Hi Bill, I think you’re right about the neatness of the ballast, too many people strive to get it ‘spot on’ so it looks neat. Real life is very rarely neat.
When I did the ballasting on my layout I used my wife's Estee Lauder make up brush to spread did a great job nut apparently they are very expensive and I was in the dog house for a week, still a good update and the layout is coming along nice.
It's much easier to watch your video on ballasting which is a no nonsense get it done approach rather than turning it into a science that takes an hour to explain! 👍
I agree with your analysis about ballasting Bill and much else besides. I worked in H&S in Central rail engineering section, pway and civil works plus S&T 1993 to 1996 and plenty of short cuts were taken! For example, painting OHLE structure on each side of the track often involved throwing a can of paint onto the steelwork so that the uprights were new grey paint to about 2.5m and rust above! Plenty of rubbish was left alongside the track as often time was not available to remove redundant materials after a Saturday night possession. This meant that stuff accumulated in the cess until a determined effort was made to remove it. This was frowned upon in some urban areas with a history of trespass due to obstructions being placed on the running line.
Hi Bill. Good idea of mixing grey and brown ballast. I see it dries slightly darker giving an impression of the settling of brake dust on the track. I hate seeing ballasted tracks on RU-vid that consist of just grey ballast. It looks too bright and bland so I think you've got it just right. Also, maybe you should place and glue some litter etc. at intermittent intervals to replicate the rubbish we see on our railways today; that would certainly look more authentic. Keep up the good work matey! Paul. 👍❤
Great work bill 👏 the layout is coming on at a pace 👏 for my ballast I went to pets at home and got a big bag of bird grit it's nice and fine and you get a lot for your money too 🙂 and I mixed it with some fine grey blue gravel that was in large tone bags that were on the canal towpath near to where I live. So I filled a tupperware tub and mixed the bird grit in with it . They had finished laying the path that the gravel was there for. So it what was left over. And I'm very happy with the result ☺
Years ago I bought a ballast spreader, a lot easier and cleaner than just using a brush to spread it around. These days they also make a glue machine as well
I don't know about other modellers but I use beach sand for my ballast where it's used a lot I mixed black paint and sand together when dried I sprinkle it down the sides of the track , it looks ok so I go with it .
Good afternoon Bill, how are you today? I have only done a small area of ballasting and have used the "Scottish" orangey/brown colour. I think it looks very effective. I might have put a little too much on one of the tracks through the station as I do get a little grinding noise as the trains pass through it. Everyone does their own thing but it is always interesting to see a different approach. Cheers
Model railway ballast is a real pain! I simply used Gaugemaster underlay which is not as realistic as doing it with ballast grains but it works well enough for me. Coming on noicely!
Hi some nice tips there bill. I’m in the middle of building my layout. I’ve Seen some one using printout of Points to set up the track. If this was u can u tell me where u got the pics.many thanks John.
Not me. I used AnyRail software to design the layout. I use a long metal ruler to help keep straight sections straight and spacers to keep the distance between tracks equal.
@@chrissouthgate4554 - definitely need a magnet. Also, I recently discovered that PECO used to make steel track, so you cannot simply go by the moulded brand name!
