Model Railway Forum

Greetings all. I arrive with many more questions than answers I'm afraid having rekindled my 00 gauge interest 2 years ago after more than 50 years being busy doing other 'stuff''. It was a lockdown rebirth, like a few others on here I suppose. Myself and a good friend are engaged in building a layout together in an outdoor, brick shed that is split in two. I'm 1950s London grime, industry and chaos and my co-constructor is bucolic English countryside, somewhere in the South-west in the early 60s. The tunnel between the 'rooms' acts as a superb time/distance machine. We've been at it 2 years and not a spec of ballast is place yet. After all these years half planning a layout for retirement (not quite there yet), we both bit off a rather large chunk of optimism in terms of what can be achieved in a 6mx3m space and are befuddled on a weekly basis by the behaviour of electricity. We get together most weeks and the regular diet of shorts and dodgy soldering keeps the grey matter active. We set out from the start building our own points with copper clads as we both wanted that natural, flowing look to the track but it does come at a cost in terms of time and complexity unfortunately. Anyway, upwards and onwards to the next short. See you anon.

Welcome to the hobby and the forum. Not sure if it was your intention but your post certainly made me smile. We’ve all been there and as you say it’s [allegedly] good for the grey matter if not temperament. Keep going, looking forward to the next instalment. R-

Welcome to the forum - any questions - just ask away. As Roger says "we have all been there". No need to rush anything - slow progress makes for a better layout. BB

I will speak some heresy...ballast. Modelellors of good to exceptional talent really pull it off. Then, there are the DIY videos which makes one think it can be done in one's sleep. The issue, for me, at least, with permanent ballast is, well, it's permanent. If you have to make changes or repairs you're now going to stop short of hiring a backhoe. The track, after wrested from its glue, may or may not provide additional service. Ripping out ballasted turnouts is a particular joy to behold. And, should you decide, at some future point, that you'd like to go in a different route, well, heh, good luck with that.

The question is, then, how good is good enough? Assuming you have already invested as much as you can afford into set track, there are other options. One that I used with some degree of satisfaction was taking foam roadbed and giving it a spray coating of textured gray paint. If one is really inclined, a light wash of dilute India ink will cut the gloss and add more dimension to the gravel bits.

Myself, having spent a King's ransom in importing OO set track settled on prefabricated roadbed set track. Washed down with India ink, it won't win any prizes, but it is considerably more reliable and considerably less time is spent tinkering with derailments.

It wouldn't hurt to take a disused section of set track, a bit of roadbed, and mount it to a piece of scrap lumber. Ballast that to your heart's content and see if you can fix the way treated ballast tends to climb the interior aspects of the rail, and experiment with methods of wiping off the wet glue mixture- and beware, if you have dodgy connections, the liquid loves to seek out rail joiners. Turnouts are another disaster waiting to happen. Not so long ago I helped a friend assemble a rather large conglomeration of set track. My warnings fell on deaf ears and he applied ballast from one end to the other. First, it looked awful, simply awful, and worse it essentially destroyed what was previously a fine running layout with the kinks worked out.

Carry on, look forward to seeing some London Grime, and hat's off to those who have mastered the fine art of ballasting.