Black Stone Parking Lot | O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum

leftyfretguyOGR Forum Member

Hi All,

I am slowly (painfully slow) building a layout that will include a stone parking lot. My first thought was to use ho scale ballast but I'm cheap. I just came across a large bag of black aquarium sand. This bag is more than enough for what I need and is less than what a small bag of ballast will cost me (the area to be covered will take multiple bags). I don't often see black stone parking lots modeled though. It could represent crushed blacktop or gravel etc. Has anyone done this and have some images they could share for inspiration. I have read the concerns of using kitty litter holding moisture on the layout, are there any concerns with using aquarium sand? I planned on using glue/water mixture to attach it to the layout, will this work ok, or is there another method that will work better?

thanks,

Matt

3/17/188:25 AM

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AvantiOGR Forum Member

That aquarium stone is great. I use it all the time. It is available in many colors, and the colors can be tweaked using ink/alcohol as a dye. Some of the black stuff is shiny. In the following pics, I mixed a little of it in with black dyed sand to simulate the "glint" of anthracite in my fantasy colliery area:

BTW: The claim that kitty litter "holds moisture" is nonsense as a practical matter. You may as well worry about using paper.

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Boilermaker1OGR Forum Member

A mix of HO and N ballast over a piece of trex trim that I divoted up with a sander. The brown is just ground foam so it looks less maintained.

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3/17/1810:21 AM

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