In yard area I have used Highball Z scale fine ballast for areas between various tracks. It is level with the outside rails and I am more or less satisfied with it. Now we get to the area between the rails on the particular tracks in the yard. Obviously, it cannot be filled high with ballast since the trains will get hung up. I thought about using styrene strips to lay over the ties. I used .20x.250 Width. It seemed right although there was about a smidgeon of space between the inside of the rails and the strip. I then tried glueing together .10x .125 and .10 x .188 strips. They fit perfectly but apparently were too close the inside of both rails. Are people doing something else?
Maybe I'm not awake enough...or dont understand. The ballast in yard areas is level with the ties...not the top of the rails. This includes the area between tracks and between rails. Search railroad yards in Google Images.
Mtn offered a great suggestion... Look at yard images, especially those in the area that you're trying to model. My yard is based on one that was already 65 years-old (my layout is set in August of 1970). I know from pictures taken from the era, that the yard had seen very little maintenance for over 30 years (it was as PRR/PC facility). Consequently there wasn't a lot of ballast holding the tracks in place, nor was there any sort of weed-control between the tracks. I'm still in the process of making mine even more decrepit. If you look at the right-hand track you'll see a section where I've added some Arizona Rock & Mineral, Extra-fine Paving Powder in order to help slightly cover the ties and fills the gaps between the ties. The idea is that will be the "muck" or the combination of mud/soil/ballast/liquids falling off the bottom of the cars that fills in the area between the rails. I'll also have a few spots in the yard with the traditional PRR View attachment 44270
Perhaps he meant in areas where road vehicles will cross the tracks. He basically wants to fill in to rail height leaving enough of a gap for the wheel flanges of the rolling stock. I'm just wondering if this would normally be done with concrete or asphalt and so using either plaster/drywall compound or styrene cut to size would work better than ballast?
