Update on the Devinville RR.
That wetter water trick worked like a charm. At first I tried gluing track with Elmer’s white glue mixed 2.5 to 1 with warm water and it just stood on top of the ties. Then I added in a little 91% Isopropyl Alcohol, still the glue just stands there on top. I took a quart spray bottle and mixed warm water with a tea spoon full of dish soap and sprayed the track down lightly with the mixture. And the glue ran right under the ties, that little bit of dish soap/water mix did the trick. As soon as the glue droplet toughed the wetter water the capillary action sucked it in like a sponge.
BTW anyone looking for 91% Isopropyl Alcohol can find it at “Wal-Mart” for under $2.50 a quart in the pharmacy.
Johnny_reb-I’ve been using that technique since the 70’s.Back in the mid 70’s Railroad Model Craftsman ran an article called water soluable scenery.In it Bob Hayden and Dave Frary described using that technique.They also described among other things of using diluted acrylic paint as a glue when applying ground cover.It works great.It allows you to build layers and texture.Then when dry using dilute white glue to bond it all in place.The article was full of useful info and I still have it and refer to mit from time to time.Bob
Instead of a spray bottle, try using a pipette/eyedropper to apply the alcohol. It allows much more precise application, so you don’t make a mess and get crud all over your railheads.
I use 90% alcohol straight from the bottle. Yeah, I could probably mix it with water to make it go further, but it’s so cheap anyway that I’d rather save a step. Another plus of doing it this way is that the alcohol is much more volatile than water, so it should dry faster. Back when I was using the soap-and-water spray method, it took days (literally) to dry, but now my new ballast is typically rock-hard overnight.
Or you can mist the 91% alcohol on the ballast or ground cover (soak it well), then drip the water/glue/soap mixture onto it with an eyedropper.
This is how I do ballast, because it allows good control and doesn’t move the stuff I just carefully laid down.
You know, really all you need is just a few drops of the soap; it will not foam on you then, should that become a problem.
Also, I have here, sitting on my desk in front of me the second edition (printed in 1995) of Dave Frary’s book “How to Build Realistic Scenery” which details all of Dave’s water soluble methods for building not only great looking scenery but how to do it cheaply. If you haven’t got this book in your model RR library it’d be worth getting. You should find this Kalmbach book at the LHS near you.
Thanks all. I’ll try all of the suggestions as I go and see which ones works the best for me. The misting of soapy water does seem to take a long time to dry.
BRB, goes to check that one turnout I put glue in,[#oops]
[swg] Cool all turnouts still move. I guess flooding that one turnout with water/soap helped wash the glue away from the points.
Puts Dave Frary’s book “How to Build Realistic Scenery” on my want list.
Johnnny,
there’s a bit of a correction on the title of the book; the correct title is “How to Build Realistic Model Railroad Scenery”
I’ve been using a couple of those ink jet cartridge refill bottles with the needle point tip. They work great! Cheap pump hairspray bottles work great for spraying glue or wet water too.