best material for run down sidings ballast

[ikcdab]

I have mostly ballasted my 4mm OO mainlines with nice, clean granite chip ballast. All fixed with pva.

But now i need to ballast sidings which in reality were ballasted with ash or, if normal ballast had been used, is now severly contaminated.

Today i tried using wood ash out of the log burner, but as soon as i tried to fix it down, it just floated around and looks horrible.

So i am wondering what to use instead. I have seen mention of using das clay (or similar) but im not sure i like the idea of that? I have quite a lot to do.

I have also had the idea of mixing my granite chips 1:1 with something like dry powder tile grout. Brush it all in place then just finely spray with water/pva mix to fix down. I think that might give a contaminated look.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Dagworth]

5 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

I have mostly ballasted my 4mm OO mainlines with nice, clean granite chip ballast. All fixed with pva.

But now i need to ballast sidings which in reality were ballasted with ash or, if normal ballast had been used, is now severly contaminated.

Today i tried using wood ash out of the log burner, but as soon as i tried to fix it down, it just floated around and looks horrible.

So i am wondering what to use instead. I have seen mention of using das clay (or similar) but im not sure i like the idea of that? I have quite a lot to do.

I have also had the idea of mixing my granite chips 1:1 with something like dry powder tile grout. Brush it all in place then just finely spray with water/pva mix to fix down. I think that might give a contaminated look.

Any other suggestions?

 

I have exactly this with Ipswich, my best result so far is to use soil from the garden, dried, sieved to remove any vegetable matter, and any lumps in the soil crushed so it is pretty much dust. This can then be used as ballast as is or dropped over normally ballasted track where the soil is so fine it fills the gaps between the ballast granules. Best bit of using soil is that it's free.

 

Andi

[young37215]

I have used Peco PS320, ash and cinders fine grade. It still looks a bit clean when laid but a few minutes spraying sleeper grime and similar paint soon dirties it up. The 2 sidings in the picture below have been ballasted using a mix of grey ballast and PS320, they will get another coat of grime at some stage.

 

 

[DCB]

There isn't a definitive material, soil, coffee grounds ash are all soft materials and very difficult to fix down.   I wonder if contact adhesive (Copydex?)  is the answer to fixing them.   I found some carpet backing i sprayed green for grass looked convincing as ballast when  I accidentally sprayed it grey, and my coaling stage ballasted with anthracite grains looked pretty good  but Antracite only comes in black (and granite chips in grey)

The ballast will vary with the period modelled,   for 2000 era static grass is good, you can barely see the track in some sidings let alone the ballast.   back pre WW1 the ballast used in yards was generally to top of sleeper level or above for the convenience of Horses among other things and much was sourced locally, Limestone or ash and clinker from loco sheds.  1923-68 sleeper tops visible and ballast almost level seemed typical. For really grot sidings cutting lengthways grooves in the baseboard wide enough for the rails and flanges to run and ballasting with chips, spraying with gunge coloured paint and having no sleepers at all is pretty convincing, maybe not even have rails if no locos enter the siding, as in a short bit in my coal yard or for 23-68 ballast the whole area and then lay track with card sleepers,  because a lot of photos show rails and sleepers on a flat level layer of ballast,    Apart from code stupid rails and hairpin bends and the rest a lot of early post WW2 model laid straight on a baseboard does look uncannily like the real thing where lovingly ballasted track just looks contrived, especially when there is no definition between the wooden sleepers and the stone orash ballast