Ballasting Track

I follow the same basic steps as Cody Grivno has explained in the Jan 2007 issue of Model Railroader. The first step is to spread the ballast between the tracks. I use a plastic spoon to sprinkle a spur or 4 feet of mainline, then carefully spread it between the ties so very little is laying on the rail sides or top of the track.

Spreading ballast between ties

Next, I slide a pipette along the inside rails to wet the ballast with straight rubbing (isopropal) alcohol. Others recommend 70/30 diluted but other than the odor, I'm fine with full strength and you can get economical quart bottles at the drug store.

Apply alcohol as a wetting agent.

The alcohol acts as a wetting agent to help the glue, next step, seep into the ballast and firmly adhere it. Once I let this set for 5 minutes or so, I come back with another pipette and apply Woodland Scenes Scenic Cement.
After letting that dry overnight, I run a bead of white glue along the side of the track and use a small flat brush to evenly coat the side of the cork roadbed. I have tried 50/50 glue water mixture but I find the glue right out of the bottle works best for me. I come back with the plastic spoon and sprinkle the ballast along the glue line.

Spreading the glue to the side of the roadbed

I try to be a little sparing with the ballast here since anything that does not directly touch the glue will get sucked up in the shop vac. I go over this section with a 1" foam brush and tap along the top of the ties to push the loose ballast into the glue and then pull along the side to get the profile.

Pressing the ballast into the glue along the roadbed

Again, this dries overnight and the final picture below shows the result. The final step is to go back and dress up any gaps but I will complete this rough texturing first around the layout before I come back to that.

Basic ballast - I will eventually come back and fill in the gaps