Model Railway Forum

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

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.

yeah only used pva il give that a go thank you

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.

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.

Walkingthedog wrote: ↑Wed Oct 19, 2022 10:49 pm 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

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

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