# To ballast, or not to ballast, that is the question...



## Chops (Dec 6, 2018)

I've been perusing some of the new layout threads with some interest; certainly no shortage of imagination! Sticking my oar in, I procrastinated on the ballast problem for about two years while building up "Henley." _Wow, am I glad I did. _

1. After two years of track laying and testing, I pulled the whole thing up in 45 minutes

2. Relaid the whole skunk works in two hours

3. and had I glued in pounds of ballast I would have been sunk.  One cannot just remove glued up track and hope to use it with out enormous hours cleaning it. 

Then I stumbled over a very brief mention of doing this:

https://i.imgur.com/QbykUf1.jpg

Rustoleum textured spray paint. Goes on any kind of road bed, and if desired (I don't) a black wash can be applied to high light the texture. Best of all, any adjustments are a snap; no muss, no fuss. 

Clearly there are many modellers who can pull of the ballast trick quite nicely, but it would be a fair guess they've had a lot of trial and error. There's some preformed roadbed out there, but I would think that getting the indents for the sleepers to align perfectly with the track could be an issue, don't really know. 

Anyone else try the Rustoleum method?


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

My, you have a lot of oars to put in, but this time I think you dropped it while still a good ways up the creek.

First of all, you're making a lot of assumptions here, and even though I'm sure they are based on your past experience, I'm not sure they're all that valid. First of all, I think it's a huge mistake to rush. Spend some quality time with your design, and take the time necessary to lay smooth, level, and kink-free trackwork. Unless you have a small layout, or are uncannily precise, you're probably not doing yourself any favors by slapping track down in 45 minutes. Take the time to do a good job, and you will be thankful you did. Then test it for a while, and make sure it works the way you want it to, both in terms of performance and operations. THEN, and only then, are you ready for ballast.

Provided that you have used the more or less accepted method of gluing your ballast down, using either diluted white glue or matte medium, then you have grossly overestimated the difficulty of removing the ballast from your track. Soak it in warm water and knock off the few remaining pieces. But if you're going to reapply the ballast anyway, you don't really NEED to get all the old ballast off. Just touch it up.

On the premolded roadbed, that comes in two types -- the stuff that is already attached to the track, which is made from hard plastic and cast with the proper indentations for the ties (and, out of curiosity, why do you use the British terms -- sleepers -- if you're from Texas?), or shaped pieces of foam rubber or cork, which sit under the ties. As far as I know, the pre-molded stuff isn't sold separately from the track it is used with.

Certainly, the Rustoleum method is an option. My experience with the textured paint is that it is not nearly textured enough, and too uniform in color, to make a convincing looking ballast, and the grains are far too big to look good. But if you want something that just suggests ballast without being all that realistic, then it's fine.

But "no fuss, no muss"? Hardly. You would have to mask off your rails and ties, as well as the terrain on either side. Personally, although I hate doing it, I've never had any issue ballasting track and getting it to look good. Perhaps others have a different experience, but I think you greatly exaggerate the difficulty of spreading and gluing down ballast. My problem is that it's boring, not that it's hard.


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## Nikola (Jun 11, 2012)

Diversity is good. Plenty of materials and techniques. While I have been using coffee grounds on my minuscule HO layout, I can see this technique to permit quickly covering a great deal of linear feet of track. Sometimes quick is good.


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

*Removing ballast*



Chops said:


> I've been perusing some of the new layout threads with some interest; certainly no shortage of imagination! Sticking my oar in, I procrastinated on the ballast problem for about two years while building up "Henley." _Wow, am I glad I did. _
> 
> 1. After two years of track laying and testing, I pulled the whole thing up in 45 minutes
> 
> ...


Chops;

Use Rustoleum, or whatever method you wish. It's your railroad.
I use ballast. I have also had occasion to remove ballast, that had been fastened with diluted white glue, from track. It's not that difficult. I soak the track in warm water, then use an old toothbrush to get it out of the area between ties. Takes about 15 minutes, not "enormous hours."

Traction Fan:smilie_daumenpos:


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## Chops (Dec 6, 2018)

My views only, I am only an expert on my own opinion. I have worked on a good many layouts and modules, both my own and that of friends. I do find it disheartening to see loads of model train equipment abandoned like so much Penn Central. Truth be told, I've been through it, myself. 

For all the time I've spent on this, I would only rank myself as a "low average" modeller. The most useful discovery I ever made was that there are limits to my ability. When I was a young man, I had the ambition to be a good tennis player. That never happened either!

What's on my mind these days is simplicity and reliability in form and function, so I apologize if my repetition is a little tiresome, but if it would help the newbie not bury himself, that would be pleasant.


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## Chops (Dec 6, 2018)

Nikola said:


> Diversity is good. Plenty of materials and techniques. While I have been using coffee grounds on my minuscule HO layout, I can see this technique to permit quickly covering a great deal of linear feet of track. Sometimes quick is good.


Coffee grounds!! There are historical articles out there in Model Railroader Magazine about using asbestos for snow, and one fellow who sprinkled real sand upon his O27 grades to get trains up the hill.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Chops said:


> My views only, I am only an expert on my own opinion. I have worked on a good many layouts and modules, both my own and that of friends. I do find it disheartening to see loads of model train equipment abandoned like so much Penn Central. Truth be told, I've been through it, myself.
> 
> For all the time I've spent on this, I would only rank myself as a "low average" modeller. The most useful discovery I ever made was that there are limits to my ability. When I was a young man, I had the ambition to be a good tennis player. That never happened either!
> 
> What's on my mind these days is simplicity and reliability in form and function, so I apologize if my repetition is a little tiresome, but if it would help the newbie not bury himself, that would be pleasant.


Granted, and I'm not trying to suggest that your views have no validity. They are certainly right for you.

My concern is that someone new to the hobby is going to read your views and panic into thinking that ballast is really hard.

Some might find it so, but everyone should give it a try to see for themselves.


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## mesenteria (Oct 29, 2015)

It seems each of us must find out for himself that the stove is hot, to paraphrase H. Hoover.

The hobby would be rather staid and exclusive if it only had one way to have fun...and to learn that there's more fun to be had doing something different...or doing it better. Better meaning how you now find what you have is not quite so satisfying any longer.


In my exuberation, I bought and laid about $250 worth of EZ-Track. I enjoyed it, and even tried my hand at Woodland Scenics walnut shell-based ballast to make it look better when the plastic 'ballast' got old...which it did shortly. It was a mess. No more walnut shell ballast. Local beach sand was my brilliant idea, and when I presented it to the guys on MR forums, they cautioned about passing a magnet over it. Good thing I listened. After the magnet cleansing, I used it with impunity on a new construction.


The point is, I had fun! I lost the value of the EZ-Track, but I gained something else, and I won some photography contests with my layout images.


Each of us must find out how to gain and to maintain interest and fun in our hobby experience. When that pales, we move on. Until then, having a good time is what a hobby should offer each practitioner. If the spray paint changes the look sufficiently and lets you continue to have fun, great. Have at 'er.


In dialog, as CTValley has opined, it is important to make sure other newcomers understand that there are caveats and limitations to every decision we make, even minor ones. The hobby has some steep learning curves, as my foray into EZ-Track presented to me. Eventually, like you, I settled on a certain look, level of effort, stretch into discomfort, or even to the point where I was unwilling to continue to do a certain thing, even to continue to develop the skills needed to do it 'well'. This is what each of us should do, both in first-hand experience, but also in what others attempt to explain to us for vicarious learning and experience.


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## Chops (Dec 6, 2018)

It would be grand to see some of that photography. BTW, as all the young people say, it's all grist for the mill. I am enjoying the lively discussion. I am an old dog, but always interested in new tricks.


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