I had an idea for ballasting turnouts and I’d like your opinions on it.
What if I ballasted the roadbed that will be underneath the switch then tacked it on over it, that way it looks like it’s ballasted underneath it but then you won’t have trouble with getting glue in the switches? Would this work?
You’d have problems keeping the turnout level - the ballast would interfere with the laying. You’d also need to take into account the height of the ballast when laying the roadbed, given that ballast is usually laid around the sleepers, not beneath them.
An idea I’ve heard is to put duct tape upside-down on the underside of the turnout - this provides a surface for the ballast to stick to without getting glue in the mechanism.
Hope this helps,
tbdanny
I have painted the cork roadbed a color that matches my ballast. Not an exact duplicate look, but it keeps little pieces of ballast away from the moving parts. You could ballast in a little way along the outer ends of the switches rails. Some textured paints might look a bit better, if the texture did not raise the track like the ballast would. Would be easire to file down in spots, if needed, than ballast. Also, nothing to come loose near push rod and moving rails.
Good luck,
I agree with “cowman and others”, just use textured paint in the turnout area. Much less chance of Trouble (with a Capital T) Bob Hahn
Alright, thanks for the replies, I’ll see if I can grab some textured paint.
TbDanny is on the right track. Use black electrical tape that is attached to the back of your turnouts. Once black tape is attached, place your ballast in a small tin foil pan. Then lay your turnout with the tape in the tin foil pan, then distribute the ballast on the turnout. Pat it down lightly. Then remove the turnout from the pan and shake off any excess ballast. You may want to attach rail joiners and paint your turnouts before you do this process. You have a perfectly ballasted turnout that will last a long time.
This is not my original idea. I got the idea from MR article on a N scale railroad called the Pierre de Chen and it is based on the Burlington Northern. I have used this process with Peco turnouts and it looks wonderfully. You do not have to be concerned with glue on switch points or clogging or sticking the turnout throwbar.
There is a different way, but is more labor intensive.
For handlaid track, I put ballast down before I spike the rail. I make sure there is no ballast between the two ties (headblocks) where the throwbar will go - just like the prototype. After gluing the ballast, I sand the tops of the ties to get them level AND to make sure the ballast is below tie top level.
Learning from how I handlaid track, I modified my process slightly for prefab track. I pour the ballast in place and spread it by finger and small paint brush. For a prefab turnout, I ensure the throwbar area is clear of ballast, and that the points move freely. Only then am I ready to apply glue. Note that this works better with real stone ballast than it does with Woodland Scenics walnut shell ballast. Diluted glue (I’ve used white glue in the past, will try matte medium next go around as an experiment) diluted with wet water is applied with a medicine dropper. I’ve made wet water both with alcohol/water mixture or with a couple of drops of dish washing soap - both worked.
It boils down to making sure critical areas are still functional before gluing the ballast, and not getting glue everywhere.
The other suggestions are safer and simpler, but won’t look quite as good - especially for my 19th Century track where ballast was as often dirt as anything else, and was peaked in the center of the ties, not leveled across.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
What I’ve done on the old layout and the club layout and I intend to do on my own is I paint the ballast shoulders and roadbed right up to the edge of the ties with straight white glue I then sprinkle on ballast after the ballast has dried over night I go back and ballast the turnout but do not apply any glue. I will wet it down with 70% isopropyl alcohol just to get the ballast to settle down in between the ties and I just leave it that way. I make sure the turnout functions properly and for me it’s done. The glued and ballasted shoulders pretty much keep things from running out the bottom between the ties and in the event that a turnout needs to be replaced etc. it’s easily removed by just removing the track spikes.
Even the textured paint idea, which I have tried, poses challenges to get the ties sit down nice and flat on the slightly irregular surface
Another idea I tried, with somewhat mixed results, was to leave a slight gap between turnout ties and roadbed and later insert, from the side, a piece of rather rough textured sandpaper that I had already colored to look like ballast and trimmed to the right size.
And a third idea, which I think Terry Thompson former editor and now publisher of MR mentioned in an article, was to use one of the many makes of “pre-fab” switches that comes with the tied and roadbed as an integral piece with molded on ballast. If painted with some care it can be surprisingly convincing looking.
Dave Nelson
Not textured paint, but Rustoleum’s stone paint. A spray can, not for painting stone, but gives the effect of stone, and lays flat. A couple different colors are available. Will never match yout ballast color exactly, but does look like ballast.
Phil
The stone paint I used had strands of some sort of texture in it. The nozzle gunked after two uses so I no longer recall if it was Rust Oleum or some other make. It had enough texture to it to NOT be a perfectly flat surface, but did indeed look like stone, in fact one color matched my C&NW pink lady ballast rather closely
Dave Nelson