Best Ballast to use with code 148 track

Geno,

 

If you are modeling an area "local" to you, I'd try to match that look. If other than that, whatever most pleases YOUR eyes.

 

Simon

I cannot suggest a commercial hobby product, but our club has used literally a hundred gallons of the granules used for asphalt shingles on our layout. it is the perfect size for our Atlas code 148 track. once installed we weather it along with the track.

 

we were lucky finding our supply.

 

perhaps if there's a shingle plant in your area...?

 

Chris,

I like the way you think- I'd rather spend the money on track, instead of ballast. I'm not opposed to buying a pack of shingles at Home Depot, bending and shaking the granules off of them. I think even that would be cheaper than buying bottles of ballast.

 

Geno

Try some Whiteson Ballast from Harrison Trains and Scenes.  Reasonably priced at $10 for 5 lbs.  It looks great!!  I bought some from them at this past York show.   Harrison Trains and Scenes is a OGR magazine advertiser.   A google search should take you to their home page.

Try sweeping your street... Put the material in a 5 gallon bucket and run water through it for a few hours allowing all of the dirt to flow out and for the material to be cleaned.   Then go to the dollar store and buy two different size strainers.  That will give you 3 different sizes of ballast or landscape material.

 

 

 

Don't want to do the work yourself?  I'll mail you this 2 pound container for free.  You just pay for shipping.  If you like it, we can talk about a fair price for more.  My email is in my profile.

 

Ron,

I will give your suggestion a try- I live on a busy street, so who knows how much crushed rock will turn up. The local UP main that runs through my town uses gray ballast, so I think I'm going for ballast that looks similar to yours. I'd be interested in seeing what your ballast looks like. Please contact me and I'll pay to have your sample shipped to me.

 

Thanks,

Geno

geno_rojas@sbcglobal.net

 

Parking lots work well too.  Don't play in traffic.

 

Email sent.

Ron

 

Ron

Great shot!  A picture is worth a thousand words . . .

Bob

I use chicken grit fron Tractor Supply.  It is cheap and looks great.

 

One we played around with is #16 construction sand. Costs around $10 for a 100-pound bag. The only problem is the color -- very light, but it can be colored using automotive primer by putting some of the sand in a coffee can and spraying it while shaking it around (do this in a well ventilated area). Here's what it looks like unpainted.

 

Here's a better look at it. The ties on MTH ScaleTrax are the same thickness as those on the Atlas Code 148 2-rail track.

 

By the way, there's a roofing supplier in my area. I'll see what I can find out about roofing granules.

Simon,

I wish- I live in a house with a tile roof. LOL. But it also has a 20 x 20 family room with little furniture in it.

 

Geno

Matt,

Thanks for chiming in- I knew sooner or later you'd share your expertise in this area. I would definitely be interested if a roofing supply store had granules already had granules in a bag, instead of scrounging around for them or sweeping them off a roof. I will  be contacting you later on techniques for gluing down ballast once my trackwork is done, but I'm going ballast my track samples first.

 

Geno

You're welcome.  Gluing the ballast down is simple, but somewhat messy. It's a modified version of the glue/wet-water technique.

 

Use a glue/water solution that's between 1/4 and 1/3 white glue with clear (preferably bottled) water. I used an empty mustard bottle for the water/glue solution.

 

You soak the ballasted area with wet-water (clear water with a few drops of dish soap), then saturate the wetted area with the glue/water solution. Give it another spray with the wet-water and wipe the rails clean. The wet-water carries the water/glue mix into every nook and cranny. When the water evaporates, the ballast is glued in place. The evaporation can be sped up mixing a little rubbing alcohol with some of the water, but don't use too much.

 

The caveats are that if you're using Homasote or other porous sub-structure it will get seriously saturated. Works best on cork-over-plywood or track-on-plywood (as in the second photo in my original post). By the way, you can brush the water/glue solution onto bare plywood and sprinkle dirt on it for ground cover in very light layers. The first layer gets saturated (and also sticky) and the next layer (applied to the dark/wet areas) will dry light.

 

 

This is where I got the dirt from (part of the remnants of the Redlands Loop)

 

Here's how it dried using the painting/sprinkling technique. And yes, that's 2-rail equipment on the ScaleTrax.

I use woodland scenic fine gray ballast and then weather it with india ink and alcohol to suit.

This 2 rail 148 I laid on cork ballast with track I weathered before installing and then added a third rail. Ballast applied the spray diluted white glue manner

Good luck.

 

This topic shows up quite frequently over on the Scenery section of the forum and gets debated there ad nauseum.

If you are strong of heart and will, you might venture forth unto that section with your quest and after performing a quick search be regaled with what will probably be too much information. 

I'm kind of putting the cart before the horse, asking what type of ballast looks most realistic with 2-rail track. Clearly there are different types of ballast used around the country, so there's no one single type that's correct. It  seems there are a few different colors and textures of ballast, and all look realistic.

 

And as far as debate, controversy, and flaming subjects are concerned, wait until I unveil my interpretation of 2-rail track. LOL. I will only say I won't reveal anything until I have a working loop of track, and that loop won't be ballasted at first. The main reason of this post is to reacquaint myself to track ballasting, so my samples will look good and realistic. But it does seem others have used 2-rail track with 3-rail trains with success, so maybe studrail will be better received this time around.

Geno

 

You're on the right track Geno!   Ballast nowadays is chosen for it's abrasive quality so that when it's tamped down and surrounds the ties that the track/ties/ballast all "works together" as well as promoting drainage of water.

 

In the steam era many of the railroads (at least here in coal country) used cinders from coal burners as ballast on the secondary and branch lines.

 

And like you said, ballast rock quarried in different locales had different colors.  Nice abrasive light grey granite is popular in these parts nowadays... though it quickly takes on a reddish brown sheen from the rust of brake shoes on wheels. 

 

 

 

     Here's what I ended up with using WS grey blend, some yellow turf and some

   brown sand mixed evenly. I'm fairly happy with this since I was going for a MOW

   challenged branchline look. I've also become a fan of using the alcohol as the

   wetting agent as it really seems to do a good job of not disturbing the ballast

   you've put down. You just have to remember to cover things that alcohol doesn't

   play nice with. The other disadvantage to alcohol is that you might end up with

   a headache if you're in an area without a lot of ventilation. Good luck with your

   ballasting.

 

       Jeff

Jeoff,

 

Really like the track work.

That is some scary-good track work. The 1:1 door the backdrop and the figures were about the only giveaways.

I like the idea of mixing in the turf, Jeff. 

 

I might try some Green Grass.

 

Cheers

 

   Thanks for the compliments. I think adding the turf helped a lot with the look.

   The idea of mixing in some street dirt sounds interesting too. Especially if you

   end up using any commercial ballast. That would help take the clean look out

   of it. The ties I used are just stained basswood. If you're using flex-track I

   would use a section of it for experimenting. If you have an air brush you could

   try mixing some brown with maybe a bit of white and gray. If you want to get 

   really crazy you can paint the rail sides, spike heads and tie plates separately.

 

      Jeff

Ron,

What color paint did you use to weather your rails? I bought some used Atlas no. 5 switches that had the rails painted similar to yours, so obviously I want to match it before installing my track.

 

I thought the medium ballast looked better before I saw your pics, but as they say a picture is worth a 1000 words. I'm also using Atlas code 148 track, so I like the fine ballast better with the Atlas 2-rail track. Now to find a larger quantity of ballast at a more reasonable price.

 

Geno