Question, Ballasting track.

2920 Views 15 Replies 11 Participants Last post by Richard Johnson, Jan 2, 2009

england

Discussion Starter · Dec 23, 2008 (Edited by Moderator)

Hi,
Me and my dad just had our first go at ballasting our track. The track pin, how do I ballast with the trackpin there?
cheers, ben

See less See more

1 - 16 of 16 Posts

ebaykal

· #2 · Dec 24, 2008

Hey there Ben,

Hope you and your dad are enjoying this fine hobby of ours also welcome to MRF.

Common practice is to first glue the rails to either the baseboard or track roadbed then pin it down. Once the glue has dried up, you then take all the pins out and start ballasting.

If you haven't, just paint the traversers along with the pin heads the same color, possibly brownish, so that the pin head will blend with the traversers color and then when ballasting you can apply a wee bit of more ballast to the area where the pin head is, hiding it.

Hope this helps.

Baykal

england

Discussion Starter · #3 · Dec 24, 2008

thanks ebaykal!

See less See more

Jerry

· #4 · Dec 24, 2008 (Edited by Moderator)

It's not a stupid question if you don't know the answer!

Ballasting is a case of where there are any number of options, so you pays you're money and takes you're choice.

Assuming you're using loose ballast the 'traditional' method is to pin the track down without any glue. Brush the dry ballast onto the track and tidy it up. Spray the ballast with water with a spot of detergent in it. For this you need a fine spray, usual advice is to use a plant spray, but I find a cooking oil spray can (its an aerosol can you pump up by hand) does a better job as it has a finer spray.

Once the ballast is wet, run in watered down PVA glue using an eye dropper or similar. The usual mix recommended ranges from 10 - 1 to 4 - 1, I suggest you experiment, In my experience it varies depending on the glue. The C+L webstite suggests using Copydex rather than PVA

After the glue has set you can remove the track pins (optional). Be careful round points as its easy to glue them up (I know!!).

An alternative method is to lay the track on a glue bed then brush on the ballast. I've never tried this way, the only disadvantage I can think of is you then have a limited time to get the track aligned and ballasted. This seems to be the method recommended in British Railway Modelling's latest DVD.

I would say any method that works is right, but its usually a long boring job.

Jerry

See less See more

england

Discussion Starter · #5 · Dec 24, 2008

I watched a video of a guy ballasting on you tube his turned out really good so we used his method. the method was to mix your glue 3/4 glue & 1/4 water and a dab of washing up liquid (to break the surface tension), we found that this ratio was much to thick, as it was just making a big blob on top of the ballast material. wen you have finished ballasting the sleepers seem to go really dusty, do you reccomend anything clening wise?
thanks, Ben

adecoaches26point4

· #6 · Dec 24, 2008

Have a read through these posts, some good advice given.

http://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index...?showtopic=5736

David

Bullhead

· #7 · Dec 25, 2008

After applying the ballast dry and tidying off sleeper tops etc with a paintbrush, it's a good idea to lightly mist the whole lot with water/washing up liquid. I recommend using something like this:

...before dropping the dilute PVA mixture into the ballast with a pipette while it's still wet. That way the PVA runs into the ballast much more readily.

See less See more

england

Discussion Starter · #8 · Dec 28, 2008

thanks bullhead, i actually have the exsact same sprayer can!!

Torrington

· #9 · Dec 31, 2008

HI
One way of stoping the PVA from getting into the blade of the points is to push blue tack into to them .
Open the point half way and push a small pice of blue tack into the blades ,this way the glue will not get onto the part of the blade that make contact with the running rail.
I have used this to paint the track as well .
Hope you find this helpful.
All the best
Darren

Brian Considine

· #10 · Dec 31, 2008

Excellent tip Darren & thanks.

1ngram

· #11 · Dec 31, 2008

Someone at Warley told me thnat the P4 guys had abandoned pinning their track and just used double sided sticky tape to hold it in place prior to gluing the ballast. Anyone tried this method? For glue I use dilute Copydex as it doesn't glue rock solid and if you make a major booboo and have to life it all it just (?) peels off (with a bit of effort).

hairyhandedfool

· #12 · Dec 31, 2008

I was planning to use double sided tape on my next layout (details coming soon), so keep your peepers....peeping......

Richard Johnson

· #13 · Dec 31, 2008

QUOTE (1ngram @ 31 Dec 2008, 18:10) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Someone at Warley told me thnat the P4 guys had abandoned pinning their track and just used double sided sticky tape to hold it in place prior to gluing the ballast. Anyone tried this method? For glue I use dilute Copydex as it doesn't glue rock solid and if you make a major booboo and have to life it all it just (?) peels off (with a bit of effort).

*** Either that or just glue - It'd be fair to say that most P4 and EM modellers never pinned their track in the first place.

But remember that while thats OK for scale BS95R chared bullhead track or finer profile flat bottom rail such as code 75 and smaller, Code 100 has much more tendency to need securing as the rail is far thicker.

Personally I only glue the track, with no pins ever used anywhere. If you use a non-waterproof glue you can always adjust simply by wetting the area, moving it ad re-weighting until the glue dries again.

Richard

mvrnut

· #14 · Jan 1, 2009

Hi there Richard,
You mention that you use a non-waterproof glue for securing the track down. Am i correct in thinking this is PVA ? Or is it something else?
Thanks,
mvrnut

england

Discussion Starter · #15 · Jan 1, 2009

2

thanks darren

See less See more

Richard Johnson

· #16 · Jan 2, 2009

QUOTE (mvrnut @ 2 Jan 2009, 02:08) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi there Richard,
You mention that you use a non-waterproof glue for securing the track down. Am i correct in thinking this is PVA ? Or is it something else?
Thanks,
mvrnut

***Yes, PVA is fine - in this case, quality isn't so much of an an issue, however lower quality PVA tnds to have a lower proportion of fillers and can be a little glossy, so a good quality glue is preferable.

Richard

1 - 16 of 16 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.