Hi,
I have most of my track layed out now im going to start laying the ballast, what common grade for tracks,should i use ,and most of all how to apply it,and glue it,i think im going to go with a gray color,seems to be most common
thanks carl.
Take a look at the thread entitled “Forum Clinic - Building Realistic Scenery”. There’s a section on ballasting that’s pretty good.
Regards
Ed
i’m using woodland scenics ballast. it comes in several colors and sizes. the size i’m using is fine which is good for n scale, dark gray and light gray colors. i put it down by sprinkling it on the road bed with my fingers and shaping it with a small paint brush. try to keep the ballast off the tops of the ties .then spray it with a fine spray of water with a drop of dish detergent in it. then apply diluted white glue ,50% glue to 50% water. let it dry overnight. be careful around switches. use a minimum of ballast there and make sure to clean out the frog flangeways and the points.
Ballasting is always one of those dreaded tasks, because you take a perfectly good functioning railroad, and mess it up. No matter how careful you are, there will always be clean up that has to be done. So do it quick and get it over with.
I use the same method as Retsignalmtr does.
I am fortunate to live on a beach-front lot with lots of real sand. Once I had rinsed it, AND assured myself that it harbored no material that was attracted to magnets (like a loco motor), it went on very well. Looks like coarse salt and pepper.
I just got through ballasting the track on my layout this past weekend. Make sure you keep the ballast out of the frogs on your turnouts so they’ll continue to work fine.
Also, and this is a small problem I encountered, make sure you keep the ballast off the inside rails. I had a few pieces that dried in place there and made my initial operations very rough. A small screwdriver was used to chip them away and get operations running smoothly again. Wasn’t a big problem, just an unexpected “gotcha”.
Happy ballasting!