Does anyone share my view of not needing scenery?

[goscrewyourselves]

Joe,

I wonder if the ballast is shrinking or otherwise distorting when the glue mixture dries, pulling the track along with it? This is one of the reasons I've been somewhat hesitant to start ballasting my own track. There must be some way to do it right though, without affecting the rails...?

[This would make an excellent topic for a new thread.]

CSX - take a look at my post:

http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?35251-Easy-quick-Ballasting-method

This is how I do my ballasting and have not had an issue with anything effecting the track.

Lightly spray (trigger pump spray) the ballast once dry laid with water that has a few drops of liquid dishwashing liquid added (breaks surface tension, helps to spread) to wet it, then use the glue/water, also with a few drops of washing liquid added.

Absolutely, and cheaper than using alcohol too. Thing to remember is NOT to use too much water. I use an eye dropper for putting on both the alcohol mix and the glue/water mix to ensure that it all starts in the middle between the rails and doesn't flow so quickly as to move too much of the dry laid ballast.

I would think the water may be warping the plywood benchwork.

If the water is warping the ply, then there is way too much water being used to wet the ballast down prior to applying the glue mix.

I have learnt that the way to achieve a good result is all about patience (go slow and methodically), doing small sections of track at a time, and not moving onto the next adjoining section until the previous section has had 24 hours to dry.