The Cuckmere Valley Railway

Have you thought about using copdex/carpet glue, MHO I have found that the ballast do's not chip off and do's not set like concrete, thus giving the track work a little bit of give to it.

Darren 

Darren: Thanks, I may try that but will also try the methods in Gordon S' thread.

 

Update 25/3

 

So a careful prod this morning resulted in the same thing happening - the ballast crumbling when touched. That between the rails did seem more secure though, so I decided to see how it looked tonight.

 

The result? Disapointing. After a quick waft of the hoover to remove anything loose, I am left with four short sections where the ballast has held, and several.gaps where it clearly hasnt.

 

I wont be trying again tonight, for my sanity!

Sorry to hear about the poor results - but thanks for trying it out and posting the results here. Good to know for the rest of us.

 

Out of interest, is there any particular reason you don't like the old PVA and washing liquid method?

Hi Mikkel

 

The only reason Im not a fan of the traditional method is that I find the act of applying 'wet water' tends to blast the ballast out of place. I have also gunked up points with it in the past

Ah, ok. Yes the points are so tricky when it comes to ballasting. With a syringe for the PVA I haven't had the problem of ballast moving, but I wonder if it also has to do with the type of ballast (eg how heavy it is?). 

PVA thinned with water and a paint brush (a cheap one with a reasonably fine head)worked really well when I did mine. Next one I do however will be a case of having all the track ready first in one hit, and then doing the glue, track and ballast in one hit. It takes preparation but is faster in the long run I think.

The key is wetting the ballast with a mist sprayer, then the pva/water mix flows better using a syringe to apply it.It shouldn't float the ballast.

Another option for applying the PVA mix is a paint pipette , less chance of accidentally

getting a ' blast ' instead of a drip if using a syringe .