Ballasting outside in 00

[d00m]

I'm not yet in the position to venture into the garden, but this is a subject I have been pondering. Ballast. I've seen some layouts using roofing felt, some without and some where the track is set into cement. Recently a neighbour had a new path laid with bound gravel- very impressed!  Just wondering if the resin used in that could be mixed with scale (or slightly over scale) ballast outside? Any thoughts??

[PatB]

Not sure about the resin for bound gravel, but something else you might consider is mixing Cascamite glue powder with your ballast, and then wetting the laid ballast with a fine spray of water (with a bit of washing up liquid in to make it flow). Cascamite is a urea-formaldehyde resin glue and is, at least in theory, waterproof, so should survive outside if not actually submerged. Plenty of wooden boats have been built with it, after all.

[DCB]

Mine is set in cement. The cement is conductive. Electric track power didn't work  so My locos are battery powered.

Outside railways need maintenance.  The felt looks awful and degrades and the wood under it rots, cement cracks with ground heave, track on posts goes out of level with ground heave, cats bend the rails as they climb up over it.   Bound gravel sounds good, better than felt.

scale ballast in resin sounds worth a punt, but like my cement will hold the sleepers if you try tp remove the track.  I tend to treat rails and sleepers separately despite using Peco code 100 N/S rail outside.   I save sleepers from off cuts of trackl and save rail where I have to replace a length  of track because of cat damage.  Quite often I can make up a length from spare rail and spare sleepers to splice in.  I also buy damaged and short lengths of code 100, fllexi steel. N/S anything  Hornby or Peco  for the sleepers.  Set track is useless for recovering sleepers but N/S Set track is lovely and straight and the curves are nice and constant radius, and don't need much holding down so they are well worth using, just cut them to length like flexi.  Cheap track is a waste of money, too brittle and won't survive many winters.  Mine has been down over 30 years and some bits are original, concrete sleeper type, laid on drystone walls and cement ballast. That laid on wood has all been replaced as has the wooden structure..

Its good outside, the lighting is so much better, especially the shadow as a train passes under a bridge or short tunnel..  Attacking snow drifts with 2 locos and a snow plough is actually my favourite.  I may just have had my covid jab but I have no intention of growing up anytime soon.

[faulcon1]

On 16/02/2021 at 09:25, d00m said:

I'm not yet in the position to venture into the garden, but this is a subject I have been pondering. Ballast. I've seen some layouts using roofing felt, some without and some where the track is set into cement. Recently a neighbour had a new path laid with bound gravel- very impressed!  Just wondering if the resin used in that could be mixed with scale (or slightly over scale) ballast outside? Any thoughts??

I know this is an older post but have you thought of using an SBR adhesive. Trevor Jones's well known OO gauge garden railway in Buckinghamshire uses and even mixture of rubber and cork chips mixed with cement and all held together with an SBR adhesive. His ballast which is ground up real ballast is held in place with the same SBR adhesive and has lasted for over ten years. I think the SBR would definitely get my seal of approval as you do a lot more ballasting on a garden railway than you do on an indoor railway. But you HAVE to use CRUSHED ROCK, the stuff that comes in bags and is about the size of granulated coffee. Woodland Scenics ballast would be no good as it's mostly ground peanut shells and not suited to an outdoor environment.