N Scale Mini Layout Build Part 12: Ballasting Unitrack

Рет қаралды 39,505

10 жыл бұрын

I this video I go through how I ballast Kato Unitrack. Since it is a small layout and there isn't that much track, I am going through and being a little more detail-oriented on the ballasting and going at a very slow pace. The ballast I am using is a blend of gray and light gray Woodland Scenics "fine" ballast with some black AIM weather powder added to darken the ballast to a color that closely matches the color of the Kato Unitrack after it has been weathered with some paint washes.
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Пікірлер: 39

@marciebalme588 Жыл бұрын

My Husband has KATO HO track , he is very happy with it

@andrewway3404 6 ай бұрын

I'm building a on30 layout right now and it has a course ballast made from crush walnut shells, it moves very easily while applying the scenic cement. I'm going to try the alcohol method and hopefully I will get better results. Thanks for the great video Steve!

@StevesTrains 6 ай бұрын

The walnut shell ballast can look really nice, but gluing it can be challenging since it is so lightweight. The alcohol helps. Obviously if you are doing a long run of track you have to be careful about the alcohol vapors.

@wrbergner 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for a good instructional video on what is an important aspect to scenery management!

@shemp308 Жыл бұрын

I have done this many, many time's however I say never know what a little trick you could learn. But I think for new modelers, it would help if they could see the difference when you put glue first and then wet with alcohol first. I don't remember when I learned it, but I do remember back as a kid, and the glue just ran over the ballast.

@marke.saunders4803 Жыл бұрын

I don't use unitrack, but your technique is quite good. Thanks for sharing.

@APOTwixx 10 жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing your tips and techniques.

@StevesTrains 10 жыл бұрын

It is a little easier if you use a heavier ballast like Arizona Rock and Mineral or even the Kato ballast which is a type of sand I think. You don't have to be nearly as careful with applying a glue mix and the like. The heavier stone ballasts tend to stay put better. The Woodland Scenics ballast that I use is lighter weight and is more apt to move around if you put too much glue mix down at one time. It still works great, but you have to be more careful during the application.

@sunnysiderails397 2 жыл бұрын

Great Job, man that looks soooooo good!

@theflyingconductor 9 жыл бұрын

I wish I would have found this video before I ballasted my layout. This is a great method that you use for unitrack. I went through 3 bottles of scenic cement to ballast my 3x5 double track layout. I bet if I would have used the alcohol technique, I would have probably only used one bottle of scenic cement. Thanks for posting this video!

@StevesTrains 9 жыл бұрын

Robert Rodriguez You don't have to use alcohol and can mix soap and water and the like to create a wetting agent, but it works well and you don't have to worry about mixing things correctly. Only thing is to make sure you have enough ventilation if doing a lot at one time, since you can end up with a significant amount of evaporated alcohol in the air if doing a lot of ballasting or general scenery work at one time.

@modelrailwaynoob 5 жыл бұрын

thx it looks good

@HumberFlyer 9 жыл бұрын

Ballasting the already ballasted track. That's exactly what I ended up doing. I aged the track/ballast with a spoonful of instant coffee and a bit of water.... looks ok ish and smells nice ;) Steve's N Gauge Model Railway Great video looks Interesting.... First viewing and it's part 12. I need to go back to part 1

@StevesTrains 9 жыл бұрын

It some ways it is easier than ballasting regular track, and mainly I wanted the reliability and durability of the unitrack on this small layout. I hadn't ever used Unitrack until the past year or so, always doing traditional flex track and such, but I do like it.

@cyazijian Жыл бұрын

This is such a great little layout! I have started to build it but I want to eliminate the siding by the crossover, what track would I use to replace the switch track? Thanks.

@StevesTrains Жыл бұрын

I’ll see if I can figure that out sometimes in the next few days

@RailroadScannerMan15 8 жыл бұрын

method i use is to pour woodland scenics fine grey ballast and mix in medium grey to simulate small and large ballast. i pour it in a small pile on the track and brush the ballast away from the track...etc. i use a small brush to knock ballast in between the ties and spray a small amount of scenics cement on it and then come backcthe next day and apply more. bam you got ballasted track. i dont use kato but i use atlas n scale code 83. mike

@StevesTrains 8 жыл бұрын

+Michael Appleby I normally do things closer to your method, particularly when using regular flex track and such. In this case, with a small layout, it wasn't a big deal to take more time with it and I wanted to get the ballast to look as good as possible. It is without question much easier to ballast other types of track, the main issue with the Unitrack is that it is harder to get the ballast to stick to it, and there is very little height difference between the molded plastic ballast and the tie tops. So, it is difficult to keep ballast grains in between the ties unless you take a lot of care, or make multiple passes.

@Kolonol1 8 жыл бұрын

what did you use to do your roads? I actually used this video for my ballast work, and would really like my road to look as good as yours...

@StevesTrains 8 жыл бұрын

+Kolonol1 I have a video on how I did the roads as well, so look for that. They are made with Woodland Scenics Smooth It, except the road up top through the town area which is just a sheet of styrene. Elsewhere, I spread out the first coat of plaster, then sanded it smooth after it was dry, added a second coat, sanded that smooth, then came back with a third coat in places before sanding that. I kept working at it until the surface was perfectly smooth. For painting, I took a few different colors of grayish spray paint and sprayed the paint on lightly and randomly from a couple feet away so some of it would be nearly dry when hitting the road. I kept doing this until I go something that looked good. By using multiple shades of a similar gray color it helped to create the variations in shading you see with a real road surface and by spraying from a distance it helped to create a very slight texture. I used the Woodland Scenics road striping pens for the lines.

@todddavidson9066 9 жыл бұрын

Hey Steve, i was about to start ballasting my unitrack by adding pre-coat of ballast as you and several modelers suggested when I happened to catch a woodland scenics ballasting video where they ballasted plastic roadbed w/o a pre coat of ballast and where they also discouraged using wet water or alcohol with scenic cement stating sc already has a wetting agent. have you had any experience w unitrack and scenic cement w/o a pre ballast coat and without using alcohol? this was the first time i heard of not using wet water/alcohal etc...when ballasting. Also, the pre coat ballast for tooth on plastic roadbed made sense to me. anyway, let me know what you think. thanks, td

@StevesTrains 9 жыл бұрын

You don't have to do a pre coat of ballast by painting the glue on and such, but I have more success doing that for a couple reasons. Without doing that the ballast washes off the roadbed much easier if you aren't very careful, and two, there is increased risk that your glue won't soak all the way to the bottom of the ballast layer, which can result in the top layer of ballast cracking off at some point leaving loose ballast underneath. If you put enough glue on that probably won't happen, but the bottom layer of glue does make for a stronger overall ballasting job. I use the scenic cement, and while it may have some wetting agent added it will still bead up on the ballast a bit and wash more ballast away if you don't apply either the alcohol or a wet water mixture first. The bottom line is that you don't have to do those things, but it is harder to get nice looking ballast if you don't and a lot easier if you do. Also, I think it is probably easier to ballast other types of plastic roadbed than unitrack, since the unitrack roadbed profile is pretty steep. So, you might be able to have better success without doing the first layer of glued on ballast on other track types.

@todddavidson9066 9 жыл бұрын

Stephen Strum I'm sold! thanks so much for your help. I'll hopefully get started with the ballasting this week. Please keep the videos coming as they have been so helpful each step of the way. I'll keep you posted. thanks again! td

@backtosleep 7 жыл бұрын

What do you do if you get sticky switches even though be careful. I have some that are sticking.

@StevesTrains 7 жыл бұрын

Usually I just try to work the slide switch back and forth quickly to work things loose and then use a vacuum to get anything out of the switch opening that I can. If the whole thing is glued up it is more of an issue. You can try soaking things with water or rubbing alcohol to get the glue loosened and then try to keep working the switch back and forth every few minutes while things are drying again to prevent the glue from binding things up again.

@backtosleep 7 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the quick reply. I will try that.

@xavierhorace7213 5 жыл бұрын

How do you make the tracks going uphill into bridges?

@StevesTrains 5 жыл бұрын

Xavier Horace If you look at the first few parts of this series you can see how I made the base. Basically I cut out a sheet of foam board to match the track pattern and then inserted various pieces of wood and foam to raise certain parts of the base up. So, the track itself has nothing to raise it up, but the underlying base rises and falls. This is called a “cookie cutter” type approach. You could do the same thing with plywood but it is far easier to work with foam.

@xavierhorace7213 5 жыл бұрын

Steves Trains awesome and I have one last question on one of your videos, does every track have to be wired or just the turnouts and where would they all will be connected to?

@StevesTrains 5 жыл бұрын

Xavier Horace No, I was a bit overkill with the wires, but I just wanted to make sure I wouldn’t have any dead sections if some rail joints came loose. They are all connected together and go to a plug at the back of the layout. Just have to make sure to not mix up the rails and create a short. When you have a lot of wires it is often best to connect them together one or a couple at a time and make sure things continue to work instead of all at once.

@xavierhorace7213 5 жыл бұрын

Steves Trains so I don't have to use wires on my tracks except for the turnouts, I can live with that, just basically connect the turnout track wires onto another track or the DCC?

@StevesTrains 5 жыл бұрын

Xavier Horace the wires that are on the Kato turnouts are just to control the switch machine that controls the turnout direction. They don’t supply any track power so you will still need separate connections to the track in a few spots to power the track. But yes you can connect those to either dc or dcc power.

@shiftintohigh5564 2 жыл бұрын

👍👍😎🇺🇸

@jonnyspeed 7 жыл бұрын

If you are going to put that much effort into it why not just use flex track? I think ballasting Unitrack is harder than ballasting flex.

@StevesTrains 7 жыл бұрын

Jonathan Hatfield I only use unitrack on these small layouts that move around a lot for durability. A did a couple small ones before with flex and I ended up with rail coming off from handling (small kids around). The unitrack is largely indestructible but doesn't look as good obviously. I just use flex track on more permanent layouts.