Large Scale Central

Gluing Landscape Rocks, Gravel & Sand

Gardening
#1

My new video includes landscape gluing.

See: Glued Ballast & Landscape: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcXDYlq8Ips&t=1071s

This might be one of the most useful and practical “How to” garden railroad videos you’ll ever watch. Glued stone material has great potential for new and existing garden railroads, because it is so good, but rarely used. It drastically improves realism and durability, while decreasing maintenance time and costs. When you learn how to glue sand & gravel, you can use this technique all over your railroad for many things including track ballast, terrain and even mountains covered by different sizes of real rocks, gravel, sand and live plants. Its realistic appearance and low maintenance is why the most asked question at Cholla Patch Garden Railroad is: “How do you make your ballast”? This video is my detailed answer to such a great question.

Produced by John Carmichael: Email questions to: [email protected] Cholla Patch Garden Railroad, Tucson AZ on 6/28/26. Feel free to copy, use and modify any of the images or video clips you see here. Please help us spread this useful video with your Garden Railroading friends and organizations.

See more of my Design Construction videos at: Cholla Patch Garden Railroad: https://www.youtube.com/@philpappas8834

And this: The Ultimate Guide to Glued Track Ballast for Garden Railroads https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVXB0QC78Lw&t=792s

2 Likes
#2

I have been to the Cholla ( for the rest of everyone but me , John Miller, and Boomer,its pronounced Cho yuh not what you are thinking) Patch railroad and the trestle work is immense , huge, impressive, add to that the metal( I think) buildings and all the various cacti

20160306_124346
20160306_1243461920×1080 477 KB

20160306_124349
20160306_1243491920×1080 478 KB

you get an impressive layout in a front yard the lookout tower has a great scene, at the bottom of the tower there is a bloody figure impaled on the barrel cactus with people looking down and I think there is rescue people trying to figure out how to get the dude out

1 Like
#3

Cool!

Our track “floats.” I wonder if this would work? Also, given our humidity (over 70% year round), I wonder what the dry time would be?

Eric

P.S. @John_Carmichael , you may not remember, but Oldest Son and I had the privilege to visit a few years back. It almost saved him for the hobby; the pictures inspired his younger brother, Kid-zilla, to dig in!

#4

Don’t know if this will be any help, but here is what I did. I dry-mixed three parts chicken grit (for gizzards; starter grit - basically like granite dust) with one part mortar mix. Spread this dry mixture as ballast. Once the ballast profile was the way I wanted, misted the ballast with a garden hose. The mortar in the mix will then set up and preserve the profile, but it won’t set up so hard that one cannot break it apart with a tool (screwdriver or dandelion weeder) when adjustments or revisions to the track are needed.

Regards, David Meashey

1 Like
#5

Hello Pete:

It was great to see your post and photos. Thank you for the fine compliments. I can see those are old photos from when my railroad was in its infancy. I’m amazed that you kept them and remembered them. Thanks for your posting- John Carmichael

#6

Hello Dave:
I have seen several layouts where people used mortar mix just like you did. In all of these, initially, the mortar mix ballast looked and performed ok, But in a short time, cracking and separation occurred, and chunks of it fell off. The end result after a few years was an ugly mess. Cement doesn’t act like glue. Properly glued ballast won’t separate like that. Glue has some flexibility and forms strong bonds between particles. Mortar has no flexibility and does not bond well, so cracks form. I think my gluing technique might work well with your Chicken Grit since it is like granite. But if it is very fine as you implied (you called it dust), then it will have glue penetration problems. Beware of dusty fine particle ballast if gluing and beware of mortar mix if you’re not gluing.

#7

Hello Eric:
So many fathers have visited us with their sons and daughters, that I can’t remember your visit. But I’m so glad that your youngest son caught the railroading bug. For me, getting the kids interested in this wonderful hobby is my primary goal. We need to get them off the cellphones and internet. They need to be outside, in God’s world, and enjoy being a kid and learning a lot at the same time. Keep up the good work. You are a good father. Please visit us again.- John Carmichael

#8

Thanks for posting how to glue ballast. I was about to start when I saw you’re post and glad I had not started as I didn’t know all the prep work that is involved. Now I have started on some of the ballast, I will not be doing it all as we will probably be adding a loop in the spring.

#9

Well John;

My ballast stayed put the whole eight years I had that layout, but I must admit that the sub-roadbed was the brick-hard red Virginia clay we have in this locale.

Regards, David Meashey

#10

I’ve heard that using Tightbond III for ballast glue results in a yellow tint over time. Have you noticed that?

I recently tried some mulch glue. Same stuff basically but probably a lot more expensive. :laughing:

#11

Been there a couple of times , I belong to ABTO IN Phoenix and have been there for the spring tour, I may need to come back and check it out again!!!