Can ballast be added to an outdoor railway?

[Bill Davidson]

Hi there everybody,

I am new to this game and still at the planning stage of building a small garden railway. My question is can ballast be added to an outdoor railway and if so what would be the best method of affixing it to the track, as obviously anything used would have to be waterproof? My plan is to have a slightly elevated track with a base made from either marine ply or decking boards, any advice would be much appreciated.

[mick]

Hi Bill,

In answer to your question, yes, there's a certain chap operating the Kirkfield and Warmthorpe Railway who's done just that and so I'll leave him to respond to your question and detail how he went about it.

As an aside, having used primarily decking boards in the construction of my layout with plywood being used on just one curved section, I have to say that the plywood has been the least troublesome of the two. It's difficult to keep the decking boards from warping ever so slightly, and at 4mm to the foot it can result in a major problem. If I were starting again I'd probably go down the plywood route.

[ba14eagle]

Hello Bill

The Hampton Field Railway was ballasted in much the same way that indoor modellers ballast their track. Obviously, you need to use ballast that is mineral based / real stone and hasnt been coloured, so as to avoid any chance of fading. To fix the ballast all I did was mix an external grade pva with water and washing up liquid and drop it on - as I say, the normal technique used by indoor modellers and well documented elsewhere. Do it on a nice dry, warm day and it will set lovely. When it rains, any pva lumps that werent mixed in sufficiently may turn white, but hey, we dont run in the rain so its not a problem and most of all, the ballast wont move.

Having picked up the track on my line on 2 occasions now, to allow for a change of scale, the ballast is easily removed by pouring on hot water. The track will now easily move and can be nicely cleaned up for recycling.

I have yet to decide whether I am going to ballast my track this time around (currently relaying in OO gauge). My only other bit of advice - dont let the ballast go anywhere near points - it will cause you untold trouble!

Please look at my layout photos in the gallery - the ballasting is shown on them.

[IanR]

Hello Bill and welcome.

On the Kirkfield & Warmthorpe railway I have used Gaugemaster granite ballast, a 50/50 mix of OO and N gauge. This is put on dry in the usual way. I have then dribbled Johnsons 'Klear' floor polish onto the ballast using a pipette, it runs into the dry ballast very easily. This sets the ballast hard and is very waterproof. The first section I did, which is the section in front of the tunnel, has been out for two winters and is still ok.

The downside of this is that Johnsons no longer produce 'Klear' in its original form. Their new product is called Klear with Pledge but I understand that it isn't suitable for ballasting although I haven't tried it.

I have also used 'Astonish' Wood Floor polish, which is available from discount stores and some pound shops, although I don't think it is as hard wearing as 'Klear'.

Rustins produce floor products too, they could be worth investigating.

I haven't seen original 'Klear' in the main stores for some time now but you may find some in the smaller independent ironmongers.

If I can be of any further help please don't be afraid to ask.

Ian.

[Bill Davidson]

Thanks for all the advice guys, it's certainly given me food for thought and much appreciated, glad I've found this forum.

Regards,

Bill

[fungus]

I have tried numerous methods of ballasting and the only one showing any sign of surviving the weather is real stone (Peco I believe, but I've had it for years) held with diluted waterproof PVA. Mine has only been down a few months, so I'm pleased to read that others have found this method effective.

[bazzanoid]

On the railway at jaybee's we will be using watered down exterior pva and real stone chippings - a reasonably local company, www.modellersmate.co.uk, provide real granite chippings in various colours and grades (thickness of chip) in everything from little 100g bags to 25Kg sacks, which is quite a useful size bag to get for an outdoor layout of considerable length.