It’s been maintenance time on the layout for the past month or so. I decided it was time to do some more scenery, so I set out to do some ballasting in Georgetown on the CN side.
I spread the ballast over the main track and the siding track.
Then I sprayed it with a mixture of water and alcohol, to soak it, and dribbled on a mixture of white glue and water.
After a day, I vacuumed it up… and I mean I vacuumed it up as in about 80% of the ballast went up into the vacuum. 🙁
Very disappointing.
I think I did a couple of things wrong:
- I had too much water and not enough glue in the mixture; and
- I did not let it dry long enough
So after a suitable mourning period, I laid more ballast down and did the same process, this time with a much greater concentration of white glue.
I let it dry for about five days when I was away on business, and when I came back, it was hard as a rock and quite dry. A little bit did come up when I vacuumed, but not very much.
Whew.
I’ve finished ballasting the main and siding in Georgetown on the CN side. To celebrate, I sent Extra 3665 West from Winnipeg to go pick up the five CN ballast cars I had in the siding there, simulating the work train that was in the area. Here’s the video:
There is still a lot to do!
- Take all the ballast off the tops of the ties
- Fix up the little bits that I missed
- Ballast the Manitoba Pool and Irving Oil spurs
- Add bits of ground foam and grass here and there for weeds
- Ballast the CP side!
It’s a start.
Further reading: