Ballasting at Baseboard Joints

[RobinofLoxley]

26 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Important when glueing ballast to double check before applying the glue that none of it is foul of running rails and take especial care at pointwork.  It can be a pain to remove after glue has set rock solid!

Very true, especially considering that holes have to be made under the point for the motor pin, and for many people also for power supply cabling.

[Joseph_Pestell]

22 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

I think those who take layouts to exhibitions and achieve less obvious board joints just take along some spare ballast and flock to sprinkle loose over the joint when they erect the layout and accept that it will be lost when they take it down again.  And strategically placed hoardings, road vehicles or huts etc can be used to conceal or at least distract the eye from any joins like the breaks in the fences shown above.

 

An exhibition anecdote from a long time ago.

 

A club offered to exhibit at our exhibition (one of the best 4mm exhibition layouts of its time) with the prime selling point that one could not see the joins (as Eric would have said to Ernie).

 

The downside was that they needed access to the exhibition hall 24 hours in advance which we could not arrange (or afford).

[doilum]

Maybe it's not the ballasting that needs worrying over, rather the rest of the scenery over the baseboard joint. If the rest is seamless then the unavoidable break in the ballast will go unnoticed. The problem is that the scenery is often an afterthought but requires the same planning as the trackwork.

[ISW]

8 hours ago, RobinofLoxley said:

Last time I used adhesive backed 6mm neoprene foam, fantastic for noise suppression but had other issues - you could hear wheele clicking across the track joins and almost nothing else.

 

I have the same issue, but I don't see it as a problem. In my case it's caused by the brass screws soldered to the underside of the rails to maintain rail alignment at baseboard joints. The screws, obviously, go straight through the underlay.

 

I quite like the clickety-clack.

 

Ian

[Butler Henderson]

22 hours ago, ISW said:

I thought I read that you can remove the ballast if you re-wet the ballast (warm water?) and leave it for a while. Then the ballast can be removed from the track.

 

Ian

You can provided you do not use Exterior wood glue, wouldn't be much good as an external glue if it loosened when wet.

[RobinofLoxley]

On 05/05/2022 at 17:22, ISW said:

 

I have the same issue, but I don't see it as a problem. In my case it's caused by the brass screws soldered to the underside of the rails to maintain rail alignment at baseboard joints. The screws, obviously, go straight through the underlay.

 

I quite like the clickety-clack.

 

Ian

No I don't see it as a problem at all, what I meant was that all other noise was suppressed. Laid on cork or on the hard floor as my track has been in the past and all you could hear was massive general rumbling, the foam was so quiet. The 2mm stuff I'm using now is just as effective as it's more compressible than the Neoprene foam.