if you wanted to re-ballast an entire layout then how would you best do this? lift the track completely? or leave the track in place, remove 90% of the ballast around it, and then re-ballast?
anyone done this?
tim
I completely rebuilt the station area on Port Perran. I was tempted to leave some ballast but I did lift all the track in the station area then relaid it and reballasted. It was a long job but, I think, worth it.
6 years in to the layout and I still haven't worked up the courage to ballast any of it in the first place. Does ballast have a use by date ???
Done this on a couple of occasions and have always taken the whole lot up and redone from scratch.
just touch up the rough bits, then blend in the new ballast with a bit of airbrushing - it saves a lot of time... ;)
ok....
cheers for replies!
I've decided to dig up the main running lines, re ballast with clean grey fine ballast (may use t gauge ballast)... the sidings and yard can stay dirty brown...
probably a crazy idea but I want the running lines to look like newer ballast
can anyone recommend a very fine grey ballast?
tim
p.s. let this be a lesson to any other newbies, go easy with track dirt / sleeper grime or else you might be left with too dark and dirty ballast!
Did you try over spraying the dirty ballast in grey? Thin coats just to bring up the tone..
yes it looked stupid
maybe very thin coats would have done it but I think still would have struggled to really lighten it all up
cheers
tim