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The Story Of A Layout
My ramblings about ballasting

Way back, I was lucky enough to have a whole spare bedroom which could be devoted to the model railway.
That layout was basically a wall-hugging oval, with a 8 or 9 road fiddle yard taking up all of one side, with the entry to that 'yard using most of both ends. The other side had a branch junction and had three through platforms plus a short bay platform. Ostensibly, the line was a secondary or cross-country line with a branch off to a coastal town and dock complex, both these places being represented by a small 3 road fiddle yard adjacent to the main fiddle yard.
The break-up of my marriage saw the break-up of the model railway, and everything was packed away in boxes.
Once comfortably installed in my new flat, my thoughts again turned to building a model railway.

At first, due to space considerations, a small layout was planned consisting only of a small diesel depot - in other words, somewhere to display my locos and sometimes give them a shunt out and back. That plan didn't have much potential, so a small station on a double tracked branch line came next, with the idea of imagining the lines going 'somewhere' in both directions. Again, this didn't have too much scope for running trains so another wave of brain storming was called for.

Then my 'grand scheme' sort of came into being. I decided, that in the space I had available, I could do a small Blackpool North, a station I sometimes used to see when we visited my step-daughter. It was busy with passenger trains, local and longer distance ones, and the stock used would fit in very nicely with the stock I had (my DMU's).
So I thought : Blackpool, a coastal town. My old layout 'had' a coastal town. Now if I built this coastal town, if and when I ever should be lucky enough to have (lots) more room again (cue Lottery Winning Dreams), I could re-build my original layout and have the branch terminus modelled as well.

So plans were drawn, re-drawn and drawn again, and again and................
and eventually the current plan was decided upon. To give me a bit more space, the platforms would not be parallel to the layout sides but a bit diagonal across the layout. A couple of carriage sidings (three actually) were added adjacent to the station (unlike the real Blackpool which had several carriage sidings just outside the station) and because I also needed to have my locos (as opposed to DMU's) on display, a 7+1 loco yard was planned as well. Due to space constraints, the 'main' lines had to bend through 90 degrees but were then stopped at the baseboard edge - end of layout, end of world!.

This idea was fine and building then commenced, and still continues (is any layout ever really finished?).
However, as trains could not actually run anywhere (and 3 car DMU's had hardly left the station before they had to stop), 
a portable fiddle-yard extension was planned that would run diagonally across my living room to allow the trains to actually 'go' somewhere. Although built, the fiddle yard proved to be a bit of a pain - once set-up, I didn't want to pack it away when  I had finished operating but then I couldn't really use any part of my living room. Something HAD to be done and thus I commandeered the second wall of the room too, and re-hashed the framing of the fiddle yard to suit.
So now my trains can run into a 5 road fiddle yard, and David is happy :-)

Further to this : Extending a dead end siding made me another branch-line, this time to the docks, and to represent the docks another 5 road fiddle yard was constructed
alongside the main fiddle yard. There is a connection between the two, but only for trains exiting the layout on the dock branch direct into the main fiddle yard.

The Joys of Ballasting.

All ballasting was carried out in the (dare I say it) 'normal' way,
i.e. placing the ballast then adding a PVA/water mixture
(with the obligatory drop or two of washing up liquid)
then (main lines excepted) a sprinkling of flock.

When fully dried, the formation was hoovered to get rid of any loose ballast / flock,
then checked for any gaps etc. These were filled as necessary, and then a
very close examination of the track was undertaken to clear any lumps of ballast
that would foul the wheels of passing stock. Careful attention was paid to point work,
not only for ballast but for any dried surplus glue that could affect electrical conductivity.
Then the track work was cleaned (using a Peco track rubber), then the whole layout
had another hoovering. (If only the rest of my flat received such attention!!)

The main running lines, station area and carriage siding headshunt have all been ballasted
with a mid-grey ballast.
The carriage sidings have been ballasted with fine cat-litter (!!)
unevenly sprinkled with very dark grey flock powder.
The loco yard has again been ballasted with fine cat-litter, this time
with a heavy application of the dark grey flock.
I wanted a dirty 'ashy' look and I am quite happy with the result.
The end of the fuel siding and the far end of the loco headshunt have a lot less dark flock
but more greeny flock (an old mixture of various colours) added to represent weeds.

Most of the non-tracked area of the layout has now received a first coating of flock in various colours.