Gawd I hate ballasting

[kgreen]

some great work here  One foot at a time for me 

[randgust]

I've played with both dish soap and alcohol as pre-wetting agents, and dish soap can actually capture air like a 'bubble' in the ballast and create what looks like an N scale fire-ant nest.  The finer the material the worse a problem it gets to be.

I've had no such problem pre-wetting with an alcohol-water spray mix.  Seems to work much better.

[mu26aeh]

My views might be changing on ballasting from my earlier post.  I was asked to try out Ballast Magic.  I brought it up during our call this week.  The ballast seemed to move around/be shaped easier, almost like the powder acted as a lubricant or something.  Only had to use a brush in a few places, most ballast was shaped/moved into place merely running my finger down middle of rails, getting vibration across the spikes for the outside shoulder to settle.  I was able to get this area done in less than an hour.  No clean up of the rails required from glue residue.  Minimal ballast removal from ties and nothing washed out/moved from soaking the ballast with glue/water/alcohol mixture. My only complaint is turning the ballast a little darker upon drying.  Next batch, I'll mix it lighter than I want and see if I get desired effect.







Still need to improve my photo taking skills....

[davefoxx]

Gawd, I hate ballasting even more than you!  I have spent the last few days doing small sections of track, and I have ballasted one turnout, one deck bridge, and about 36"-48" of track.  Slow going for me, but the results are very satisfying.  Today's progress was about 24" of ballasting.  You can see the color difference in the picture below, because that section is still wet.



What I do is use a spoon to apply ballast and a brush and my finger to shape it.  I use an eye dropper to apply 70% isopropyl alcohol.  I wouldn't recommend using 91%, because I would be concerned that would damage my painted track.  I use an Elmer's Glue bottle to dribble diluted white glue on to the ballast.  If the alcohol is applied correctly, the diluted white glue saturates the ballast without disturbing it.

Ballasting is a real pain in the butt, but it's provides much gratification . . . when it's done.

DFF

[nkalanaga]

Almost all "real rock" ballast dries darker than it looks, including plain sand.  Gluing washes the dust off, and the remaining rocks are darker.  So, yes, mix it a little lighter than you want.  Ballasting a test section, which can be as simple as scrap track nailed to a board, is also a good idea, if you want an exact match for a prototype scene.