Ballasting Rokuhan Turnouts

First post here. I've been away from the hobby for around 15 years. I'm jumped back in again about 6 weeks ago and layout 4 is well underway and it is my first go at z scale. I decided to go with Rokuhan for track. Their self contained, nonobtrusive swith machine design was a big part of that decision. All in all I find the Rokuhan stuff a dream to work with and I've never been a sectional track user.

I made my first mistake with one of these little gems by using carpenters glue to tack the track into place. Dumb move. Despite changing the switch to non power routing, I lost sight of the fact that these turnouts will wick that thin glue straight into the machine parts locking them up tight as a drum......duh no more wood glue. I'm planning on DAP now. I spent 2 hours in the operating room cleaning the dried glue out of the switch parts and got it functioning again. Nice part is that I sure have a preety good felling for the machine innards now!

The problem I'm trying to figure out now is in ballasting and weathering the turnouts. I'm quite sure that I'll end up in exactly the same mess if I go with the standard method of wettng the ballast with Isopropyl alcohol followed by scenic cement/matte medium that I've used many times. I'll use that appoach on the regular track but I was wondering how you Rookuhan usrs are ballasting your turnouts without damaging the internal switch mechanism?

Thx,

Tim

My module base is closed cell foam so I use foam tack to hold track down, I like it as it easy to release and remove if you want to make chnages but I always put weight on the track while it is setting up, for ballasting I thin the foam tack and with a paint brush paint seam between road bed and foam with solution and then sprinkle grey sand to hide seam, However i do not glue down the turnouts and do not ballast them, but rather lay down grey sand over outline in a very thin layer on the outline of turnout, and let cure before fastening track on either end of turnout down to foam bed, and hiding seam as described before. I do about 4 sections of track at a time, or one turnout.

regards Garth

Yes Garth, I follow a similar method, but since my chosen ballast colour is different from the basic grey of the Rokuhan roadbed, I've tried painting that plastic with a good enough for me match for the ballast. However i came to (expensive) grief when I attempted to weather the rail itself - the paint running under the rail and causing all sorts of electrical disconnects inside! I have yet to re-connect my relaid, refurbished turnouts. I had to totally replace one turnout as the paint (acrylic, nothing special) corroded the metal of the frog causing it to mechanically fail! Ever come across that?

I never weathered my rail, but I realized the way the electrical was done that would be problematic if a light coating was not done with an airbrush, with very dry spray.