# ballast glue



## tntwolt (Sep 3, 2020)

what be the best glue to glue ballast to EZ track?


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

I thought EZ track already had ballast.
If you need it anyways, use a 50/50 mix of wet water and Elmer's white glue. Wet water is just a bottle of water with a drop or two of dish soap to break the water's surface tension and it will soak into the ballast.


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## tntwolt (Sep 3, 2020)

D&J Railroad said:


> I thought EZ track already had ballast.
> If you need it anyways, use a 50/50 mix of wet water and Elmer's white glue. Wet water is just a bottle of water with a drop or two of dish soap to break the water's surface tension and it will soak into the ballast.


but white glue on plastic?


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## prrfan (Dec 19, 2014)

Yes.





Ballasting Bachmann E-Z Track - Model Railroader Magazine - Model Railroading, Model Trains, Reviews, Track Plans, and Forums


Model Railroader is the world's largest magazine on model trains and model railroad layouts. We feature beginner and advanced help on all model railroading scales, including layout track plans, model railroad product reviews, model train news, and model railroad forums.



cs.trains.com


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

tntwolt said:


> but white glue on plastic?


Yeah, it's not holding something heavy down. It's just holding the ballast in place.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Yeah, white glue. You don't need much ballast. Paint the glue on, and sprinkle a little ballast in it. If you really want to lock it in, add a little diluted white glue after the initial application is dry.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

And make sure you remove the extra from the ties.


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## Wooky_Choo_Bacca (Nov 13, 2020)

I used the concoction I read about, 50/50 water / Elmers glue with 3 or 4 drops of dishwashing soap with a dousing of rubbing alcohol just before applying the glue mix. It worked well sometimes, other times not so much. I even used that formula for laying down the grass on the other (1st) layout. This round I think I'll skip the ballasting part, maybe even the grass and use paint instead, we'll see as I go along


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Wooky_Choo_Bacca said:


> I used the concoction I read about, 50/50 water / Elmers glue with 3 or 4 drops of dishwashing soap with a dousing of rubbing alcohol just before applying the glue mix. It worked well sometimes, other times not so much. I even used that formula for laying down the grass on the other (1st) layout. This round I think I'll skip the ballasting part, maybe even the grass and use paint instead, we'll see as I go along


Yes, that method works track without plastic roadbed, but not so much when you already have a ballast profile and are only adding a little bit for appearance's sake.

Try thinning your mixture more -- I use 1:4. Use filtered or distilled water, as minerals will interfere with the adhesive soaking in. Use a pipette or similar small dispenser (I use an old glue bottle)and drizzle your liquids onto the ties, letting them wick into the ballast rather than dribbling it directly on the ballast.

Same process works for landscaping, but again, the key is not to spray directly at the ground cover, but to let a fine mist rain down on it. Most spray bottle blast a mist which contains some fairly large globs of liquid, and which comes out in blasts as you pull the trigger. Get one like hair stylists use instead -- these use your pressure on the trigger to pressurize an internal cylinder, which then forces the liquid out in an even, fine mist that won't disturb your ground cover. Here is the one I use: https://www.amazon.com/Beautify-Bea...d_rd_i=B07N7RLM7V&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_d_rp_27_t


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## Bluwtr (Feb 28, 2021)

I actually spent the $25 for the ballast tool. You dump the ballast in and slid the tool along it dispense and levels at the same time. We did one section just to see it in action and very little needed to be swept off of the ties--in fact the little that remained looked like a real rail. 

For glue we are using 1 part Mod Podge with 3 parts water and a couple of drops of dish soap. Using isopropyl alcohol (IPA) first to saturate the ballast and then adding the glue works best. The IPA and the soap break the surface tension of the water and pull it down into the ballast. This prevents the glue mixture beading up on top of the very small ballast particles.


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## tntwolt (Sep 3, 2020)

Bluwtr said:


> I actually spent the $25 for the ballast tool. You dump the ballast in and slid the tool along it dispense and levels at the same time. We did one section just to see it in action and very little needed to be swept off of the ties--in fact the little that remained looked like a real rail.
> 
> For glue we are using 1 part Mod Podge with 3 parts water and a couple of drops of dish soap. Using isopropyl alcohol (IPA) first to saturate the ballast and then adding the glue works best. The IPA and the soap break the surface tension of the water and pull it down into the ballast. This prevents the glue mixture beading up on top of the very small ballast particles.


the way i understand it, the ballast goes on first then the alcohol spray then glue? just don`t like the way EZ track looks anymore.


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## tntwolt (Sep 3, 2020)

tntwolt said:


> the way i understand it, the ballast goes on first then the alcohol spray then glue? just don`t like the way EZ track looks anymore. could i just apply glue to the fake ballast then sprinkle ballast, just the sides


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

tntwolt said:


> the way i understand it, the ballast goes on first then the alcohol spray then glue? just don`t like the way EZ track looks anymore.


Sort of. If you're ballasting ordinary sectional or flex track, that's what you would do. But you're ballasting EZ track, which already has the correct profile, and most of the space that would be taken up by ballast is actually plastic. If you try to put ballast on the plastic roadbed, it will simply slide off. That's why you need to paint it with glue first, then sprinkle on the ballast.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

Many modelers quickly tire of the plastic-y look of train set ballasted track and want more realism.


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## Bluwtr (Feb 28, 2021)

tntwolt said:


> the way i understand it, the ballast goes on first then the alcohol spray then glue? just don`t like the way EZ track looks anymore.


Sorry for the slow reply. Been a BUSY week. Yes, lay your ballast then basically saturate it with the alcohol. Then use the glue solution. Alcohol is a drying agent as well so it helps the glue stick by pulling the water out of it faster and evaporating. Good luck.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Bluwtr said:


> Sorry for the slow reply. Been a BUSY week. Yes, lay your ballast then basically saturate it with the alcohol. Then use the glue solution. Alcohol is a drying agent as well so it helps the glue stick by pulling the water out of it faster and evaporating. Good luck.


To reiterate: that method doesn't work very well on track that already has plastic roadbed attached. The fluids tend to wash the ballast off of the sloped sides of the plastic, because there isn't any real tooth to hold it there.


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