Ballasting Track - Step by Step

Classic Toy Trains Forum
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Being in the midst of ballasting, I put together this sequence showing the method I am using for ballasting tubular track.

First I pour it between the rails:

Using a small brush, I tap it down between the rails, which forces it out between the ties under the rails, giving the “bead” I’m looking for:

After smoothing out the initial run of ballast, I pour it down the sides to fill in the blanks and even it out and bring it to the same height as the tie.

On the tubular track, I placed extra ties between the metal ties. I also placed a portion of a wooden tie as a “plug” into the hollow metal tie as shown here:

For glue, I use a 50/50 mix of white glue in a hair dye applicator. I add some dishwashing liquid for slipperiness and eyeball an amount of burnt umber paint until the color gets somewhat like chocolate milk.

This is messy, and because I am very near the table edge, glue runs right to the floor:

This area shows where I had previously finished ballasting and the new ballast just laid. I had dirtied the previous ballasting with a diluted coat of burnt umber. I used a couple of coats and then applied an india ink/alcohol wash to get it good and grimey.

2

Thanks Frank!

I’ve been dusting the ballast along the rails with a rust color chalk, as runoff from the rails. I prefer Brennan’s as well.

Kurt

3

You da man!!! I hope my layout turns out like yours has.

4

Oh well … looks like I’ll have to break out the airbrush some more … that rust effect on the rails is GREAT !! I’ll never get done … LOL .

5

Thanks for this thread its great. I have a question, how did you get the rust effect so good without affecting the electrical conductivity?

I used to paint the rails of HO atlas track and it turned out to be a disaster, I would love to do what you have done with your lionel tubular, but I don’t want to mess up operations.

6

I mask off the ties and top of the rail with blue painters tape and spray with Floquil Roof Brown - light misty coats. I do one rail at a time and don’t start a new rail until the previous rail is dry. After spraying each rail, I remove the tape from the top of the rail and wipe down with thinner.

I have not had any conductivity problems.

7

Thanks, silly question, but what is thinner?

And also what exactly is ‘burnt umber paint’, I googled it, some sort of oil paint? Where can I get it and how much do I put in the bottle? I think thats a great idea you came up with, I always wanted the ballast to have the rust residue, I tried getting this effect with mixing in some fine brown Woodland Scenics dirt, with limited success, nothing like yours. Your ballasting job looks perfect because of this rust residue color you applied to it.

One last question, where did you get the ties to fill in the gaps of your tubular track?

8

Thinner - like in paint thinner. Turpentine.

Woodland Scenics makes a redish brown shade called Burnt Umber - mix small amounts of 50/50 water and paint

These are very old - leftovers from the 50’s. They are commercially available in plastic, but I do not know from who.

9

Great tutorial, Frank. I like the part about mixing the coloring in with the glue.

Did you use a hand model? [:D]

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[tup] Fantastic post … ! [tup] … 2 thumbs up for sure !