Just Between You, Me, and the Bingo Card: Life Lessons from the Assisted Living Facility

Thank you!

 

When it's all said and done you should invite us all over for a BBQ/beer/train extravaganza.

 

I'll just bring pics to the Stranahan/New Belgium meet.

 

dafuq is this you speak of?

 

You're not in the loop?
my bad.

 

Loop? I see what you did there.

 

This one seems alright....
Maybe we should trade up the one we have now?

 

@sean266 getting traded in for a better MOD-el.

 

Really!!

 

Yes, Brett you need a beach for the choo, choo!

 

I'm not sure a 2nd gen would be appropriate on my layout...
Beaches love my train set.

Package coming from Trainworld today. been waiting since last week for this.

 

A ballast tutorial.
Start with a bead of undiluted white glue down each side of the track bed.

Next, sprinkle ballast down each side of the track bed. Get it between the ties as you go, there will be a lot of "fill" on the very edge as you make it look uniform.

The sprinkle ballast down the center of the rails. There should be no glue in the center just yet.

Being as it's a smaller scale, I use a small fan shape brush to gently spread it down the track. This will level the ballast between the ties and spread the excess to the edges.
It's important that everything be dry during this step, except for the original bead down the edge, which is thoroughly covered at this point.
Larger scales I use a chip brush, whatever works is fine.
The toothpick is just a marker from where I left off the last time.


Then use the brush to shore the edges back up.

The left is fresh, unglued ballast. The right was finished last week.

 

Next use the highly controversial wet water, a drop or two of dish soap and 16oz water mix, give or take. If you get soap bubbles when you spray it, use less soap.
Spray the ballast well. It needs to be wet through to the bottom. Otherwise the glue will float on top and cause serious erosion to your freshly poured ballast that you spent time grooming. Smaller scales use something that produces a fine spray or the ballast will blow away.

Soaked.

Then the 50/50 diluted white glue and water. Start right down the center. then come back and do the edges.

After you have glued the center and edges, there will most likely be a few areas where the ballast ran, notice the black track bed showing through.
No biggie, sprinkle some more ballast on these areas, it's wet so it sticks easily.
Then SPRAY IT AGAIN WITH THE WET WATER. otherwise it will float away when you apply more diluted white glue.

Should look like this at this point. Do not worry about the ballast laying on the rail or the ties. That is the next step and one of the easiest.

Don't cheap out here, use a Reach Toothbrush with firm bristle. Size and color of handle is up to you.
After the ballast is dry, it will feel hard and have no flex. Use the toothbrush to gently yet firmly remove the ballast from the top of the ties and the edges of the rail. Usually takes just seconds, a few passes is all that is needed.

Should look like this when done. Run a vacuum across the rail and it will clean the loose grains right up.

Done. Run train and look for any issues.

 

https://youtu.be/-AiYfUoIMKQ

 

I have that same set, it's a G scale D&RGW 4-6-0.

 

Awesome. When you said you had to test your train out. I pictured you laughing just like he did.

 

Trees.

 

Are those happy little trees?