It's all your guys/gals fault...

[joefryfry]

that my ballast went so well. I have learned so much from this site and the NMRA website. I love the internet. I can find help on anything. This site in particular has helped me avoid pitfalls. I always read up on anything that I am doing and this site has been a wealth of information. Thank you very much guys and gals of this site. I will post some pictures at some point. My next phase is making the landforms and I plan to use chicken wire and paper mache.

I have wanted to build an in depth model RR since I had trains when I was a little kid. I finally bought a house and have a decent basement for a layout. It is HO and only 10' by 4', but it is exciting for me. The internet is a great resource and I encourage everyone to help other members if they have unanswered questions. Thanks again everyone. I look forward to your help on the rest of my layout.

 

[nachoman]

hey, 10x4 is plenty big in HO to get your feet wet in. For that matter, you may get wet up to your waist I agree, the tips and folks on this forum are the best MRR resource I have found sofar.

As for the chicken wire - works good especially for large landforms. Bear in mind that the chicken wire forms may need to be suported by wood risers if the expanse is too great. For smaller landforms and hills, you may want to explore foam, or wadded up nespapers taped to the layout top and covered with paper mache.

kevin

 

[60103]

Which ballasting method worked?
Remember that the chicken wire or whatever under the scenery is just there to support it until it dries, well maybe to balance the larger hills. And you can mix methods.
Don't let the chicken wire touch the tracks. This can cause unforeseen, unwanted, and unpleasant events.

 

[joefryfry]

Which ballasting method worked?
Remember that the chicken wire or whatever under the scenery is just there to support it until it dries, well maybe to balance the larger hills. And you can mix methods.
Don't let the chicken wire touch the tracks. This can cause unforeseen, unwanted, and unpleasant events.

I have split cork roadbed, so I spread a bead of glue with my finger along each side and got ballast on it. Then I got ballast everywhere else I needed it and worked it the way I wanted it to appear. Then I just sprayed a straight 50/50 alcohol wetting agent until the ballast was soaked. I took a half empty bottle of regular white glue and filled it up with water and put that on the wet ballast. Much easier to do that I thought. I just put a Tortoise under the table deal in for a switch and it is awesome compared to the Atlas snap switches I had on there (Don't be brave when ballasting around switch points). I serviced my engine, and my layout so far is working out great. I am ready to make landforms now (fixed all the derailment problems). I also have some rolling stock work that needs done. I am going to ask a mod to move this thread to another forum since this will follow the life of my layout and I will add pics as I go. Once again, I owe much to these forums for the help.