HI HO A Ballasting We Go!

After completing the ballasting project, I started to mull over the next project to tackle. Complete the scenery around the Rt 30 bridge? I have to fix the edge into the fascia and not sure how to do that yet. Complete the scene around Vic's Bait & Tackle? Well, that's under the B&O bridge which I want to detail a little more and finish the hillside first. Detail the LAS Fabrics Co building or some of the taped together building mock ups in downtown Irwin? Well, first I have to clean off my work bench and find some place for all the tools and parts I have. I want everything organized and when I do try to that, I am never satisfied.

Finish ballasting? I hate ballasting. OK, so this was the lamest of all the excuses, and therefore the new project. Cody Grivner's Scenery Step by Step: Ballasting made easy in Model Railroader January 2007 has been sitting on my shelf for a while and I've tried it a few times in little efforts but still not real happy. I dusted it off again, read it closely - including the two tips I missed the other 3 times - and in one night I finished ballasting between the ties on the entire mainline. Tonight, I started with the first layer of ballast on the sides of the roadbed and I am pretty happy. I completed the mainline through Irwin, the interchange track with the P&LE, the P&LE siding and two other spurs. Sweet!



Except, now I WILL have to clean off the work bench...