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Can I use WD-40 on my model railway locomotive?
Posted in: Model Railway, Fix, restore and customize
18th January 2021
Every toolbox has a can of WD-40 in it to rid the world of squeaks and loosen any stubborn nuts and bolts, so the...
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Can I reset my DCC decoder to factory settings?
Posted in: Model Railway, Power and control
24th August 2020
Sometimes, us mere mortals completely forget what values we have set to our decoders, other times our decoders just...
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What are the benefits of washing plastic kit parts?
Posted in: Kit building
26th August 2022
Before starting their next project many modellers will wash the plastic parts of their model kit. This is a sensible...
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Should I use a steel-sided or wooden-sided wagon for carrying coal?
Posted in: Rolling stock
17th July 2023
Both steel-sided and wooden-sided wagons were used for carrying coal. The choice between the two depends on the...
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What is the largest radius set track curve for N gauge?
Posted in: Tracks
13th October 2022
There are four different options for track curve radius for N gauge and the largest is referred to as 'fourth' radius...
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What coarseness of ballast should I use for an O gauge layout?

For O gauge the best ballast would have to be coarse as this has much larger stone chips than fine or medium grade ballast and would be more in keeping with the scale of your layout.

Keep in mind that O gauge is 1/43 scale in the UK and 1/48 outside the UK. So if you were to measure the size of a ballast stone from the real thing, you would have to reduce the size by 48 to have the scale size.

Posted in: Design and Planning, Tracks, Best practices

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