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Ballasting our track.

 

This evening's presentation started with an introduction to the history and purpose of ballast by Stephen Duffell.  Ballast is used to keep track in position, to spread the load of the sleepers onto the track formation and to provide drainage.  He explained the different materials tried and why rough, hard stone was settled upon as the best material.  He brought along some very nice 4mm scale models of LSWR ballast wagons and a brake van.

 

Chris Cox followed with a description of how he models ballasted track on his 1840s 4mm layout.  He has collected grit from the road and sieved it first with a 20s sieve to remove the big bits, then a 40s sieve to remove the dust.  He has experimented with adding coal and ash which can cause problems due to the sulphur content and charcoal dust which is a useful additive to the grit.   His track has the sleepers covered, so he used copper clad sleepers and covers them with thin card before ballasting almost to the top of the rails.  It is important to leave a space for the flanges on the inside of the rails. He coats the card with PVA before ballasting.  For his Bricklayers Arms layout, he used Sandtex masonry paint mixed with playpit sand and spreads it over the track with a palette knife.  Apparently, it sets rock hard.  He paints the track before ballasting using grey etch primer followed by camouflage brown paint .

 

Nick Coppin showed a selection of slides, mostly of variously ballasted track from preserved and national railways.

 

After coffee, Dave Gotliffe gave a very entertaining demonstration of his method of ballasting Z, N and 00 gauge track.  He uses Woodland Scenics slightly overscale ballast which he thinks looks and works a bit better.  It is mixed from two different shades.  The track is stuck down with PVA directly onto the baseboard.  He uses Peco point motors attached to the underside of the points with a piece of 5 thou plasticard between to keep out the ballast.   He uses Humbrol enamel for track, 173 for sleepers and a mixture of 173 and 113 for the rail sides.  Dave drips dilute PVA from a dropper bottle in between the sleepers and sprinkles ballast on top, vacuuming it off when dry.  He uses a nail buffer to clean the head of the rail.

 

Peter Cox rounded off the evening with a description of his method of track laying, ballasting and painting.  He uses cork tiles for underlay just on the main running lines, not in the yards.  They are sealed on the topside which prevents the glue soaking in.  He paints the track after gluing it down with No Nails adhesive.  He uses a wide brush for the sleepers and a narrow one for the sides of the rails.  Unfortunately, the video of an American glue application device did not work but if you want to see it, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5joUz_9Ncx8  Unlike Dave's method, Peter pours ballast over the track and brushes it level with the sleepers before spraying it with water and washing up liquid and dropping a 50/50 PVA and water mix.  It is then left overnight to dry.

 

Nick Coppin.