Dry Ballast added and some thoughts.

The dry ballasting is done – but how and why did I do it this way? The first thing to remember is what part of the railway you are modelling. This is a small goods yard, it probably has not been re-ballasted of tamped since it was laid, possibly 50 – 100 years, so it must reflect this. I have seen fantastic layouts in both O & OO and they look immaculate as they have been ballasted with mainline ballast. Some very old yards and goods facilities would not have had good ballast when new, let alone after many decades. I would think that some may have even been laid on cinders or similar.

For Little Sefton I am using N Gauge ballast and Childrens Play sand. The heavily used area is about 90% sand and only a sprinkling of the N Gauge Ballast. The less used areas are almost neat N Gauge Ballast.

I have to say I have used several methods of making well used areas look the part, this includes using DAZ Modelling Clay and adding Polyfilla to the dry Ballast – I would say both these methods worked, but I thought I would have a go at N Gauge and Dry Sand, we will see.

After wetting the ballast and using a dropper to add 50-50 PVA and water I will after drying hand paint the whole area.