Model Railway Forum

No.4 for me.

Hello Steve
Have you used any PVA on your ballast test tracks?
I purchased a light grey ballast and it went very dark almost black after gluing it in place with watered down PVA.
I was rather disappointed but learnt to live with it as I had purchased tons of the Stuff and being new to model building at the time I did not think of testing to see if it would change colour when glued in place.
Puddles

Puddles wrote: ↑Sun Jun 20, 2021 6:37 pm Hello Steve
Have you used any PVA on your ballast test tracks?
I purchased a light grey ballast and it went very dark almost black after gluing it in place with watered down PVA.
I was rather disappointed but learnt to live with it as I had purchased tons of the Stuff and being new to model building at the time I did not think of testing to see if it would change colour when glued in place.
Puddles

Yes Puddles, the usual 50/50 mix on the test pieces. On a previous layout I used a granite sand which took on a slight green tint. I have read that some PVA brands are especially prone to ‘tinting’ which is why I always test now.

Jury is still out on which ballast I use although definitely not no 4 (sorry TWD ) it’s far too coarse for OO but I put it in the trial for a reference point. I’m baffled by their description - ‘fine’!!

I used medium OO on my O gauge. Well that’s what it said on the tin/bag.

I reckon the best way to pick the size is to look at the size of an OO hand. The ballast need to be smaller than that.

Steve,

No 3 for me all day long...... No 1 is too fine and No 4 too coarse.....No 2 is so-so.

I have a few bags of various ballast that I am happy to send you a sample of, but they tend to be browns rather than greys.

Let me know and I will put some in the post - cheers Richard

Thanks for the offer Richard but it has to be grey (to match my complexion from too long in the shed )

Using the fist size rule, 2 is closest. Further sieving has removed even more fine dust which has made the resultant mix look a lot more respectable. It’s a lot of work but at £2 per kilo it’s worth it.

While sifting my eye roamed along the shelf where I display my locos - a Castle has a new driver. A huge bl@@dy false widow spider which ran off before I could wield the hoover. Now I know it’s watching me.

To my very novice eye it's either #2 or #3. Might have to explore the chinchilla sand option.
If I knew that spider was there watching me, that would be the shed in quarantine

Trial, day two.

I put the sand through the sieve again, removing yet more fine grains, then mixed the remaining coarser grains with the bag of Woodland Scenics medium grey - roughly 4:1. Test section no.1 still drying, but I think this is the best mix yet.

20210621_160706 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr


And now to introduce Ms. Drusilla Deathstalker who may well have made off with a member of the Castle loco crew.

20210621_160852 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

#1 is looking good
Ms. Drusilla Deathstalker isn't

Made a start on the ballasting of the easy sections. Used my patent mix on the rails and the sieved fines for the cess.
Not looking forward to ballasting the junction though.

2021-06-22_07-24-22 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr