My track building program continues apace, with half of the turnouts now constructed and fitted!

I thought i'd have a go at ballasting the completed section, to see how I got on with a slightly different

technique to what I'd normally use in 4mm. Rather than sprinkle on the ballast dry, then wet it and

add PVA, I used a small brush to puddle areas of PVA between the sleepers (a few at time) and then

sprinkled the ballast onto that. I felt it was more controllable, especially given the way the sleepers are

moulded into the turnout base. It's not an original method as I seem to remember Captain Kernow

uses a similar approach on his wonderful layouts.

I used normal ballast of the type employed on my American layout. Now I know the clever thing would

probably have been to order some Chinchilla dust, but for the sake of this little module I didn't want

to end up with yet another bag of ballast material - I get them mixed up enough as it is.

The ballasting of the points was quite satisfying to do, and far less messy than the usual approach 

in fact I did it on my lap, listening to the radio - the benefits of working on such a small module. Once

I'd done a bit, I just tipped the layout upside to dislodge any loose particles into the bin, I was using

such tiny amounts that it wasn't worth recollecting them. The track was cleaned, and a test run

done using a couple of locos, just to make sure all was well.

I've touched a bit of paint to the rail sides but the sleepers will also be painted in due course. I'm never sure which is best - paint

then ballast, or ballast then paint. Whichever way you do it, there's always a bit of touching up to be done later.