Track ballast on a temporary display?

That is sort of the idea of a plastic roadbed, so you can have added realism without having to ballast the track.  At this point I would suggest a granular fake snow product.

I agree but the hollow plastic roadbed (like with FasTrack) adds a LOT of noise.  I've thought of granular snow but was always concerned it would get into the running gear of the engines.  I think I will try it on a small section of the layout to see how it goes.

Thanks for the reply!

Tony

Tony:

I have not tried it myself but, I recollect reading something at one point about using the flexible weather stripping you can buy at Home Depot or Lowes to reduce noise from FasTrack.  This stuff comes in a roll and one side is adhesive.  

The article I saw recommended attaching two runs of the weather stripping to the bottom side of FasTrack to reduce the noise.

Since you've already invested in Gargraves and Ross track, this is likely poor timing for this suggestion.

Insofar as trying to improve the appearance of Gargraves and Ross track for a temporary layout, the only thing I can think of is cork roadbed glued to the bottom of the ties.   I imagine this would be a fairly tedious job and may have to be redone from time to time but, it  would definitely improve the look.

Curt