I want to thank all of my fellow model railroaders who responded to my original post regarding my ballast problem. I tried a few things:
After removing the fine ballast and trying again with the same results I again removed the fine to replace it with the medium. I know many of you prefer the fine over the medium but I do not have a problem with it, even when photographed.
Here is the small three track yard after ballasting but before any scenery.
All of the following are of the same yard but with scenery complete.
You can see all of the pictures of NPBL to date here.
The first picture of the scenicked area looks pretty good, but the following pictures seem to show a lot of tie ends.
Yards don’t normally recieve a lot of maintenance unless they are busy yards. Depending on the activity in the yard and how old it is, many ties would be completely covered up to their tops. Less active tracks would have weeds growing among the ties.
Maybe a little more ballast along the shoulders of the tracks would help cover the tie ends. Have you tried using the fine ballast along the shoulders? Might look pretty good there.
Darrell, quiet…for now
Mine is a very active and well maintained yard.
PERSONALLY, I THINK IT LOOKS PRETTY DARN GOOD!
doug
Then why are there weeds growing betwen the rails?
Well maintained does not mean perfectly maintained. There are a few weeds but the two yard tracks are not covered. The mainline, the closest track, does not have any weeds between the rails.