Would you or Wouldn't you?

Ron,

I tell you what, that looks great as ballast. I would use it. Great idea.

If I were to "pick nits" I would say the medium might be just a touch on the large side.

I was thinking the same thing, RickO.  That was one reason why I photographed my foot to try and compare the size of the rock to my foot and the size of the gravel to "O" gauge Charlie's foot.  But he does not look very scale.

We thought about using the small gravel on the sidings and yards.  Maybe I should re-consider my thoughts and just use the small???

Anyone else have ideas?

Ron....great idea and very ingenious of you!  I think I would use only the small for ballast as it appears to be close enough to scale.  I use roofing granules and they work quite well.  50 pounds cost about $20.00 or so.  The granules come in a bunch of different colors so one can mix just about any combination.

Alan

Ron,

I agree with Alan, that looks real good. That was a great idea.

Alan Graziano

Thanks for the tip Alan.  Roofing granules would be faster than sweeping the street and sifting the gravel.  You should have seen some of the looks the neighbors were giving me.

I just did another short section with the small gravel.   I also noticed that the camera flash really did not do the color justice.  This next shot is without a flash.

To the left of the worker is the small gravel, to the right is the medium.

I think I do like the small after all.  Maybe sprinkle a few mediums in between the mains.

Ron

I admire your perseverance and ingenuity.  I agree that the small size looks perfect in all ways, and would use it if you have the patience to prep it like you have.

The larger stone looks more like the stone used for rip rap or gabion baskets.  The smaller stone looks closer to the right size.  As for color I would'nt worry about that.  Stone veries in color depending on where it was mined and who got the contract to supply the ballest stone.  I always take note of real scenery and ask would that look good on my layout or does it look fake.  I tell my girlfriend that we need to start taking pictures and when we get to the scenery portion of the layouts we can show someone that it exists in real life.  The other day leaving the train show in Wilmington Delaware I noticed a stone causeway with an elevated rail line and the stones would scale out to O-scale on an N-gauge layout.  Same thing with trees. 

I tried it, but the gravel used in our development was much too big. I found a local supplier of crushed granite for a 50 lb. bag for under ten bucks.