A1 Hobby Shop Model Railway accessories by Proses
Ballast Spreader HO/OO
Here we have the ballast spreader by Proses, sold through the A1 Hobby Shop in Istanbul Turkey.
"Why a ballast spreader?" you may ask, "it is simple to to it by hand." Well it's not that simple. And testament to that are all the bare track layouts around the land. Getting it right takes practice and is time consuming. If you have a lot of track the task could be daunting.
This simple gadget does what it says on the tin.
See the little video below to see how simple it is.
http://www.modeltrenciler.com/videopaylas/player.swf
And me, well I tried it on a couple of short straight sections of track that needed ballasting and it worked perfectly. Here are a series of shots showing the ballasting process.
Fill the Ballast spreader.
Slowly move the ballast spreader along the track.
And that's it.
Here, below, I start to wet down the ballast with water (plus a little detergent to break the surface tension).
I mix PVA with water 50%/50%
And I drop it onto the ballast with a handy syringe and plastic tube.
All done. Just let it dry.
Ballast Spreader N/009/HOe
Note, I didn't use the spreader to lay ballast on the HOe track as it was already laid, but you can see it fits perfectly. 3 adaptors are supplied to give 3 rates of flow or to use different grades of ballast I suppose. The big holed adaptor for HO scale ballast (HOe track) and the smaller holed adaptor for N gauge ballast.
Doug Teggin
June 2010