Medium Woodland Scenics ballast too big

[Flatrat]

I bought a bag of medium grey blend WS ballast on sale and tried it on a siding. I'm okay with the blend colors but it looks like boulders between the rails. No good. I need to try something finer. It looks like there's finer ballast available for both n and z scale.

I'm not going to remove what i put down on the siding but looking for suggestions of brands and blends that will look better when i ballast my mainlines.

What do folks think is more believable for mid 1950's ballast? Do you do anything after gluing the ballast down like stain the center between the rails for oil drips and cinders?

Looking for suggestions as what I tried DID lay down nicely with dripping alcohol as a surfactant and fiddling with it with a fine brush to get it to lay down right between the ties before applying diluted 50/50 white glue but it looks way too big for N scale.

what brands blends do folks suggest I should audition for the rest of my layout?

[w neal]

SIFTED N scale Highball ballast works well for me. Note I said sifted.

Not great ballast pictures but...

[MVW]

It's hard to say without knowing where your "good enough" tolerance lies. I use WS fine ballast, or a mixture of WS fine and Arizona Rock & Mineral's fine. That's good enough for me, but many here would disagree.

Jim

[John]

put it in a coffee grinder .. it will make is smaller .. I do that with the fine stuff also ..

[Philip H]

I am switching to Arizona Rock and Minerals Fine graded ballast.  It's nearly sand sized in its proportions at N scale, but its . . . wait for it . . . actual crushed rock.

[MichaelWinicki]

This is unsifted Highball ballast.

A mix of N scale, Lt Gray, Dk Gray and a small amount of black....

[ljudice]

I personally like the stuff from Scenicexpress.com

I think #50 is good for N-scale...

[mmagliaro]

Did you mean you used "medium" WS ballast?  Or "medium gray"?
A "medium" grit ballast would certainly be too big for N Scale.

I use WS  gray blend, FINE, and I think it looks good.  Yes, it's a little oversized, but the superfine stuff that is really
scale ends up looking too much like a powder with not enough texture to me. 
That's just my aesthetic opinion.

[davefoxx]

I think I have a bag of Highball ballast that I bought for this layout when I get to ballasting.  The thing I notice in that bag is that there are clumps, so sifting or screening appears to be mandatory.

What are you guys using to sift the ballast to an appropriate size?  (John, what coffee grinder do you use and how do you keep from turning the ballast to dust?)

The thing I dislike about WS is that it supposedly is made up of ground walnut shells, I can confirm it floats when flooded with wet water and your adhesive of choice.  It then sticks to the side of the rail, making clean up a real pain.  On my former Virginia Central layout, I scratched the paint off of the rail in a few spots trying to get the ballast off.  Grr!

DFF

[jdcolombo]

I use Arizona Rock and Mineral N scale ballast.  Real rock.  Stays pretty much in place when spraying with water or dousing with glue mix.



John C.

[mmagliaro]

I think I have a bag of Highball ballast that I bought for this layout when I get to ballasting.  The thing I notice in that bag is that there are clumps, so sifting or screening appears to be mandatory.

What are you guys using to sift the ballast to an appropriate size?  (John, what coffee grinder do you use and how do you keep from turning the ballast to dust?)

The thing I dislike about WS is that it supposedly is made up of ground walnut shells, I can confirm it floats when flooded with wet water and your adhesive of choice.  It then sticks to the side of the rail, making clean up a real pain.  On my former Virginia Central layout, I scratched the paint off of the rail in a few spots trying to get the ballast off.  Grr!

DFF

I've heard this before, about the WS ballast "floating".  I have never had that happen to me.  I use an eyedropper to
wet the ballast with straight alcohol before I start, then I go back with the eyedropper and a traditional mix
of about 40% water 40% yellow carpenters glue 20% alcohol.  Works like a charm.  No beading, not floating.

[PAL_Houston]

It's hard to say without knowing where your "good enough" tolerance lies. I use WS fine ballast, or a mixture of WS fine and Arizona Rock & Mineral's fine. That's good enough for me, but many here would disagree.

Jim

+1.

I am still considering using some Arizona grey, but after using some of their desert sand, I think it will be essential to sift the Arizona products before laying it down.  Actually, I am happy with the WS fine ballasts, once it is down, glued in place, and the area has been cleaned up.

But, you KNOW how much I hate ballasting!!

[peteski]

I agree that the original post is confusing as it could imply that "medium" is either the color or size of the ballast.
WS fine ballast should be acceptable in N scale.  I also didn't think that Arizona Rock and Mineral was still in business. I thought that the owner was looking to either sell or close down the business (and that was few years ago).

[MVW]

AR&M is still going; I got some of their ballast several months ago. Looked like the owner had been tinkering with his web site a bit, and it seemed like any mention of the business being for sale had been removed. But I stocked up a bit, just in case. 

Jim

[Flatrat]

I'm not sure what was confusing from my original post as the Woodland Scenics product is clearly labelled; "Ballast. Medium. Gray Blend". It's their medium grit product. If you do not use WS ballast products then you may not be familiar with it although it's available in every hobby shop. I think it would look okay for HO or larger but clearly wrong for N scale. It looks like, [scale], 12 to 16 inch boulders between the ties at N scale and causes wheel flanges to bump up over it. Absolutely no good for N. I've scraped and fiddled with it to get the siding track to run cars smoothly but...won't use it again as is on the mainlines.
I have a cheap, spare coffee grinder which i use to grind up my dried hot peppers and garden herbs for seasoning that I will sacrifice to my model RR project and try the suggestion of grinding it down finer and running it through a sifter/screen. If that doesn't do it I will abandon it altogether and go with the AR&M ballast that most of you recommend.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I understand that true N scale ballast would look almost like dust but i still like ballast to look a little like rocks, not dust.

Thanks again!

S