gluing down ballast

[doctorwayne]

.....I spend so much time getting the ballast off of the ties and the glue wants to bring it right back.

The wet water should keep the ballast in place, but you need to spray enough of it to penetrate right through the ballast and down to the base. The purpose of the wetting agent is to draw the glue mixture into the ballast and insufficient wetting will result in the glue forming only a hardened crust on top, with still-loose ballast underneath. Don't be afraid to get the area wet - it will look like a big mess, and may take a few days to dry, but will result in a solid ballasting job which will appear loose.
I wonder, too, if you're leaving too much ballast in place: it should (in most cases) be no higher than the tops of the ties. I use a soft 1/2" brush to do the levelling, dragging it at a very low angle - don't use a brushing motion, as it will throw ballast all over the place. Once the ballast level looks about right, you can remove stray ballast from the tie tops by lightly grasping the metal ferrule of the brush between the thumb and forefingers of one hand, laying the handle across the rail tops, then, as you move the brush along the tracks, lightly and rapidly tapping the brush handle with the fingers of your free hand. The stray ballast will "magically" bounce off the ties and into place between them.

There's some more info on ballasting HERE

Wayne