I think the evidence well supports your view Simon, and hence far too many exhibition layouts feature ballasting which looks - frankly - dreadful. (and - judging by all the finger-poking - wiring which is no better!!) An uncomfortable truism is that building a decent layout involves making a decent job of everything - especially the bits we do not particularly enjoy.
In my case, as it is a small layout, the track and its appearance has a disproportunately large impact and I spent many weeks thinking about how to do it including all the other things which are important to me (only!) such as working point rodding, third-rail cabling etc which cannot be added as an after-thought. So it is not that I find ballasting "interesting"; more that I needed to think how to do it well. That said, the method I used was designed to meet my specific needs and I would not recommend it to anyone else and would certainly change it to meet any different priorities next time.
It is just Woodland's Scenics and PVA! (plus a bit of method - you can see that trackbuilding and ballasting were a single operation for me.)
My general message to people would be to really think about the methods you are going to use for (things like) ballasting. Before you start anything, look long and hard at the real thing, consider all the different options - there are many - talk to people who have demonstrated they know what they are doing; and DO SOME EXPERIMENTS. I built a fully-working test track before I built this layout; all the ballast gradually fell off over six months - despite everyone having told me how wonderful Johnson's "Klear" was ... ... no, it is useless - in my context.
I think most modeller's attitude to "learning their trade" is best demonstrated by this summary of an exchange with "A Modeller" at a fine-scale exhibition where I was demonstrating track building:-
A Modeller:- " Wow - your ballasting is the best I have ever seen - how did you do it?"
Me:- "Well, what I did was ... ... ... etc.
A Modeller:- "Oh I can't be bothered with all that fag - the way I do it is [standard method No. 4]"
Me (thinking to self):- so that is why your track looks like the dog has thrown-up over it ... ...
By contrast, when my layout was at the NEC some years ago, the (even smaller) layout next to us featured wonderful trackwork. Talking to the builder, it soon became clear that he also had taken a LOT of trouble to get it right! All that said, if either of us were modelling a mile or so of the ECML, different priorities would be in play!
If anyone wants any detail there is lots here;-
Learning to build Track - Scalefour Forum
If I were doing it again the "Plug-track" approach would be very interesting I think!
Best Wishes,
Howard
