On the Layout: Ballasting the Union Station Corridor

     For the past few weeks, I've been working on ballasting the area near Union Station.  I'm actually not adding ballast to the track, I try to get as close as I can to the ties without getting glue or ballast on the track.  I do this so that I can reuse the track in the future when I move on to my next layout.

  

  I use a mixture of fine gray ballasts from Woodland Scenics.  I also use Scenic Express' dirt as ground cover along the right of way.  There are also small patches of grass blend to represent areas of small weeds that have grown on the side of the tracks.

    Once the first layout of ground cover has been added with a mixture of 80% white glue and 20% water, I shop vac the pieces that made it onto or under the track.  I then look for patches that may need a little more cover and then saturate the area with Woodland Scenics' Scenic Cement.  The Scenic Cement moves through the ground cover better if you apply some 70% isopropyl alcohol to the space first.

    Once all the ground cover has been added, I'll add of the trackside equipment from Details West that I assembled last month.   This isn't my favorite project, but it makes the layout look better.