I dislike ballasting :thumbs_down: so much that I've considered not ballasting and just letting the cork or WS foam roadbed represent the ballast. But since WS foambed is black, that's not going to be representative of what I'm modeling. I'd paint the WS grey but I don't think caulk would then adhere to it very well for securing the track. Any ideas for altenatives to the wet water and white glue / matte medium method? I don't want to buy Unitrack and I don't want to use Instabed sticky roadbed. Ideally, I'd like to apply some kind of adhesive to the roadbed and dump the ballast on it, let dry and sweep up. I think somebody tried Fleckstone spray paint and pressed the track into it? Thanks!
Invert track, spray with any tacky-type glue, or even brush with a light white glue, and then press it into place. Weight it with soup tins. You won't get anything even as good as the fake plastic of EZ and Uni-track ballast if you don't use something that is also found up even with the tie tops, including inboard of the rails. I'm afraid there is no substitute for ballasting. The pain is all in the pouring, and then sweeping it with a small brush forward of your area of pouring. It is a pain, but you can always do six feet at a time in about 15 minutes...that's how long it takes me to do 6' of ballast. I don't worry much about how it looks at the edges against the terrain...that should be natural and how it wants to fall. The only places I worry about are between the rails and near the tie ends. It is seemingly painstaking, but I just go numb for 15 minutes. Don't forget the rail-tapping part: when you are baked and don't want to keep sweeping the last grains off the ties, take a small wooden dowel or a heavier artist's brush and use the handle to tap, tap, tap, both rails along the length. About 12-15 taps should have all the grains left on top dancing themselves off to join their brethren. Get yourself a plastic squeeze bottle, even an empty glue bottle, with a small hole that will allow you to dribble out an isopropyl alcohol and water mix. I wrap a piece of masking tape under the screw top of those screw-nib or blade opening nib wood glue plastic bottles, but I place a pinhole in the top before restoring the screw cap. You get a nice dribble that way. You soak the ballast (but I never, ever, make it run out the bottom like some folks do). I estimate how far it has soaked in and then dribble a very light yellow glue mixture the same way. Wipe the rail tops immediately, and then walk away, walk the dog, pick up dog poo, go bug your wife...life goes on while your 15 minute investment dries.
I'm with Crandell on this. There really is no substitute for ballasting in terms of achieving a remotely similar result. Now if you were hand laying your track, you could use something thinner as your ties, such as old PC board and just apply grass over the ties. I have done this in lightly-used branch line applications.
You can buy track with ballast, sectional track. But for me, this is no alternative ! I use ballast, even it is a tedious work. Wolfgang
Viaducts, NYC line to St.John's Park, Etc. Go urban industrial, place all track on elevated viaducts that enter commercial structures at above street level, a la the Central's late lamented West side line to St.John's Park Freight Terminal. Keep all the rest of lower levels(s) as street trackage. You can make your own or using Luna Track or somebody else's girder/Johnson Bros. track. At edge of the layout have wooden pier/wharfage substrate with tracks on or within the wooden deckage, or stone paving blocks, as the case may be. Layouts of this type open up lots of opportunities to facsimilitize real railroading. Obviously, if watching trains go by, is limits of your interest - this form of model pike ain't for you. On the other hand.... If ballasting rather than impatience is the motivating force - this is the answer to better railroading without ballasting. Good-Luck, PJB
I always do it in short sections, but I actually enjoy ballasting. I try to think of it as just another part of the scenery. If you want to model the black grime and sand spills around loco service areas, that's one place you can get away without ballast. I'm using water putty painted near black to represent it. Mike
