With such a large area to be ballasted, working in patches allows me to cover more space.

I have finally progressed to the ballasting stage in the Trenton Freight Yard, on my Trenton Subdivision in N Scale.

I find working in small patches, allows me to focus on one section and the glue/water mixture time to set before moving on to the adjoining section.

With such a large area to ballast it forms a checker board effect. Once the section is dry, I then ballast the area between the two.

The yard is designed for heavy traffic, with four arrival/departure tracks and ten sorting/classification tracks. The longest A/D track will hold sixteen 40 ft cars. On the left side of the photo is a staging area for the yard engines, which also serves as a runaround track. This area also gives access to the engine shops in the background and the passenger yard in the bottom left foreground.

One the right side of the photo is the double track mainline, the two sidings on the far right is the GO Transit Yard. The large black area will hold the passenger station.

Below is a photo of the yard before ballasting, and shows the entrance to the VIA Rail yard and shop.

The freight yard occupies a large section of the layout.