Cedar Creek Gravel Company

[Angus Shops]

I’d bet that a gravel company would ‘ballast’ with whatever they had on hand, most likely the stuff they couldn’t sell and whatever fell from the passing cars. Ballast is probably too good a word for it. In some areas, such as loading/unloading areas, it would probably be up to the railheads, in other areas there may not be much ballast at all.
Geoff

[VonRyan]

Well given all the feedback here I’ll pick up a couple more grades of dirt from New England Brownstone at the Amherst show as well as some of the gravel they offer and that should give me a sufficient allotment of materials to get things into shape.

I'd take the dirt you're going to use and mix just a little bit of cinders in so that it looked like, at one time, the track had been, at least, somewhat ballasted.  Over the years that ballast had been "pumped" into the ground and the dirt had risen to the top and replaced the original ballast.

Scott

I was considering something to this effect. But I’ll have to see how it looks on a test area.

[Hawghead]

Cody,

I should have been clearer when I said "cinders".  I should have said "what ever the original ballast material was".

Geoff,

One thing to consider is that industries most often did not construct the spur, branch, siding etc. that served them, the railroad did.  As such the railroad would have used what ever they normally used to ballast track.  I'm sure, in some circumstances, that the railroad may have used ballast from the industry, if available, to reduce the cost.

Scott

[CRL]

The other issue to remember for mining & quarrying operations is the tracks get moved or rearranged as the mine or quarry expands, so the track locations are temporary and are ballasted (or not) accordingly.

[Angus Shops]

Hi Scott,

Sorry if I misinterpreted, but I was under the impression that this was an ‘industrial railroad’, that is built, operated, and owned by the industry it served, in this case the Cedar Creek Gravel Co. Nevertheless, the trackwork is beautiful.

I’ve always hand an itch to do something similar, maybe in HO or even O scale. Mine would be a BC coastal themed “Theodosia Inlet Mining and Navigation”, a silver mine to tidewater barge operation with geared locos. I’ve thought about it quite a bit, but the idea keeps growing into something too big. I do have an N scale Atlas Shay however...
Geoff

[VonRyan]

How about now?

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[CRL]

How about now?

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Now THAT looks great and very appropriate for a gravel facility.

[dcarrell8]

Beautiful!

[Angus Shops]

That’s perfect.

[VonRyan]

First patch of “ballast” is down and the drying process has begun.

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[VonRyan]

Second patch of ballast is dry, and the first patch of ground is going down.

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[VonRyan]

First day’s work on scenery is done and dry.
Time for sleep.

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[Allegheny]

Cody

So that's why you spent so much time shopping at the Springfield show last weekend.  Guess it paid off with finding just the right "dirt".

Looking forward to seeing the final product soon (and what you're going to do with all the other stuff you bought).

Thom

[VonRyan]

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The right dirt indeed. New England Brownstone’s “Super Dirt” is some good stuff. I used grade 2 for the ballast and sifted grade 4 for the rest of the ground.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

This looks fantastic!!!

I know it's a nod to operability, but one thing to think about when laying track for something like this.

My guess is that all of it would be laid with (39'?) stick rail. That means that curves would be more like segmented polygons. Kinda.

Your track work is almost TOO good!

But damn, is it good.