I just spent the last hour or so ballasting part of my yard - maybe about three feet or so of track.
While I work on the layout I almost always have music on - I have a CD changer that I just let run through my collection of almost 300 CDs (yes, I’m one of those dinosaurs who still has CDs). Tonight an album of Gregorian Chants came up in turn, and I spent half the time listening to it as I applied the ballast.
No, ballasting track did not become a religious experience ([:P]), but listening to the Chants as I worked really melted away the stresses of the day. It was a very relaxing way to spend the time.
I can relate in many ways. Yep, got a 300 disc Sony changer. I enjoy ballasting — or just letting the trains run.
Sometimes I have an audio book playing, other times it is relaxing music that changes with my moods. Haven’t tried Gregorian Chants as yet. Last night it was bag pipes, night before, theater and cathedral pipe organs (Plenty of Mighty Wurlitzers!).
Another one of the many benefits I find in this hobby.
Hey Ed, I have a 300 disc changer also, but mine’s a Pioneer. It’s about 15 discs fro full. I tried to find another one a couple years ago, but had no luck. You can daisy-chain three of them together, as I recall.
You enjoy ballasting as well - there must be something wrong with us.
Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure mine’s a Pioneer* also [:$]. I cleared out a bunch of my audio stuff. Couldn’t give it away! Still got three subwoofers taking up space here!
For a while I had the Pioneer programmed so it would shuffle certain groups of discs but it forgot — and I forgot how I did it so I just shuffle ALL of them now [:-^]
Best investment I made to clean up the CD collection. I still have a couple hundred assorted CDs, Railroad sounds and the like, that aren’t in that machine but I have a Sony five disc changer for loading those into.
*Yep, a PD-F 1009 I bought in 2006.
I’m just about done with all the layout ballasting [:(]. I’ll have to find another time-consuming project, like weathering rolling stock!
I think you have just solved a problem for me. I packed up my stereo system a couple of years ago when we got Google Music. The old system is sitting in the garage. I am not going to bother selling it because it is worth next to nothing and I don’t want the hassle of strangers coming to my door. I thought it was headed for recycling but you have made me realize that I can make good use of it right in the garage aka the layout room.
I have a 200 CD changer (not sure of the brand) which is mostly full, and a decent receiver, so that should do me nicely. Somewhere I have an adapter so I can hook the stereo up to the Google Music feed. I can do what I did back in my university days which was to set up a stack of Gordon Lightfoot records on my old record player and play him all night long.
What a great way to get the work done! I always like to work with music on in the background. So, if I supply the music and some great food, will you come to my place and ballast my tracks? I’m not good at ballasting track, so…
While at the work bench, I put on various chill mixes I’ve found on YouTube and usually listen with my Apple Airpods Pro wireless ear buds. Sometimes I’ll get so wrapped up in a project I don’t care if anything is playing or not.
I used to listen to a LOT OF classical music, but since retiring from the military in 2004, very little. I got into other things, including this hobby. However, when I’m gardening, mowing the lawn, going for long walk/runs, or when doing things like ballasting, I will listen to talk radio. I also took up singing in a choral group, two actually, where we do classical music. That pursuit has provided me with my classical desires.
It’s good to see that you are making progress and enjoying yourself, Mark. At times it can almost seem like the dog days, or the doldrums, when you get to a certain phase of construction. For me, that is the track laying. It’s pretty straightforward, based off a pretty firm plan, and it doesn’t take a lot of thought (compared to other things like wiring, making credible land forms and detailing the scenery, etc).
When I was going flat out at work for twenty hours straight in the 80s and 90s I would come home and listen to Gregorian Chants. Just to slow down enough to get to sleep.
There used to be an empty hanger at Vancouver Airport from the WWII era. When I had time to kill I would go into it and start singing chants that I had memorized just from listening. I had no idea what I was singing but it sure took me down a few notches.[(-D]
I had forgotten about them for the most part since retiring, however, I will start listening again next time I am in the trainroom. I am glad you mentioned them.
At bedtime when the dogs sometimes won’t settle because of the wildlife carrying on outside, I will say Alexa volume 1, play Gordon Lightfoot for one hour. They instantly nod off for the night. Next time I will ask Alexa to play Gregorian Chants for an hour.[(-D]
If you can find a copy, you might like “Ancient Echoes” by Chorovya Akademia, Alexander Sedov conducting. It’s not chant: it’s 19th century Russian Orthodox all-male choral music with full harmonies. The 8-voice group included a bass who could hit low notes almost below the range of human hearing. I remember the first time I heard it my jaw dropped in amazement and I immediatly bought the CD.
Dinosaur, I still have records. Although my turntable is a little slow for them. Turns locos fine. It is either, quiet in that building( unless NS runs something past on the philly-Reading main). Spongebob, railroad videos or maybe a cd (Allen Parssens, or sting, new wave stuff). Mostly I don’t have anything on
When I was in high school, and on breaks from college; I would listen to albums while working on my layout. The layout was in the attic; the stereo was in an alcove where the attic steps were; I would move the speakers up into the attic. Certain songs trigger memories of me working on that layout, or the equipment that ran on it.
I have that CD, and love it. Also, the Huelgas Ensemble (Wilhelm van Nevel conducting) singing polyphonic music by Thallis (Spem in Allium), Striggio (Ecce Beatem Lucem), Ockeghem (Deo Gratias), and other notables as Orlando de Lasso. The album title is Utopia Triumphans.
When I need a pick-me-up, Von Karajan’s mid-century version of the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Seventh. Or Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major.
I’m glad you mentioned the Russian album. It’s the first CD I have played since about 2010, and I played it a week ago. Amazing that you would name that one album.
Whatever you use that can spill grains of sand in a controlled way along about two feet at a time, but for a brush, I use a 3/4" wide long camel hair artists’ brush and make multiple strokes along the same length until it begins to look decent. I find the longer bristles, say about a full inch long, and their fan about 3/4" wide, seems to do a good job of both between the rails and just outside them at the same time.
