What a load of ballast

My assault on the to do list has been very enthusiastic of late. I have managed to begin the long and oft-put-off task of ballasting the tracks to give the railway some semblance of reality.

After consulting friends and many many different videos on Youtube, I have hashed out a system of laying ballasting based on ideas from one or two different sources. 

Decisions decisions

 My first issue was to decide on a suitable type of ballast to use on the trackbed. I used Countryscenics ballast from Carnforth Model shop to lay on the track. The coarse one, in my opinion looked too large for use on a narrow gauge railway so I opted for the finer stuff.

Precision tools at work.

 I opted to lay the ballast using a teaspoon and a flatbrush to make sure that it fit comfortably between the sleepers. 

Diesel No.3 and Castell Carndochan on a ballast train in the station.

590 sits in the station after the ballast has been laid dry.

 Once I was happy with how the ballast lay on the tracks, I used  syringe to coat the trackbed in a 50/50 solution of pva glue and water with a dash of washing up liquid. As I type this missive, the glue is still setting.

NB alot of future posts will not feature pictures of the railway with ballast. This is not due to some sort of time travel nonsense, I just wanted to share my experience this weekend before all of the other posts are released.