Great idea

Thanks, so glad we can help

Hi Dale, thanks for your support, glad you like the videos

Thanks, I tried that and it comes out great like you say.

If you want a finer sand, say for a beach scene, you can get bags of fish tank sand for cheap as well.

I've used that as ballast as well

I prefer the roofing shingles better. All that is required is a sharp sturdy knife... With the proper measurements and shingle color, and a bit of black paint, chalk, or sharpie to generate oil stains, the roofing shingles look great without the hassles.

I don't use ballast, I prefer various ballast mats. Simpler, cheaper, quicker and most importantly much more reliable running

We use it all the time now, in fact our very popular exhibition layout uses this technique and unless we point it out no one notices it isn't ballasted in the normal way

Thanks. Neither does our roofing felt idea, or the commercially available ballast mats, it's a trade off with simplicity and time plus smoother running and easily changed track, which are advantages on smaller layouts or when starting out , against realism.

Budget Model Railways this is true

Thanks for your comment and support

No it was just standard model railway ballast

Thanks Tim

Excellent, how did you stick the gaffs tape down as its not double sided please?

Budget Model Railways i just pinned it down. I used a cutting board to work on and done one piece at a time. Took for ever :). I ussed a hand held hoover to clean up the excess and reused it

I should think so.

Budget Model Railways ok thanks

nz mopar rebuilds ii

To correct yes , but depends how much skill and time you have, that's why there are several commercially available products that do the same thing. Our exhibition layout uses roofing felt and after three exhibitions no one has mentioned it yet

Im ur first subscriber !

Stephen Bates - put it on your layout *to WHERE???*

Hi. You can use any normal type of loose ballast, double sided tape came from pound land. Actually it's really tricky to get the track up without breaking it as it sticks really firm along its whole length.

Hi, Pound Land sounds like our dollar store here in the states. I was looking at 1.8 inch carpet tape also used for holding down engineered flooring. But there was a large word on the box that said PERMANENT. My benchwork starts with 1.2 inch plywood and 1 inch of foam insulating board. So how about some long finishing nails that would reach thru everything down into the plywood. Flex trak is expensive and the thought of one day having to take it up is a concern for me. i guess we need a good solution on how to protect your track for the future. bob

We have moved on now to using roofing felt of the type used for sheds etc. It looks as good as any other ballast mat and is quick and easy. Long nails might be a solution.

I was thinking about the use of cat litter but I don’t know if the grains would be too large?

They usually are large chunks but you could break them down.

No it was some I got cheap second hand

I think that's a great idea will use it my self.thanks.

Thanks

Hi, yes just mixed from what I had knocking about. If you see our other video I now use gravel for aquarium fish tanks which is about 25% of the cost of model railway ballast. Thanks for watching.

+Budget Model Railways Brilliant! You are a hero, sir. Was supposed to be having productive day off today but ended up marathoning your efforts instead! Huge congrats. Excellent stuff!

Thanks for the praise you are too kind, but really glad you enjoyed them, we enjoy making them.

It was a standard method some years ago, it has it's pros and cons. At one time there was even a commercially available tape esp for model railways.

Yes, assuming I had the money! We show budget ideas that's the point of the channel