Peco turnout and Peco switch installed in the foam. There ends up a 3/4" square of void directly under the switch. The prong needs freedom. What do I do here to cover the hole and leave the prong free? Anyone solve this?
Don’t do anything or you will forever have a problem with the turnout. Once you get all the scenery in you will never notice the small void of ballast. Just my [2c]
Have I understood correctly that your turnouts are suspended nearly 3/4" above the surface? If so, fill the void with more slabs of foam inserted below them. You should not ballast the turnout, unless you mean to just fill the non-moving point areas with loose stuff. Keep any grit and dirt away from the points, throwbar area, and the points rail pivots. Anything else is fine, to my view, but I would not use glue. Turnouts should always be easily removed, and you can always sweep or vacuum up the loose stuff that you place in them for ballast.
some people don’t ballast their turnouts at all; and paint the roadbed underneath them whatever color the ballast is.
Well with great care you can ballast a turnout but the mix of ballast and adhesive certainly poses great risks to the mechanical and electrical integrity of the turnout. The problem is the points primarily so it is possible to ballast the ends of the turnout in a more or less normal manner and leave the points area alone. If you do decide to ballast your turnout I suggest oiling the spots where points rail touches stock rail to inhibit the adhesive from sticking there. Move the points constantly after the process to avoid gluing them to one rail or the other and if you can, leave the points midway between stock rails overnight while the adhesive sets. I also think using just a bit less ballast on the turnout helps, rather than trying to match the tie-high level of the rest of your track. This actually is somewhat prototypical.
I have tried a couple of methods. First of all Terry Thompson in Model Railroader had mentioned using one of those flock type spray can paints that looks like stone. I bought a can of redish-pink and a can of gray and both closely resemble ballast colors – and they can be mixed in teh sense that holding a can in each hand and alternating results in a mottled irregular look. You paint the roadbed BEFORE installing the turnout (I suggest doing this outside as the stuff tends to spurt out of the spray can in a surprising manner) and if you match the colors well enough at the very least you have some kind of stony texture under the points of the turnout. This is sort of like the idea that Snowey mentions but the textured paint gives it a bit more ballasted texture.
What I do actually is take a supply of cork roadbed outside to paint it, giving me a supply to use as I go along. The thing is, you want this paint ONLY under the points because the paint dries rather thickly and irregularly. So one idea would be to get cork switch pads, put your turnout over it, mark where the poin
Oh, you mean the hole that the Peco switch machine goes into, don’t you?
Somebody did a nice picture tutorial on this a few months back. You might find it with a search. I tried a similar thing, and it works pretty well.
Go get a 30-pack of Bud. Put half the Bud in the fridge. What you want is the cardboard spacer between the levels of the 30-pack. It’s just the right thickness. (Dr Pepper will do if you aren’t of drinking age, by the way.) Cut a piece of cardboard about 2 x 1 1/2 inches. Take the switch machine (separated from the turnout itself) and cut holes for the mounting points and the throw rod, so you can put the cardboard between the machine and the turnout. (If your track is already down, you may be able to do this with two strips, on on each side of the throw rod, slipped between the turnout and the roadbed.)
Paint the cardboard the color of your ballast. Trim the edges close to the edges of the ties, and you will pretty much cover over the hole. You can ballast lightly directly over the cardboard, but be very careful. You don’t want to spray anything like glue or wet-water here. Dribble it on with an eyedropper, or just paint the glue on with a brush. The good news is that the cardboard will protect the switch machine and keep stuff from falling through the tracks on it.
I actually didn’t paint mine, but instead covered it with a layer of duct tape. It’s just about the right color, and it also made the piece waterproof so the ballasting wouldn’t hurt it.
Ballasting a switch…
- Decide on exactly what ballast material you are going to use and get plenty of it in the colour(s) you want through the switch area.
- Decide what high quality glue you are going to fix it with and test both in some plain track on the base material that will be under the switch.
- If you think that you will have to take the switch out regularly or soon (why?) you might do some eperimenting with a very light oil or vaseline so that the glued ballast stays on the base but the ties can slide out and push back in.
- When you are happy with your ballast/glue/track combination sort out the exact position of the switch and fix it in place in your normal way - if you haven’t already.
- You may also be looking at covering a hole under the drive bar between the blades - I would go with Mr Beasley and use thick card.
- Once everything is ready you ballast between two ties.
- If you must be in a hurry you ballast between two ties well apart.
- You let it all set and harden.
- You come back a day or so later and do another two ties… after checking and cleaning up the first two.
- You keep doing this a small bit at a time.
- You can go a bit faster ballasting around the tie ends.
- This isn’t as awful as it sound… unless you have hundreds of switches.
- It just isn’t the same as ballasting yards of plain track… and there aren’t that may pairs of ties in a switch.
- The trick is to do little bits very carefully and make sure that the ballast is well stuck down.
- The only bits you need to keep clear of are the flangeways and the moving elements… if you can get it back off completely using some sort of barrier (like a very light oil) may help you to keep these areas free.
- A good tool is a tooth pick or cocktail stick.
- You want to apply the glue as sparingly as you can but still do the job… a single layer of ballast stuck down followed by the next is s