Does anyone ever ballast inside tunnels?? I'm still in process of laying down my road bed, but got to thinking about this.. I could see how ballasting inside a tunnel would be a good place to start so you can experiment and get your mixtures right etc.. But, I don't see any other purpose...
Ballast inside tunnels
- Thread starter Connor
- Start date
if you want to test your mixtures than i think it would be a good idea to build a diorama base if you wanted to so you could practice ballast. what i do is i just lightly ballast, but i don't glue any of it down that way if you mess up you can just start over but thats no fun. or you could just reuse the ground cover or what ever you are using. also you should put down a track or 2 to practice. i made my base 1 foot by 2 foot and 2 inch sides all the way around. it works great keeping the ground cover in. just use wood glue and go all the way around the inside so the cracks get filled.
13Mt
13Mt
I do mine the same way Rockislandmike does it. Just far enough into the tunnel to make it appear to go all the way through.
Connor said:
Like the others, I only go in enough to look like I ballast them all the way thru. I don't know that I would use tunnel trackage for practice as the threat of derailing is high enough when the track is clean, level and flawlessly laid...ol' Murphy's Law
Add me to the list of those who only ballast as far as the eye can see! I do see some merit to using the tunnel track as a ballast testing ground though! Good idea!
Ralph
Ralph
I will have a few short unnels on my new n scale layout. I plan to ballast the track and finish the tunnel walls. Since the tunnels will be rather short, you'll be able to see most of the way through them. The Tunnels will be carved through foam hills, which will be removable for cleaning and maintenance.
Eric
Eric
I have one long tunnel on my layout, and like most everyone else here, I've only got it ballasted to where it can be seen and that's all. I really wouldn't want to try and practice ballasting there, cause it's such a nasty tight place to get to in the first place and it would be just asking for problems. I do have limited access to mine strictly for track cleaning and derailments.