Have any of you used Quarium sand? It seems very cheap and lots of colors… I also went to a sand and gravel place in phoenix and they have some fine sand and some fine granit for $1 for 5 gallons! I figure I could use that for some mountain/bolders, and ground cover…
thoughts?
The sand may be good for ground cover, but not for ballast because it will amplify sound if it is glued down, and without gluing it will soon migrate away from the track as the passing trains cause vibrations.
I did the same thing on my balasting, I went to a local granet quarry and got 3-5galon buckets of granet screenings, they were very nice and did not charge me. I then washed it until the wash water was clear and then using various sizes of screens made my balast, rock for the parking areas, my small rock that has crumbled from the mountain and just about every ever rock on my layout.
I am now out of rock, but I am done with this portion of the layout and have not bought any ballast or that sort of thing. Be sure and run a strong magnet through the rock to get out any metal particals that might get into your loco. Mike
It seems the woodland scenic ballast is either cork or as someone suggested, walnut shells… However, I have bought some Arizona Sand and Mineral Co. balast and I swear that is very fine marine sand 
I love Arizona Rock and Mineral Co. I’m using the N scale cinders on our HO layout, in the yard. I love it! I swear its made from real cinders!
I haven’t used any of Arizona Rock and Mineral’s products, but he is located in a part of the state that has multi-colored volcanic rock, so some of it is probably ground up lava.
I bought a 15 lb bag of Lizard sand and Petsmart that is brown and looks like woodland scenics coarse brown ballast for about 10 bucks…pretty cool. all I know is im having a blast…this is sooooooooo much fun! I think I am moving tooo fast but I cant stay out of the train room!