Turntable surround ballast

I would use something on the line of fine or medium cinders. Whisker tracks wouldn’t ride on bed of ballast. Seeing you bought a Ross turntable. Hopefully you will be using Ross track around it. With the Ross track especially if it’s weathered. It just sits on top of the ties like the prototype. No web to hide. You really don’t need to heavily ballast the track. A good texture using cinders will look fine. Some weed tufts to break up the all black look. A few between the ties to.

What 'era' will your railroad originate from?  Steam era, transition, modern, museum?

IOW, a more contemporary turntable/engine facility might be dressed out differently than as seen in photos from back when those features were in use literally 24/7, constantly repairing, maintaining equipment.

If you want your TT to be of the steam-into-transitional appearance, I'd suggest the surrounding ground would be virtually void of any vegetation, and have several inches thick of cinders...black or dark gray...for ground cover accumulation.   In the steam era, those cinders were free.  They found their way into everything, everywhere around engine facilities.   I suppose as the transitional era...to diesels...occurred, the facilities were a bit 'cleaner'...but hardly squeaky so!  So, maybe old cinders ended up being mingled with local soil...browns, muddy colored spots...which might have given way to spotty, weedy vegetation patches.  Of course, as these facilities became less used or abandoned, Mother Nature probably took over even moreso.   But, I'm sure your investment (looking good!!) is going to be far from abandonment!!

I'm not a fan of bonding ballast along railroad ROW's for a variety of reasons.  But, in the engine facility, I would definitely bond the ground cover, cinders, gravel, dirt,...whatever.  Into wet paint (black or dark gray, perhaps) or using the wet water pre-wet followed by thinned white glue or matte medium.

If your facilities will be focused solely in the modern era...e.g., museum displaying restored, freshly painted equipment, lots of visitors, photogs, etc., etc., etc. (The turntable recently hauled from its former location to a newly purposed site, freshly painted, squeaky clean) you might want to use a 'cleaner' ground cover...light gray ballast/gravel...even large areas of poured concrete pavement more foot-friendly, easier to keep clean.

Spend some time searching the web for photos.  There'll be a lot of Black/White from long ago eras...the heyday of turntables...so you'll have to use some judgement about the true coloring of ground cover.  Kalmbach, and other publishers, have created some special books through the last few yearsthat focus on engine facilities, in which they may reference what you're seeking.

And when you're done with that next step...be sure to show us your results!

FWIW...

KD

Thanks to both of you, appreciate the input.

As to "era", I'm kind of all over the place, but the center of this particular table as well as the turntable will primarily be steam in the transition period. The inner track that loops around it is intermodal but that doesn't bother me. Parked here will be a big boy, a challenger, a YS1, an Allegheny, and then some smaller things on shorter tracks.

Track is Gargraves.

Couple of photos showing typical 'eras' comparison...

Old....

New...

FWIW...

KD

FWIW  Not many layouts more realistic than @Norm Charbonneau, here are a couple links to photos of his layout turn table.

NC turntable     closer view

@TedW posted:

FWIW  Not many layouts more realistic than @Norm Charbonneau, here are a couple links to photos of his layout turn table.

NC turntable     closer view

That’s quite impressive. Wish I had those skills.

You state that you want the area to look right BEFORE installing the whisker tracks.  IMHO, that is backwards.  I recommend that you seal any joints, screw holes, etc. in the area with dry wall compound or caulk, then paint it black.  Lay your whisker tracks and get everything operating flawlessly, THEN add your scenic ground cover.  It's a lot easier to make track adjustments (moving, shimming, etc.) before the ground cover is there.

Here are a couple of shots of my turntable area.  A mix of black ballast, cinders, and some HO cinders dusted on top, a little Woodland Scenics Earth Blend, Grass Blend and weed tufts, and there you go.

@Bob posted:

You state that you want the area to look right BEFORE installing the whisker tracks.  IMHO, that is backwards.  I recommend that you seal any joints, screw holes, etc. in the area with dry wall compound or caulk, then paint it black.  Lay your whisker tracks and get everything operating flawlessly, THEN add your scenic ground cover.  It's a lot easier to make track adjustments (moving, shimming, etc.) before the ground cover is there.

Here are a couple of shots of my turntable area.  A mix of black ballast, cinders, and some HO cinders dusted on top, a little Woodland Scenics Earth Blend, Grass Blend and weed tufts, and there you go.

I basically meant looking right as in the base you’re talking about. Probably just said it wrong. We’re leveling everything and then painting it chalkboard black. Then installing tracks.

I guess I was asking more about the “base” before tracks go down. Plan to do it all eventually though.

beautiful layout by the way.

@Bob posted:

You state that you want the area to look right BEFORE installing the whisker tracks.  IMHO, that is backwards.  I recommend that you seal any joints, screw holes, etc. in the area with dry wall compound or caulk, then paint it black.  Lay your whisker tracks and get everything operating flawlessly, THEN add your scenic ground cover.  It's a lot easier to make track adjustments (moving, shimming, etc.) before the ground cover is there.

Here are a couple of shots of my turntable area.  A mix of black ballast, cinders, and some HO cinders dusted on top, a little Woodland Scenics Earth Blend, Grass Blend and weed tufts, and there you go.

Bob, turntable area looks fantastic!. Aren't you glad you didn't have to scratch build your turntable

Al, I am very happy that I didn't scratch build.  The best part is, your turntable operates fully as good as it looks: top shelf product all the way!