At the point where I'm ready to ballast the track and start the scenery. Which should be done first? I'd like to ballast first but thought the scenery (grass, earth, etc.) would get all over the track. Then I thought it would be easier to ballast first and vacuum the scenery off the track. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Bill
I ballasted first. I am certainly no expert as this is my first layout, but I thought trees and scenery would be in the way if I did it last. I also covered my track with masking tape before I started the scenery so I would not get stuff all over my beautiful ballasting job. Like they say, let's see some pictures.
I do the ballasting first. I like to make sure the trains run after the ballasting so I don't have to damage the scenery if I should have to take out trackage due to a problem. Cover the track with blue painters tape when scenicking near the track.
It looks more realistic if you do the scenery next to the road bed then ballast. Thats the way the real railroads do it!
I do whatever scenery is next to the track first,dirt,grass,ETC,then ballast so the ballast is on top of it..I put a little foliage on the ballast after it's done..
I do the major ballasting first. Then when doing scenery, I will run some grass, weeds, etc, into the ballast, so it appears the gravel has been there a while. Or dribble a little ballast onto the grass, so it appears some fresh work has been done.
If you want the track to look like its been there awhile...ballast first and run grass and weeds up to and into the ballast....like the real thing. If you plan on making it look like fresh track just laid or a reballast...ballast last and put ballast on top of the grass or weeds....like the real thing.
I am trying a different approach. I have laid down painters tape where the road be is going to be laid, and am going ahead with the ground foam only part of the scenery. The hope is that this will make it easier to lay the track. I will be hand-laying the track and setting the ties down and ballasting before setting the track on the ties.
If you're using plaster - as I do - you scenic first; I do that, and get the basic coloration of the plaster done, the area at least adjacent to the track, and then ballast later. In that case, what you really don't want to happen is for white plaster to bleed into your ballast, that looks pretty awful.
I do the scenery first, at least the 6" or so by the track. Then I ballast. While I'm glueing the ballast I add a little ground foam to the edge, so I don't end up with a hard transition line. I like it to look like the weeds and grass tried to get a foothold, but the weed sprayer got them first.
Backdrop - If possible, It would be ideal to do the backdrop first. Still, though, it is common that the backdrop comes last if ever. There is a lot of good advice on sequence already posted. My own thoughts are: * Do a light once over on scenery * Keep in mind access to track to do the ballasting * Decide how important the ballast is going to be aesthetically. You might get tired of looking at track and cork or maybe you are quite happy just running trains..
Bill... If you google or bing images... railroads and weeds You will find that grass/weeds (scenery) encroach on ballast as opposed to the other way around. here is a perfect example.... http://broland.ca/data/docs/bci 032.jpg Just like we homeowners find weed control a constant battle...so do the railroads. Again...its why I ballast first then scenic up to and a small amount into the ballast ;-)
I want my model railroad to look maintained and not run down with weeds growing out of the ballast. When I visit railroads in my area I don't see weeds in the ballast.
I see both sides of this question. My 1st experience was...I laid down ballast, and then when I was all done with scenery, my ballast was a royal, ugly mess. However, I can see the reverse happening if I reverse the order. Still, I'm going to give the reverse order a chance next go-round.
There are two prototypical conditions. One is newly laid or freshly cleaned and re-dressed ballast. The second is roadbed which has been in use for a while since last laid/dressed. The latter having infiltrated dirts, wild vegetation starting, spilled grains sprouting, and other debris accumulating to one degree or another. How many operations are able to keep their entire systems in picture perfect maintenance? Sections, yes. Entirely, no.
I guess a guy could lay some EZ track with the plastic roadbed on top of a grass mat for that Disney like manicured look. That would work better for the smaller scales like Z and N. The Union Pacific mainline across the road from me has plenty of weeds and general foliage creeping around the edges of it's ballast. I would say larger scales would have more weed creeping visible.
I like to lay the track first and get the trains to run perfectly. Then ballast and paint it and make sure the trains still run perfectly. Once that's done I do the scenery at a very leisurely pace. Scenery's my least favourate "job". Ted
I've done it both ways. I actually prefer to add ballast and ground cover during the same session. I mix ground cover right into the ballast-- we're a shortline here without the big money maintenance budget.
