Removing ballast

[Nick8873]

Hi is there a method of removing ballast not quite happy with the grey thinking should gone with a different colour

[teedoubleudee]

If its stuck down with pva just spray water on it and the pva will disolve. Can be a bit messy so protect surrounding area.

[Nick8873]

yeah only used pva il give that a go thank you

[Steve M]

To add to what TWD said, spray it with plenty of warm soapy water and let it soak. Remove any track pins first so you can slide a thin wallpaper stripping knife under the sleepers to ease the track up without damage.
You will then need to remove the last of the ballast from the track - I soak the track lengths in soapy water and scrub with a scrubbing brush.
Then make sure all the old ballast is scraped away from the track bed before you re-lay the track.

[Walkingthedog]

When I lay ballast I use a mixture of 10 to 20% PVA TO 90 to 80% water. Ballast doesn’t dry like concrete, more like toffee, much easier to remove.

[dtb]

When I lay ballast I use a mixture of 10 to 20% PVA TO 90 to 80% water. Ballast doesn’t dry like concrete, more like toffee, much easier to remove.

nice tip Brian

[Nick8873]

thanks for the tips sprayed it with water and did soften it quite easily just gotta decide what colour/grade of ballast to use any ideas would be great

[Walkingthedog]

I used this colour but you can always change the colour with paint, particularly where locos would stand.