Ballast spreader

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gary60s

New Member
I made an HO ballast spreader attachment that fits on my Track Inspection Cars. It is removable, and when it is attached, you just put some ballast between the tracks, and then push the car to spread the ballast. As you can see it spreads the ballast in a near perfect pattern, ready for gluing! Available soon on ebay. Directions are included, along with gluing tips.
 
Very cool. I like that it wraps around the rails. I did some test ballasting on my diorama and found that I had some issues with ballast sticking to the web of the rails.
Doug
 
Huh. You could almost put a slow-moving loco behind it and do all the ballasting in the fashion of a well-oiled machine.
 


Oh I dunno, ballast getting stuck in the loco gears makes for a realistic "flat spot on the wheel" kind of sound! :D
 
Looks like it could be hand powered with just the front plastic piece. It sure looks like it works better than the piece of junk commercial ballast spreader I wasted $15 on. :mad:
 
Jim I think I have the same thing, luckily it was in the bargain bin!
Hey I wonder if you could put a hopper on that Gary?
 
Customer feedback has been great, even for the N version. Everyone is very pleased.

Putting a hopper on it that would dispense ballast properly is a little more complicated than my pea brain can figure out Rico.
 
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For a hopper you could use a 100-ton coal car, the one you dropped on the floor and broke, remember? Just use a bit of trial and error, starting out small, and use a Dremel to grind a hole at one end. Maybe use a piece of card stock or thing plastic as a baffle to adjust the flow. Similar to the chute cover on a grain trailer. Use a small piece of plastic stock for guides. And as they say in France, VIOLA!! or is it Voila? Not being French, who cares? How about BAM!!! It's done.

But thinking a bit, maybe a high-sided gon would work better. Or a cheap box car, more grinding required here though. The bays of a coal car wouldn't let the ballast empty smoothly.

The car would have to be mounted to allow the ballast to head downward to the front of the "ballast regulator"/car.

Bob
 
stationmaster said:
For a hopper you could use a 100-ton coal car, the one you dropped on the floor and broke, remember? Just use a bit of trial and error, starting out small, and use a Dremel to grind a hole at one end. Maybe use a piece of card stock or thing plastic as a baffle to adjust the flow. Similar to the chute cover on a grain trailer. Use a small piece of plastic stock for guides. And as they say in France, VIOLA!! or is it Voila? Not being French, who cares? How about BAM!!! It's done.

But thinking a bit, maybe a high-sided gon would work better. Or a cheap box car, more grinding required here though. The bays of a coal car wouldn't let the ballast empty smoothly.

The car would have to be mounted to allow the ballast to head downward to the front of the "ballast regulator"/car.

Bob
Click to expand...

Great suggestions Bob! I'll have to think on this a bit. I suspect that since I have a lot of acrylic plastic on hand, I may just scratch something up and then maybe I'll have a BAM!!! Thanks for ideas.
 
gary60s said:
Great suggestions Bob! I'll have to think on this a bit. I suspect that since I have a lot of acrylic plastic on hand, I may just scratch something up and then maybe I'll have a BAM!!! Thanks for ideas.
Click to expand...

And there we have it, Gary has his next project in the works hehe :D

Gary, looking forward to seeing what you come up with bud.

BTW, welcome to MRF, nice to see you over here too :D
 


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