Ah yes, ballast. Now there's a topic that can run and run. I guess everyone has their favourite, and favourite way of laying it. I spent a few years wondering around on the dammed stuff and a lot of layouts use a much too big a size. I guess it depends on taste really, and as with the long point timber saga earlier not everything scales. My choice was essentially based on the observation that you can hold a lump of ballast in your closed hand pretty much. While searching I stumbled on a spec sheet for Woodland Scenics Medium Ballast in a blog post by someone who's cross-referenced it with BR's ballast specifications, and it is an almost exact match. I went for Grey Blend, the other colours seem a bit, well, coloury.

How to lay the stuff? Well, back in the day I had success in OO with mixing the ballast with wallpaper paste (dry!). Polycell used to do one that was fine granules which was ideal, but all I could find was stuff that comes in (very small) flakes. This is heresy on some model railway forums (I mentioned it once.... never again!), but spraying PVA everywhere doesn't appeal.

Ok, the flakes don't look good here, I added more ballast after the photo, but it really doesn't matter say about 5 to 1 ballast/paste.

The concrete sleepers have been given a deliberately uneven coat of Railmatch Concrete, a greyish base (match pots from B&Q) for the mainline cess painted on, and a rather darker ones for the headshunt. The concrete section is intended to represent track re-laid in the not too distant past to 'mainline' standard, the beginning of Soddinham's embracement of the 21st century. The headshunt, though flat-bottom rail (I had some knocking about) will get the been-here-for years treatment.

Well the guy on the Whale gets no cigar this week.

I've been down the 4ft wih a 1/2 inch dry paintbrush (arty type, not decorators) taping the ballast mix between the sleepers and under the rail. Bits and bobs sitting in the sleepers is fine. The sides get much the same - tamping the ballast down, and off the sleepers, automatically forms the shoulder.

Great photo. Ho hum.

When it's all places and the edges of the ballast tidied (a bit, this isn't the GWR with their Best Kept Section prizes) I damp the mix with this - dead cheap on eBay - with just water in it.

I give it a fine mist from this height, so as not to disturb anything. After a few seconds the paste starts to dissolve and holds everything so you can give it some welly. No need to drown it. Whatever you do don't try poking the ballast at this stage - slightly soggy wallpaper paste still to anything, even wet things, far better than any super glue ever invented. When it's gone off a bit (poke a bit that doesn't matter) you can press it down a bit to do any shaping you might like to do. You can of course wet it again if you need to (like if the paste still shows a bit). The result is a sort of spongy but easily flaked ballast which can be worked with a knife without trashing the joint - like when you just ballasted straight over a point rodding gap like I just did.

Another awful photo reveals.... I forgot to paint the rails..... I did this by eye and memory, but somewhat to my surprise the ballast width turned out to be 11ft - exactly what it should be (O Gauge Guild spec.)

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