Second attempt at ballast

My second attempt at laying ballast went much better. This time I used Arizona Rock & Mineral's ballast. It went down much easier and held it's color. I've applied some Bragdon Weathering power to give a weathered look. Still got work to do but it's getting there. I will say that I'm not a fan of laying ballast yet.

Get updates and see old photos!!!

First off, I added a new email update feature to the blog.  If you look to the right just under my main logo, you'll see "Follow by email". If you enter your email address, you'll get an email notice each time I update the blog.

Also, I started trying to rebuild some of my old posts where the photos were lost. This is proving to be VERY time consuming and difficult. It seems that a lot of the photos aren't even on my computer anymore. Not sure where they went. Anyway, if there's an older post that specifically interests you and you want to see the photos, let me know and I'll try to find them.

 Well, my first attempt at ballasting track didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I used Woodland Scenics Light Gray ballast. However, when I added the "wet water" then the glue mix, it turned a dark gray. 24 hours later, it's still the same dark color. It also isn't as clean and neat as I'd hoped. I tried to brush the ballast gently off the ties but each time I brushed some off, more jumped back on. Frustrating!

I also decided to experiment with roads. This is my first attempt at a road so it's going to be a learning experience. The prototype is a chip sealed road where they pour hot tar down then spread gray gravel over the tar. I started with a base of "Smooth It". After it dried, I painted on a thin coat of white glue then sprinkled on some light gray fine ballast and rolled it smooth with a roller. I'm leaving it to dry tonight.

 I'm continuing on with scenery in area of the ICG/Southern crossing. In these two photos, I've added the Rip Rap along the ROW and I've poured a "Mud" mixture in the foreground ditch to level out the bottom of the ditch in preparation for the "Water" pour.

More scenery

 Ok, so today I applied some plaster cloth and filled in the hole in the creek at the backdrop. I then mixed up a batch of Joe Fugate's "Ground Goop" of plaster, vermiculite and cement. I love this stuff!!! I mixed it kid of thin and coated the bottom of my stream and the fill of the roadbed and banks of the stream. I then sprayed it with a heavy mist of water to get it to "lay down" and give it a more natural look. I let it dry for a bit then mixed up a VERY WATERY batch of "Ground Goop" so I could get it to "level". In this photo, the watery mixture is still standing.

About an hour later, this is what was left. It looks to be a nice level base on which I can pour my magic water. I'm going to let this dry over night then vacuum off the loose vermiculite flakes.

Getting back to work on the layout. I'm going to continue my scenery work in this area. I plan to have the low ditch ares be full of standing water with some cypress trees in the background to help hide the hole in the wall on the Southern double track main in the background.

The standing water in this photo is the look that I'm going for in the scene above. I want water to be standing under both bridges and in the low area in the upper left of the photo above.

Updates to come. Pictures to return

I've been away from the layout for a while but will be getting back to work on it over the holidays. More updates to come. Also, I updated my Google account. In doing so, I lost all the photos I had posted on the blog. I'm working to get them back up and may just re-post them.