Track Ballast Using Old Tea Bags

Model Railway Track Ballast From Used Tea Bags

Providing a material to base your model railway track on is not so easy or cheap, I found. I hit upon the idea of using old dried tea and it worked out quite well I feel. It certainly looks better than just fixing the track to a bare baseboard.

To get the tea, took a few weeks of collecting used tea bags (our own, not from a rubbish dump!). Once the bags were dry after a day or so, I carefully split them open and emptied them into an empty coffee jar. Once the jar was nearly full I figured I had enough to lay the track that I had just bought. I laid the track on the baseboard to get the layout I wanted. Then with a pencil, I marked around the track. Removing the track I could then paste the marked area with PVA glue. I then sprinkled the dried tea over the glue and pressed down on it a little with the palm of my hand. Once dry the following day, I hoovered away the excess. I actually then painted over the top with some cheap children's water based poster paint, mixed to a creamy brown but with hindsight I could have left it without painting as I did on a couple of later extension pieces. You can see the difference in the picture below.