Model Railroading > Oscillating Saws and trackwork.

By now most of you are probably familiar with oscillating saws. I'm in the process of replacing two existing #6 crossovers that have failed due to the poor design of Micro Engineering points and I'm tired of repairing them. So in go new Walthers #8's as an overall upgrade. One thing that's always a pain is removing the old glued down, hard as a rock ballast.

After carefully cutting out and removing the old trackwork, out came the oscillating saw to make very quick work of removing the old ballast. I used a old, somewhat worn bi-metal blade and the flush cut nature of the saw to remove the glued down rock from the roadbed and shape the shoulders then the sander attachment and 120 grit with great results. It went so well that I kept on and replaced a heat kink that has been bothering me for years but didn't want to dig into because it was a pain.

Many brands offer this saw now for reasonable prices and it has quickly become a go to for many projects around the house the last few years. Just look for variable speeds and quick release and you'll be good. They also make good weights for gluing down your trackwork :-)

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I had used diluted white glue to adhere my ballast.  When I was dismantling my layout before moving, I wanted to save all my track.  I sprayed the track and ballast using water with a drop of dish soap.  Enough to have it well soaked.  After letting it sit for a while, the track was easily lifted out of the ballast and I used a putty knife to scrape up the ballast.

A wonderful tool! I've gotten a lot of use out of mine. What did we do before they came along?

TJY

Icancmp193...cussed alot ?

Posted from Android

Agree, very useful tool in tight places but it shakes the heck out of anything attached to what's being worked on, benchwork, house, operator. the whole show.

+ the smaller one that I have also has a right angle drill attachment, very useful but no longer on the market.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/27/24 12:45 by TCnR.

chessie7602 Wrote:
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> I had used diluted white glue to adhere my
> ballast.  When I was dismantling my layout before
> moving, I wanted to save all my track.  I sprayed
> the track and ballast using water with a drop of
> dish soap.  Enough to have it well soaked. 
> After letting it sit for a while, the track was
> easily lifted out of the ballast and I used a
> putty knife to scrape up the ballast.

Agree water can be effective for saving track. But if you don't want to flood an area and wait for the water to do its thing, or need to save what your replacing, this is a good, quick, easy to clean up  alternative.

I used the water method too with good results.   I took the track out on the patio and used an electric power washer to wash the remaining ballast out from between the ties and salvaged everything including turnouts.

Those oscillating saws work great for trimming off the bottome of door molding to fit flooring or tile underneeth.  At the time we didn't have one during the basement finishing process so I actually used a razor saw that I had for the model train hobby to trim the bottom of the trim molding to fit the tile under!

Since then we now have what my wife calls Oscar, which is a different brand oscillating saw.
 

I use a drywall rasp aka cheese grater to remove glued down ballast and end up with a pile of reusable ballast
Michael T Kerner
Collinsville,IL

Posted from Android

If you glued the ballasted with dilluted white glue, just soak the roadbed with water and wait 15 mintues and the ballast becomes soft and easy to remove.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

mkerner Wrote:
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> I use a drywall rasp aka cheese grater to remove
> glued down ballast and end up with a pile of
> reusable ballast
> Michael T Kerner
> Collinsville,IL
>
> Posted from Android

Never considered reusing the ballast. I should have though.

No issues with vibration. If I dug into the benchwork, then yeah. In the time it takes for the glue to soften, I was already done. Nothing wrong with the water approach, it's tried and true, and the way to go if your saving what your pulling out and don't mind getting the surrounding surfaces wet. ( I wasn't and I did) Don't use the saw to cut rail. It also worked well for removing the tie spurs under the rail so I could slip rail joiners on. Snip the ties around the rails first. Use the tool on slow speed setting. Just another way to get the job done.