Ballasting For Effect

[railwayman198]

Most of my line is laid on medium density cement blocks with cosmetic ballast using aquarium gravel held in place with diluted PVA. I took this pic this morning of a boxcar I'm going to weather but it shows the ballast fairly well. This has been in place for 7 years now and although there has been some erosion at the edges it has held up well. I used Wickes builders adhesive mixed about 2:1. I found that if I went for a thicker 50/50 mix it tended to leave lumps of glue that pooled on the surface and spoiled the effect. For some reason the areas at the rear of the layout wore away more quickly and after about 4 to 5 years I had to re-ballast these areas (I probably started to over dilute the adhesive by that stage). When re-ballasting I tried several methods including mixing grit with cement powder and Rowlands mix but they did not work well - didn't even last a year.

If you like moss, you will notice that it grows quite happily in the grit/PVA mix

 

[Don Gilham]

EUREKA !!!!

Would that be a good name for a deodorant ?

Anyway......

In my hunt for ballast, I think I've found the ideal - 3mm gravel !! Bought it from a fishy place in Watton (Blue Sea Aquatics), just happened on to it as I was actually going to buy some Hugo Kamishi 3-4 mm aquarium gravel, but this stuff is terrific, I'll post some pikkies later on.

 

[largescale]

Try the grit used by poultry farmers,comes in three sizes,I find 'Growers'the best.Available from animal feed stores at around £10 per sack full.

 

[steven large]

mine is ALPINE grits tht steve gave me months ago..beautiful as i used to have pea singles but dislike it so i use alpine grits to fill up nicely on the tracks without pva and glue...
p..s.if i want to replaced the tracks...easy peasy to take it off and replaced it without hassles.

 

[Rod Fearnley]

Don I bought a load of Granite fines from LaFarge Ashphalt plant at Costessy, just outside Norwich. It has enough dust in it to set up on its own.
They use it in the bottom of the big Ashphalt trucks, to stop it sticking..........

 

[Don Gilham]

Thanks Rod I see you have good taste in Railroads (my O gauge is ATSF/UP based).

This 3mm gravel seems to do the business - being smaller it accepts PVA mix mucch easier - if the sun should ever shines here again, I'll take a photo to compare.

 

[Don Gilham]

So here's two photos, the first one the original (also posted above), and the second one with a smattering of 3mm gravel............

 

[BrianC]

... and my 11 cents (= 10p) is that I use Westland horticultural grit. Nice size but needs retaining physically or glueing as suggested above. If you don't, a heavy deluge will wash it away or spread it about.

We are also using Westland potting grit. After much reading and consultation, I just put it in a 4" trench on top of weed suppressant cloth, no glue or cement and loose laid the LGB track on top. So far it's been down 2 years and survived a 'tsunami' when the brook at the end of the garden backed up and broke through fence and shiplap workshop, flooding garden, outbuildings and part of the house. Garden was under about 9" of water. Cats got a trifle damp and water-logged but apart from a very small quantity of ballast washed onto the lawn, the Black Squirrel Railway was fine and trains were running a couple of days later after we had cleared up everywhere else.

We have now started on our extension :
http://s482.photobucket.com/albums/...ailway/2011-05-02-1656-15 Extension Planning/

That's one advantage of using standard LGB 'set track' - you can see what it will look like in the garden and it's easier than planning on paper or PC. Hope to start digging track-bed when the ground is a bit softer and will use even more of the expensive WPG but at least we know it works.

 

[trammayo]

Nice line Brian and the ballasting suits it. The planned extension looks as though it going to be a very nice (and generous size) addition!

My problem is most of my line is elevated. I tried scale grit (by sieving out the fines in coarse sand) and mixing in cement and then watering in and this worked fine until I wanted to alter things (I have altered my line three times since first building it in 2005). So having looked at aquarium grit and the like, I settled for the horticultural grit. I think it looks fine (no pun intended)

 

[Don Gilham]

Here's a picture of a length of track (the only length at the moment ) with the 3mm Dorset Pea Gravel - this is also in my RR pictures thread (sorry for the duplication gut it seems a good idea to post it here too)

 

[trammayo]

Looks good Don - very much to scale. After seeing your pic I took some photos of mine which has been down 3 or 4 years. It has some large pieces in (and plenty of vegetation and wind borne detritus. The last pic is on the viaduct, feeder wires underneath covered over with Denso tape (as Sylglass tape) and then ballasted.

Proposed station area which will be totally relaid when I build my extension.

Inner circle of double track (main line)

 

[Don Gilham]

Looks good Mick !!!

 

[nygma]

Not sure if this is another method or just different materials being used:
http://modellbahnen.cadosch.org/jos/gartenbahn/gleisbau?start=4
Google translation:
http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...n.cadosch.org/jos/gartenbahn/gleisbau?start=4

Nevertheless the end result is quite impressive.

 

[trammayo]

Certainly interesting and very useful. As Polyurethane is weatherproof (used for casting models and buildings) it shouldn't go white in the wet and, in essence you have a resin track bed.

I suppose you would do this work until you had the desired (and effective) track work!

 

[Don Gilham]

Hmm the google translation didn't work for me and seeing as I had to make a choice when I was 15 of whether to take german or geography, looks like I chose the wrong one !

Ach ! 8|

 

[ge_rik]

Looks like an interesting approach - the translation worked well for me except in some intriguing places:

eg
"The mixture is introduced into the track using a spatula and Stuckaturkelle"

I must get myself a Stuckaturkelle next time I'm in B&Q

Rik

 

[Don Gilham]

Hehe...just be careful what you do with it, Rik

 

[ntpntpntp]

Nearest I can get is Stuckateur or Stukkateur - meaning plasterer (from Stucco I guess?), and Kelle meaning trowel or dipper. So, there you go - it's a plasterer's trowel or dipper tool.

 

[trammayo]

Hmm the google translation didn't work for me and seeing as I had to make a choice when I was 15 of whether to take german or geography, looks like I chose the wrong one !
/quote]

.. look on the bright side - at least you'll where Germany is!

 

[Don Gilham]

Actually got it working in the end - I was a bit previous !