(MOW ballasting train)
I would tend to build a hopper within a gondola or box-car with a clip-on
roof. That way you could make the slot width and the slope variable so that
you could find a suitable discharge rate before finalizing it all.
It seems to me that a typical US hopper is intended to dump it's load
quickly.

I would think in terms of a vertically moving blade to open/close the slot,
but I wouldn't expect to get a perfect flow rate.

Definitely spread it dry and mist after!

Perhaps more useful in ballasting would be a wagon/car with brushes to move
the ballast so that the height and profile were reasonably constant.

That might need to be a finger powered vehicle so that it doesn't ride
over ballast accumulations.

Allowing the brain to wander further, what about a part way profiling board
mounted behind the ballast hopper and ahead of the trailing truck.
Perhaps it could be pivoted so that it controlled the opening of the
hopper.

Hi,

Greg.Procter wrote:
(MOW ballasting train)
I would tend to build a hopper within a gondola or box-car with a
clip-on
roof. That way you could make the slot width and the slope variable so
that
you could find a suitable discharge rate before finalizing it all.
It seems to me that a typical US hopper is intended to dump it's load
quickly.

That does sound reasonable

I would think in terms of a vertically moving blade to open/close the
slot,
but I wouldn't expect to get a perfect flow rate.

Well, with the end-unloading solution my concern is rather that it would
dump all in one place and have nothing left then... Probably some kind
of "unloading belt"? Driven by a thumb-wheel or such?

Definitely spread it dry and mist after!

OK, thanks ;-)

Perhaps more useful in ballasting would be a wagon/car with brushes to
move
the ballast so that the height and profile were reasonably constant.

On one railroad they used hoppers and an old tie just pushed by the
trailing truck to spread the ballast (off the rails, anyway). That's as
far as I remember...

That might need to be a finger powered vehicle so that it doesn't ride
over ballast accumulations.

Well, if you get the brushes rotating But I guess it would be rather
difficult to fit the drive and the brushes in an N-Scale wagon and still
have a bit of power in that drive But then you could combine that
wagon with the vacuuming wagon for track-cleaning later on That does
sound even better than automating the (one-time) ballasting ;-)

Allowing the brain to wander further, what about a part way profiling
board
mounted behind the ballast hopper and ahead of the trailing truck.
Perhaps it could be pivoted so that it controlled the opening of the
hopper.

Hmm... another good one Now what about pneumatic or hydraulic
control of that But then again, this is probably a bit too flimsy in
N-Scale ;-)

Thanks for the input!

To help with the fun, make it compatible of ballasting turrnouts!
A conveyor belt to regulate the ballast would be a good idea as you can
control the amount of ballast by its height on the conveyor as well as
its
width.
I'd be more trying to make a car that I could push along the track
rather
than someeething that would be put in a train and pulled/pushed along..

--
Bob May

times 2 is like two people trying to get through a doorway at once,
they will always get hung up.
times 3 is like 3 people trying to get through a wider doorway at
once, they occassionally line up precisely and jamb for a short period.

if you were to use a ballast spreading car to ballast a turnout you'd
go over part of it twice! In particular the points and tiebar area.
After 35 years of HO ballasting I still avoid putting any ballast between
the sleepers where the tiebar is and between the points and stock rails.
(I often use Peco turnouts which have a sliding contact there)

One either builds a car with a set ballast slot and moves it at a rate
to suit, or a variable ballast slot to cope with variable car speed.

HO ballast (or N) generally has a minimum rate at which it will flow
smoothly, or from the other end of the telescope, a minimum slot size.
....
Of course marbles are nice and round, ballast is intended to be all
corners.

Hi,

Greg.Procter wrote:
if you were to use a ballast spreading car to ballast a turnout you'd
go over part of it twice! In particular the points and tiebar area.
After 35 years of HO ballasting I still avoid putting any ballast
between
the sleepers where the tiebar is and between the points and stock rails.
(I often use Peco turnouts which have a sliding contact there)

Aw, come on, you're ruining all the fun

Honestly, the problem occured to me. That's why I suggested the
pneumatic or hydraulic control - you could just detect the turnout
automatically and shut off the ballast at the precise moment Of
course you'd need to detect station platforms, signal posts and tunnels
and adjust the rate of flow accordingly - should I use bar-codes for the
purpose? But how do I hide the bar-codes after ballasting?

;-)

One either builds a car with a set ballast slot and moves it at a rate
to suit, or a variable ballast slot to cope with variable car speed.

Especially for the turnouts, it would be better if there was a way to
switch off the ballast flow completely...

HO ballast (or N) generally has a minimum rate at which it will flow
smoothly, or from the other end of the telescope, a minimum slot size.
...
Of course marbles are nice and round, ballast is intended to be all
corners.

That's why I found the "end unloading" such a nice idea - basically you
drop the ballast "over the edge"...

But then you'd need a conveyor belt and I haven't figured out how to
drive it.

The sloped bottom with a mini-vibrator attached would probably work
quite well, so let's go with that design To achieve some sensible
loading capacity it would probably best to use the space between the
bogies for the loading area, but dump the ballast near the bogie to
handle curves. Now we'd have a design like this

I I
I IV
I---\ /------IB
___ \ /------ ___
o-o o-o
TRACKTRACKTRACKTRACKTRACK

with o-o being a bogie and VB being the vibrating thingy. It does need
some external power supply, but since shutting off the power means no
ballast, that is possible (for the DCC guys, just put the decoder in
another wagon or use the loco decoder Don't forget to add a small
plow to the bogie to clear the track ;-)

OK, lets suppose this works, so the next wagon would be the "ballast
brusher" - in contrast to the track cleaning cars available I'd want the
brushes to rotate vertically - perpendicular to the tracks. Let's assume
I could put the motor and the brush in a wagon, with an air duct to
allow the attachment of a vacuuming car, I'd again need a separate power
source... Again easy for the DCC guys but since I run analog, I can't
use track power. But a maintenance train with two "Power cars" would
look cool, provided they have enough orange paint applied to them ;-)

Cool, keep thinking!