Ballasting EZ Track...

[Warflight]

It's yours to do as you please. That's the cool thing about model railroading. Of course, you can't have a movie set without old #3. Lay some track to Railtown.

Heh... I have one... it just needs some work to make it DCC...

[Warflight]

Tyco made a die cast Sierra No. 3 many years ago, they are still around at train shows. DC engine, difficult to convert to DCC.

Oh, tell me about it!

Fortunately, I use Bachmann EZ Commander (and two Walk Around Companions) and say what you will about that system... it can run DC without any issues with the DCC engines.

[Terry Toenges]

Here's your next project   Railtown

[Warflight]

Welp... there goes MY Autumn months!

[Warflight]

Okay, so... EZ track ballasts quite well!

Oh, and in answer to a question I asked MONTHS ago... yes, the Bachmann ballasting took made it even easier! (bit of tacky glue on the sides of the roadbed, speared with my finger, then the ballast spreader run down the track... I could ballast about six feet of track per minute with the spreader)

The ballast gluing tool however... just... make your scenic glue in an Elmers bottle, and use that... way easier!

So... here's some shots of the ballasting so far:









There are a few sections where the grey is showing through (mostly in the middle) but I plan to fix that by making a wash with alcohol, and some black poster paint (it dries VERY chalky) and a bit of white glue, and drizzle it along the middle of the rails... this will give the illusion of soot, and spilt oil in the middle, and hopefully, will spill over a bit along the sides, to give the illusion of oil drippings from the drive rods.



Oh, and I did NOT paint the rails... no need... in some areas where they seem to shine a bit, I will be going over the sides with a brown marker, however (the markers they sell for repairing scratched furniture? Those work BEAUTIFULLY if you want small metal to look rusty!) Due to the colour of the ballast (I'm using a mauve) the reflections already look nice and weathered.

Anyway... cheers! (and yeah... EZ Track was the best decision I ever made!)

[Trainman203]

Nice scenery work.  Those spruce trees always look peculiar to those of us that live Down South, we just don't have them much,they look like Christmas trees.

[Warflight]

Nice scenery work.  Those spruce trees always look peculiar to those of us that live Down South, we just don't have them much,they look like Christmas trees.

Yeah, I did a combination of spruce and pine... in my reckless youth, I lived in some high desert area that had this look, with a lot of pine, and spruce (Alpine, Big Bear, Independence) and it kinda reminded me of my youth just a bit.

[Trainman203]

One thing I've realized.  Almost all our layouts have something to do with our youth.

[Warflight]

One thing I've realized.  Almost all our layouts have something to do with our youth.

Quite right, indeed.

[Terry Toenges]

If not for my Dad having train layouts when I was a kid, I don't know if I would be doing it now. I probably would anyway but his influence sure helped to point me this way.

[Warflight]

See? I loved trains my whole life, but my dad was NOT fond of them... he felt that trains took jobs away from hard working truck drivers. (he seemed to forget how many more truck drivers are needed to take product from the trains, to the market, and product from the field to the trains, etc)

[Trainman203]

Was your dad a truck driver?

[Warflight]

Was your dad a truck driver?

Yep... he went from the Navy (Korean vet) to truck driving... he was a driver for many years... hell, even I was a truck driver for about ten years.

[Terry Toenges]

My dad was in the Navy for WWII and reactivated for Korea. After WWII, he became a street car operator and then a bus driver for a while. After Korea, he became a truck driver.  
One of the truck driving jobs he had was in the rail yard, loading the piggy back trailers onto the flat cars. This was long before the double stack stuff they have now. Occasionally, when I was young (maybe 7-9), he would take me to work with him when he was doing the  piggy backs.

[Warflight]

I always wanted to do ride alongs with my dad... other kids got to with their dads, but, my dad worked for Safeway, and Safeway was never really all that family friendly...

Fun story... when i was working for Vons years ago, and Safeway took them over, the first thing they eliminated was the "Employee Appreciation Day", and the second thing was "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" (unless you were management. of course... it helped to breed an "us vs them" attitude between management, and the workers)

Fun times though...