I want to ballast my 22 peco turnouts. I have heard that some of you oil the pivot and throwbar areas with light oil to prevent the glue mix from binding the points etc.
On the Peco turnouts there is a spring to snap the points into position. Is it necessary to oil the spring as well? I haven’t even seen this spring but I know it is there. Can it be oiled from above?
Ballasting a turnout is fraught with danger, and gluing the ballast in place is even more risky.
I do place drops of oil on all moving parts beforehand, but I restrict ballast to the outside of the rails with just a light sprinkling between the ties. I try to avoid the throwbar area altogether. I do not apply the glue mix around the throwbar area.
Rich
I use WD-40 on all the moving points just before I apply any water or glue mix. I usually apply it with a small brush or eye dropper.
Bruce,
I use this, on my umteen turnouts, before ballasting and on some after:
I guess I should say I use Brother Rich’s method, but I use the CRC, instead of the oil.
Frank
You’ll notice, it says Electrical Grade, safe for Plastic.
EDIT: The Home Depot has it for 5oz for $2.98.
If you can find a paint about the color of your ballast, paint the roadbed and it won’t take much ballast to make it look good. There are textured rattle can paints that look pretty convincing.
Good luck,
Richard
Very carefully!!!
Heck what’s the world coming too!!! Agreeing with Rich !!! [:O]
Cheers, the Bear.
[bow][bow][bow]
The way Rich explained it is how I also ballast arount my Peco turnouts using plastic compatible oil. Very carefully! Doug