Somebody on another forum (and maybe here too) posted that he uses tile grout mixed with sand for ballast.
If anybody has done that, what proportions of sand-grout-water did you use?
How did you apply it?
How did you keep it off or clean off the ties and rail webs?
I tried a test section of track, applying it with a small putty knife and it looks like it has potential, but I spent a lot of time wiping off the ties and trying to clean out the rail webs with a dental pick. It would be great for a yard with “buried” ties, but I want to do my mainline also.
I have never tried tile grout, and wouldn’t want to because it would dry too hard, and would probably eventually begin to break up and crumble, creating a mess to clean up. It would probably amplify sounds, too.
If I were going to use it, I would get dry grout, spread it where I want, and then wet it with a sprayer instead of trying to clean off dried up grout afterward.
Tile grout makes great ballast and roads an stuff like that where you need bare ground or like a desert scene. Apply it dry like you would ballast and use wet water and white glue. Yes it will be hard and noisy. Ever slept within a hunnert yards of the GN mainline out in MT where the trains go by at sixty and blow for the grade crossing. Its noisy all right but after a coupla days you get use to it. The locals don’t even hear it.
An added bonus !! Look at all the colors you can get.!!