodile Train Store posted:

Hey,

The devil is indeed in the details!

Patrick,

What a fantastic looking railroad you have.  I love all the extra stuff like the loose ties and the people.  My railroad has not had the finishing figures and extra details that make it truly come to life added yet.  It was begun in March of 2018.  The pictures remind me of what I need to do to get my line looking better.

Thanks for posting the pictures

Mike

Why thank you so much Mike!  I do love the detailing part of this hobby for sure.  Good luck in moving forward with your layout.  I've seen some of your photos already and it looks terrific!  I hope to get visit your store and see your layout whenever I'm in the New York area.  Btw - I'm also a musician. 

I hope you can visit soon

The foot of snow we got today wont be here forever.

We can play music and run trains.  What more could you ask for.

What instrument/s do you play?  Is trump train trumpet or Donald Trump?

Mike

I glue the ballast...always have and always will (in various scales from Z to G). Have never had a problem relocating track or switches if need be. A bit of hot water is all that is needed to loosen it (I use the common white glue/water/drop of detergent mixture for gluing ballast). These days I use Woodland Scenics foam roadbed, which I have found to be very easy to work with and also very forgiving if it needs to be removed or repositioned at some point.

I glue my ballast with 50-50 mix white glue and water and liquid dish detergent.The ballast is Brennan’s Ballast with tubular track.

Mikey

@Miley... That may be the best looking presentation of tubular track I've ever seen.  Nice Work!

So, I know that this conversation is almost 5 years old, but I am getting ready to ballast some track on the new layout with chicken grit (crushed granite).  This discussion has given me some thought about gluing or not.  If I decide to glue it, I will do some testing of the different formulas mentioned and see which ones work for me.  It's nice to find these discussions here and see the marvelous work you all are doing!

A piece of ballast (commercial, "Medium Grey") got into the gears of one of my diesels, wrecking the power trucks.  After my incident, I thought carefully about whether I should ballast at all.  But decided the "look" of non-ballasted plastic roadbed needed something.

So I apply ballast to the sides of Fastrack (not the center), using a ketchup bottle which is easy to control.  I smooth out the high spots with a wide paint brush, wet using "wet water" then 50% diluted Elmer's.  Followed by an immediate wipe.  White glue is very hard to remove from rails once cured!!   After several hours, I vacuum the track.

If you're going to use Ballast, I would defiantly glue it and make sure the ballast is not too high or it will catch the wheels n gears causing a jam!

Alan

With few exceptions, model railroaders glue ballast.  Otherwise, it eventually gets loose and goes where you don't want it.  I am glad that mine is glued.  Brennan's Better Ballast -- real crushed rock -- on main tracks, and Woodland Scenic black cinder ballast on auxiliary tracks.

I have tubular track, with extra ties added. I never ballast between the rails. For ballast outside the rails and for general ground cover in yard areas, I use chicken grit. I never glue it, and it generally stays in place. Its a bit larger in scale than a scale ballast would be, be not noticeably so, unless you're  a stickler. I am not. I have never had any get caught up in a engine or piece of rolling stock.

@jay jay posted:

I have tubular track, with extra ties added. I never ballast between the rails. For ballast outside the rails and for general ground cover in yard areas, I use chicken grit. I never glue it, and it generally stays in place. Its a bit larger in scale than a scale ballast would be, be not noticeably so, unless you're  a stickler. I am not. I have never had any get caught up in a engine or piece of rolling stock.

It looks great, Jay!  I have glued ballast on past layouts with mixed results.   My only concern with not gluing is trying to clean up dust around the layout without disturbing the ballast.  I am using Gargraves track on the mainlines, O tubular for the sidings and O-27 tubular for an upper level loop.  I plan to add extra ties, as you have done.

@Number 90 posted:

With few exceptions, model railroaders glue ballast.  Otherwise, it eventually gets loose and goes where you don't want it.  I am glad that mine is glued.  Brennan's Better Ballast -- real crushed rock -- on main tracks, and Woodland Scenic black cinder ballast on auxiliary tracks.

I used glued ballast on past layouts with mixed results.  I will be using chicken grit and crushed limestone, from a quarry nearby that I can buy cheaply in bulk.