I kicked off the ballasting on the summer module with this short stretch over the culvert, which will be difficult to access once the road bridge is in place. As mentioned elsewhere, I now use Copydex rather than PVA, which retains a degree of resilience once it has dried, so that the ballasted roadbed still has some give in it. Other than that the process is the same; sprinkle down the ballast, mist over with water, then add the dilute Copydex solution through a pipette or eye-dropper. The result is ballasted track which still has almost as much sound-deadening properties as foam underlay. I'm using Woodland Scenics underlay and ballast, by the way. The underlay is a denser product than the Peco one and by all accounts is durable enough to last the lifetime of a layout.

I paint track and sleepers with sleeper grime to begin with, apply the ballast, then go back over the sleepers and rails with another coat of grime, which serves to conceal any stray bits of ballast stuck to sleepers and rail sides. I also add a few dabs of rustier shades here and there. Once I've done a decent stretch of track, I also tint the ballast slightly with various dirt and oil coloured washes to suggest track which has had some usage.

Call me mad but I quite enjoy ballasting. Surely no other activity makes so much difference to the realism of our models in one hit? I'm struck, as always, by how the addition of ballast not only improves the track, but it makes chassis detail stand out so much more on the trains themselves - the parts no longer lost in shadow, but visible against the sleepers and ballast.

And that's 50% of the visible pointwork on the entire layout now ballasted!