Hi.
Whilst visiting my local shed manufacture, I was asked what type of roofing felt we preferred on our new shed. As I was looking at the various types, one type looked very much like track ballast. Has anyone else thought about this as I thought it looked quite realistic and a lot less time consuming than the usual method. Just curious to what you think.

Quote from: Marcus Amison on March 15, 2015, 10:17:34 PM
Hi.
Whilst visiting my local shed manufacture, I was asked what type of roofing felt we preferred on our new shed. As I was looking at the various types, one type looked very much like track ballast. Has anyone else thought about this as I thought it looked quite realistic and a lot less time consuming than the usual method. Just curious to what you think.

I've seen it done some years ago in O Gauge outdoor layouts though if I recall that was mainly so the felt could provide weather protection to wooden trackbed, the 'ballast' effect was an added bonus!

I'm not sure if the chipings would be fine enough for 'N'  - would be interested to see if anyone's done it though 

There are two "problems " as I see it. One is as Jools says is the grain size, the other is that the track would sit on top of rather than in the ballast. Both would be overcome by further ballasting, but then does roofing felt have any advantage over other underlays?

Yeah, the whole idea of ballast on a model railway is to make it look real. It's not actually necessary for the performance of a model loco or train, and, in fact, if not done carefully can actually impede the running.

However it is of course necessary on the real thing, in order to anchor the track, stabilize it and provide drainage. Hence the sleepers are embedded in it. Thus, to look real, model railway track must be embedded in the ballast and not sit on top.

One thing I've noticed is that real ballast is quite small, and from a
distance just resembles a texture. Some model ballast translated
into real terms would result in ballast stone being about the size of
footballs, whereas it's often about the size of a potato.

be carefull if you are using steamers this stuff is highly flamable 

the 'chippings' are a bit big , you can get away with it in 00 - makes great roads in that scale .

I would say that the use of roofing felt may prevent the water/PVA mix soaking into the baseboard which could be a benefit. Having used 1.5mm commercial grade rubber as my underlay it certainly stopped the sundeala board from soaking up said mixture.