Time for ballast...

[Angus Shops]

The new layout is getting to the point where I need to consider options for ballasting. The last layout used Woodland Scenics 'fine' ballast, and I was reasonably pleased with it, but it had all the well known WS problems (too coarse and hard to 'wet' and get to stay in place while being glued). I'm sure I can do better this time around. I'll test a few options, including the sanded grout method, but I thought I'd ask TRW for its collected wisdom and favoured products.

Looking at photos of my model's prototype, the CPR from Field to Golden BC, the ballast is grey coloured except for a time in the early 60's when it appeared distinctly 'buff' coloured. I'll be sticking with the grey. In some photos the ballast looks like good quality clean uniform sized crushed rock, in others it appears to be more 'dirty' with a variety of particle sizes, more like an ungraded 'pit run' material. Not sure what to do about this, but I'm leaning towards the cleaner ballast option. I'm looking for a subtle mix of particle colours, not too 'salt and peppery', but not too uniform.

Many photos of yard and terminal facilities of the time show that these areas were ballasted with cinders. The cinders appear to be a very fine texture compared to rock ballast, and surprisingly neat and tidy with a well graded flat and even surface with no 'junk', garbage, rocks or other crud lying about.

One ballast option I'm considering is to sift my own from a bag of play sand. I have a series of screens so I can sift for the correct particle size, wash it, dry it, and run a big strong magnet through it. Is this a workable idea?
Geoff

[wazzou]

You can't go wrong with real rock ballast.
I use Arizona Rock & Minerals ballast and I know many on the East Coast use/d Smith & Sons or Highball.
Having seen neither available anywhere on this end of the US, I went with the AR&M.
I think one or both of the S&S or Highball may be out of business, however I recall someone saying one of those were still taking orders.
I know Scenic Express is selling rock ballast that many people have tried as well.

[davefoxx]

You can't go wrong with real rock ballast.
I use Arizona Rock & Minerals ballast and I know many on the East Coast use/d Smith & Sons or Highball.
Having seen neither available anywhere on this end of the US, I went with the AR&M.
I think one or both of the S&S or Highball may be out of business, however I recall someone saying one of those were still taking orders.
I know Scenic Express is selling rock ballast that many people have tried as well.

This reminds me.  I placed an order with Arizona Rock & Mineral Co. a few weeks ago.  My PayPal payment went through, but I have heard nothing and received nothing.  I need to try to call or email them.

DFF

[robert3985]

@Angus Shops  I use Highball N-scale ballast in three colors for my U.P. mainline track.  I constructed a couple of screening boxes to sift the ballast to produce rocks that are between a scale 3" and 2.5" in diameter.  That's between .019" and .017".  Not only does the sifting get the big pieces out, it also eliminates most of the much finer material (dust) that was also in the Highball bags.  This keeps N-scale real-rock ballast from turning to mud.  For an even cleaner ballast application washing the graded ballast would get rid of any remaining dust sticking to the "rocks".

The methodology I used to arrive at my color was to go to the prototype mainline I was modeling and gather up some real ballast, and take some color photos which included an 18% gray card to enable getting the color balance near perfect.  I picked up individual ballast stones and measured their maximum diameters (they're not spherical) and then averaged their diameters to get to an average diameter of 3"...and a smallest diameter of 2.5".  There are larger stones and smaller stones, but the vast majority...in excess of 99% of the prototype ballast I measured was what I averaged out.  I took one stone of each color, and there were four colors...a light gray, a dark gray, a darker gray, and a reddish brown.  The reddish brown stones I sifted from "sacred dirt" I dug at the prototype location using the same sifting boxes as the rest of the ballast.  I then used my color photos to see what percentage of colors were present, and then converted those percentages into finite volumes, such as cups.  So many cups of the dominant color...fewer cups of the secondary color, even less of the third color...and least of all of the least dominant color.  However, in the end, it's your eyeballs that will like what you see, but the counting of different colored rocks and turning the amounts into percentages...the volumes...is a good starting point to get the color and texture right.

You can also sift native dirt or sand to match the rock size of your ballast.  Be aware that in my experience, natural dirt is much dustier than the commercial ballast.  Make sure you run a big magnet through natural dirt to get any ferrous materials out of it.

Photo (1) - Here's a photo of Highball ballast "Cinders" on my Park City Branch C40 trackage...sifted....and my mix of Highball gray ballasts and natural sifted dirt on the mainlines further away:


Here's another angle showing Echo Curve.  Notice the contrast between the branchline cinder ballast and the mainline's granite ballast.  The dark streaks on the mainline are cinders from 25 Big Boys traversing this section of track every day, along with steam helpers, coal-fired Challengers pulling freights of lesser tonnage and steam powered locals being pulled by light MacArthurs and Consolidations.  This portion of the U.P. mainline converted to oil only in March of 1954...the 15th of that month being the last day that Big Boys traversed the grade they were designed and built for, moving east to run between Cheyenne and Green River...and south to Denver.  In their place, the new "Baby" turbines and Verandas pulled the long freights, all of them with an oil-fired 3700 class Challenger shoving on the rear to the top of the grade at Wahsatch.

Photo (2) - It's post 1958 and the King of the U.P. mainlines is the GTEL Turbine aptly nicknamed "Big Blow" because of its jet exhaust.  However, still plainly visible are the black cinders on the sides of the gray granite mainline ballast:


I am sure that there are plenty of color photos of the time period you want to model on the CPR, and close-ups showing individual ballast rocks.  I don't think it will be too difficult to mix up a big batch of real-rock sifted ballast that correctly represents both the size and color of your chosen time period.  You might want to consider that steam power may have also still been in use during this time period, and if it was coal powered, there would likely be cinders either on the ballast, or on the sides of the mainlines from the years of steam power running through the locale.  When I go looking at prototype stuff on the U.P. mainlines in Weber and Echo Canyons today, the cinders are still deep between the tracks and on either side of the mainlines...even though it's overgrown...so it persists, well after the coal-fired steam locomotives are gone.  In your era, they wouldn't have been gone that long if dieselization was complete on your chosen date in the mid-50's.

Also, up-grade and down-grade trackage looks different because of the different things trains do when traversing uphill and downhill trackage.

Photo (3) - It's Summer 1949 and new freight F-3's push on the rear of a coal-fired 3900 series Challenger pulled mixed freight as on the down-grade trackage, the Park City Local heads back to Ogden, pulled by a U.P.-ized USRA Light MacArthur.  Note the gray mix of Highball N-scale ballast colors on the mainlines and the subtle weathering airbrushed down the center of each mainline track representing U.P.'s weed-killer, which turns reddish brown after repeated applications:


Although my ballasting research and efforts may be much different than yours, I think the photos illustrate what just a bit of research and care ballasting our N-scale track can do for the overall realism we want.  From your original post in this thread, it appears you have done more research than average concerning the trackage in your era and location.  Most likely, you're going to have to mix at least a couple of ballast colors to get what is realistic for the CPR in your era...but make sure you paint your rails and ties before ballasting...then a bit of weathering after the ballast is down and the glue has cured.

Anyway, I know that lots of people find ballasting to an insanely boring job, but not me.  I find it to be very interesting, and a challenge to get it close to "right"...especially in N-scale!

Good Luck!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Rossford Yard]

Bob,

Nice work on the ballast.  Whenever I see a module with fine ballast (as opposed to WS which is coarse) I am always impressed.  Thought it was just AZRM but maybe the very best go even further than I suspected.

Dumb ?., but what do you use for mesh screen and where do you get it?

Thanks in advance.

[garethashenden]

Bob,
I think ballasting is a boring job if it’s approached as a monolithic thing that needs to get done. But if it is broken down and detailed as you have done, it becomes much like any other detail project, and those are the fun ones.

[Mark5]

Highball was awesome but is gone.

[btrain]

I went with woodland scienics cinder ballast which I regret, but Arizona Rock & Stone is the way to go, I use their B&O mainline mix and the results were very satisfactory. One big thing that made ballasting less of a chore was a paint edger. I used this one from Menards to sweep and form ballast into place, and it did it effortlessly! https://www.menards.com/main/paint/paint-sprayers-applicators/trim-edge-painters/paint/paint-sprayers-applicators/trim-edge-painters/quick-solutions-4-paint-edger/991824400/p-1444452812484-c-8148.htm?tid=5530066208090450941&ipos=2

[mike_lawyer]

I use the ballast from Scenic Express, it is real rock and looks really good.  Many different colors as well.

[Dave V]

Ballasting is way easier on the narrow gauge...  Cinders, dirt, weeds, mud, dog sh!t, it's all good.

[nkalanaga]

"Make sure you run a big magnet through natural dirt to get any ferrous materials out of it."

Especially important if you get your sand from the Tri-Cities, Washington.  Run a magnet through the sand there, at least down in the low lands, and it will come out "furry" with iron particles.  The sand is remains of the Rocky Mountains and Columbia Basalt, ground up by Ice Age floods, and could probably be mined for the iron, if anyone wanted to.

[robert3985]

"Make sure you run a big magnet through natural dirt to get any ferrous materials out of it."

Especially important if you get your sand from the Tri-Cities, Washington.  Run a magnet through the sand there, at least down in the low lands, and it will come out "furry" with iron particles.  The sand is remains of the Rocky Mountains and Columbia Basalt, ground up by Ice Age floods, and could probably be mined for the iron, if anyone wanted to.

@nkalanaga  That's where I learned the trick.  I grew up in Kennewick and was into HO scale in my early and middle teens.  I used "cow magnets" back then, and dirt/sand dug at the local rock/gravel pit (also the local shooting range) always made the magnets "furry".  Here in Utah, it is less so up Weber and Echo Canyons, but my super magnets still pick up quite a bit of ferrous material.  Brings back some good memories of a childhood well spent!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[robert3985]

Bob,

Nice work on the ballast.  Whenever I see a module with fine ballast (as opposed to WS which is coarse) I am always impressed.  Thought it was just AZRM but maybe the very best go even further than I suspected.

Dumb ?., but what do you use for mesh screen and where do you get it?

Thanks in advance.

@Rossford Yard , Not a "dumb" question at all.  I am pretty happy with just using different sizes of wire colanders, fat strainers and tea strainers for general grading of dirt.  I also built a wooden box (about 9" square) out of scrap 1X4 pieces that has an extremely fine stainless steel screen in the bottom I got from my dad's stash of stuff.  I don't know what the mesh size is, but it produces dust, which I use for various things such as game trails and dirt roads, which I have plenty of in my era and locale.  For my ballast screens and grading already graded N-scale ballast, I went to Small Parts, and bought 12" square pieces of stainless steel wire screen (very sturdy) that had appropriately sized openings between the stainless wires.  It's been about 30 years since I did that...maybe more...so I don't remember the exact mesh sizes of both screens.  I believe that Small Parts still exists as part of Amazon, but you may have to do some research to find exactly what you want.  The search parameters to use are "stainless steel wire mesh sheet", and you'll find some products with no mention of the opening sizes, but others that give lots of pertinent information.  Some big dealers have exactly what you want, but require a minimum purchase of $75 or so, but...they have lots of pertinent information on their sites so you'll become informed as to exactly what you want and you'll be able to find it at other locations.

Try eBay and Amazon first.

Anyway, not too difficult to do once you get into it!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Angus Shops]

Thanks for the thoughtful replies. I Googled Smith and Sons in response to a mention of them in an early reply and it led me straight back to a Railwire thread started by Gary Hinshaw about a year ago. I liked what I saw in the tread (consistent colour, not translucent, not 'salt and pepper') but it appears that they may be out of business after a death in the family. Are they still open?
This thread also mentioned the darkening of the colour as it glued in place. This something that I've noticed where I use natural sand for other non track ballast purposes, but I usually airbrush it to the colour I'm after anyway so it doesn't matter. Can't do this for track ballast. I'm assuming I'll go with a lighter grey product than desired to compensate for the darkening effect. I use diluted white glue; does mat medium make any difference?
The mountains around Golden are a soft shale. I brought a sack of this material home with me years ago (my version of Bob's 'sacred dirt'). It's very soft and easily crushed, sieved, and graded into a range of particle sizes and used for 'general rocky debris'. It crushes into 'shale slabs' (length and width much greater than thickness) so the texture is perfect, but the colour darkens from natural light grey to very dark with the glueing. Unfortunate, but unavoidable so I treat as a texture material that requires painting. It is very absorbent due to its nature, so that may factor in.
I'm going to mess around with a bag of sand with my collection of kitchen sieves an tea strainers today. It occurred to me that I want the particles to be of the right size range, but also angular rather than rounded...
Geoff

[Brandt River RR]

Smith and Son Ballast is still in business.  The founder (Harley Smith) and his son (Dale Smith) have both died during the last two years.  However, Harley's grandson Paul has taken over the business and is still selling product.  It is a garage shop operation and Paul does not live at the location where the shop is, so there may be some delays getting product shipped out.  It is ballast made from real stone.  I use the #50 Color Blend on my layout and modules.  The following is the contact information:

Smith & Sons Ballast
New Owner: Paul Burger
13630 GAR Highway (Rt. 6)
Chardon OH  44024
Hours: Call
Phone:  440-286-4890
Email: SmithandSonsBallast@yahoo.com
Web: on Facebook

Ballast for all N, HO, O, S, & G scales.  Coal, ore, and stone of all sizes for model railroad scenery and railroad car loads.