Hey Folks,
I'd like to make a shout out to Union Quarries in Carlisle, PA for providing four 5 gallon plastic paint cans of stone dust to use for ballasting on my railroad. For free!
Now I needed to prepare that stone dust. I sifted it first through a pasta colander to capture the large "stones" that I use for talus on my layout. From the stone dust and dust that was sifted out, I sifted it again through a mesh strainer. What was left in the strainer was what I used for my track ballast. It works great and looks pretty realistic - IMHO.
It was a bit of work, but I ended up getting a bit more than one of the 5 gallon buckets of ballast. More than enough on my layout. And all this cost me was my time. So thanks again to Union quarries.
I then used some home made wet water to wet the ballast on the track and then mod podge with water and a bit of dish soap for the glue.
So this whole project cost me about 40 dollars - which was for the mod podge. Certainly much less than it would have cost to buy the ballast and scenic glue. I can't even imagine how much that would have cost me for a layout my size.
I'm sure the above wasn't a unique solution - but I just wanted to share some of my learnings building my layout.
Next up will the the mountains and scenery using foam insulation, commercial hydrocal plaster - which is a bit heavier than light weight hydrocal - but much cheaper! Some cheap screening, cardboard, and shop paper towels - and away I go. This is fun!
Thanks,
Jeff
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