Laying ballast

Here I will be showing you how to lay ballast on your track.

Here is the track on the cork track bed.

Cut cork track bed egdes at a 45 degree angle.

By using a old credit card sprinkle ballast lightly between track and card. Don't sprinkle to much!

Using a sponge spread ballast in between sleepers, sleepers must be clearly exposed.

Using the credit card remove excess ballast from the inside of track.

Using an old coach, run it along the track a few times to check that tracks are clean.

We will now use the following to make our solution to fix the ballast to the track.

PVA Glue
Dishwashing liquid
Water

Formula for mixture.

70% Water
30% Glue
4 drops dishwashing liquid (needed to break surface retention)

Using a syringe squirt the solution in the centre of the track it will automatically run over the 45 degree edges. Do not be shy with the quantity of solution being squirted.

Do short pieces at a time, with gaps in between to give time for previous section to set.

When finished it should look as follows.

And

This is a very tedious process so be patient.....

Enjoy
Paul