A Little Help? - Covers For EZ Track Turnout Sliders

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
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I’ve started the rather large task of ballasting my EZ track yard; and thanks to all you folks on the MR forums and a few Youtube videos I’ve gleaned enough pointers that the job is going well.

But the one thing I haven’t seen covered is what to do with those pesky little manual sliders on the turnouts. I certainly don’t want to get any ballast inside there to gum up my (now)CDU-powered switches!

So I came up with a couple of ideas: first, maybe a box cover; but I can’t for the life of me think of what would be a protoype 6 foot box by the side of the track.

Second, and the one I’m leaning towards, is to clip the slider flush or deeper and cover the slot with a bit of grey duct tape. I usually pre-glue the track base with some WS Scenic Glue so covering duct tape is quite simple.

Suggestions?

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You can see a bulky old Code 100 Atlas machine on the right side of this picture:

Throught the magic of scenery, I made it disappear:

I used some pink foam scraps to surround the moving pin and then a piece of plastic wrap to protect the whole machine. Next I covered the machine with wet plaster cloth, smoothed down the edges and let it dry. Once it was set, I lifted it off, which was easy because of the plastic wrap. Then I painted it and added ground cover to blend it in with its surroundings.

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That is clever MisterBeasley [bow]

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I think I’ve also found that the isopropyl alcohol strips the paint right off the tie ends, so I have a fair bit of tiny touch ups ahead. I’m just using a flat black craft paint which I’ll then be aging with a Floquil pen.