Laying Ballast on WS Foam Road Bed

[meanjean]

So the angle of the sides seems really steep. Whats the trick? I have never done ballast on a roadbed. Just on track layed directly on wood/foam.
I tried appling glue and sprinkling the ballast on the wet glue but didnt like the work.

Tips or tricks here would be great. You work hard to lay nice track just to screw it up with crappy looking ballast

 

[Trucula]

Its done pretty much the same way. One trick I learned here was to paint the road bed close to the same color. That way you can apply it thin and when it shows thru it won't be noticed. I used your method of painting the sides with straight glue. Hold a card stock at the edge. Sprinkle on a small amount and brush to the rail between the ties. When you lift the card it gives you a perfect edge...Add between the rails. Brush out, and spray with water, drop soap/alcohol mix over it all (to break surface tension)and then mix 50/50 water and white glue and squirt on while still wet.

 

[GrampysTrains]

Hi Chad: I think everyone's gone through the stage you're at now. There's a lot of good ways to ballast track. That's good advice from Bobby. After ballasting at least 300 ft. of track, and lots of trial and error, here's the method I used. I do the middle of the track, first. I used a spoon to lay a line of ballast between the rails. Not too much and not too long. You can always add some if it gets too thin. Then, I use a cheap 1" foam brush, cut to the width between the rails. Then I brush the ballast along, keeping it just below the ties. This can be quite tedious, but this is the hardest part. When you have about a foot or so done, I use a kids medicine dropper to wet the ballast with 70% alcohol. Do it as gently as you can so you don't disturb the ballast. Then, I use the same dropper to saturate the ballast with 50/50 white glue and water. Again, drop it gently as you can. After that dries, I do the shoulders. I use a spoon to lay a line of ballast along the outside of the rail. Then I worked the ballast along, letting it form a natural slope. Then, gently wet with alcohol and gently apply the glue/water. Let dry, do the other side. If you work slowly and carefully, I thing you'll get good results. Here's my foam brush and an example of my ballasted track. Good luck! Oh, I used WS med mixed gray ballast and cork road bed.

 

[meanjean]

Thanks for the input guys. I did the middle first and last night did the sides. I was unsure if I should just let the ballats fall as it may along the sides. Found some how to videos that show just that. My shop is so cold (no heat or insulation) that the glue I set 3 days ago is still wet. I used a space heater to help speed this up.

Gramps your ballast looks great btw. How did you do that and not get any ballast ontop of the ties? Did you have to go back and scrape it off? Despite my best efforts I still get some grains of ballast on the rails and ties.

Can you get "old" glue? I used generic brand white glue and it dried kindo of weird. Maybe I didnt thin it enough or something. Or maybe its not dry all the way. It looks, well milky still. I picked up some elmers and mixed it 50/50 with alcohol and it went on smoother and looks less milky. Ill post some pics when i can

 

[GrampysTrains]

Hi Chad: Thanks. I brush it off the ties and along the rails, as best as I can, it saves having to pick it off later. I used Elmer's white glue, and it is milky looking until it dries.

 

[UP2CSX]

Chad, the glue will look fine when it dries. White glue doesn't like cold so I'd delay laying anymore ballast until it warms up or you get more heat in there. No matter how careful you are, some ballast will end on the tops of the ties. I wate for the ballast to dry and then go back with a dull #11 Xacto blade and scrape al the big pieces off. I don't worry about the finer grains since you'll find small pieces of ballast on the tops of the prototype's ties also. Heck, now they just pile the ballast on the tracks and don't worry about how it looks. Back in the days that Gramps is modeling, the Pennsy used have a guy who sat on the back of the ballast tamper with a broom to remove all the ballast from the tops of the ties! Those days are gone forever.