I am at the Ballasting stage of my layout and was wondering what colour all of you choose to go with.
Thanks for participating in my Poll.
Trevor[:)]
Is there a certain railroad you are modeling? I use a Milwaukee Road mix I get through Dale Kuhn. I also get his C&NW ‘Pink Lady’ ballast for my C&NW branch that crosses the Milwaukee main.
Jim Bernier
What region is your Railroad in??? Kevin
My Railroad is in no particular place/railroad. It is a complete fantasy line, with no real-life ties, other than time period (1940’s Steam). The only other distinguishing characteristic would be that it is generally located on an Eastern coastline (model what you know). I plan on having one corner modelled as ocean with rocky coastline and a lighthouse maintaining a vigilant eye to the sea. I know that the rocks/cliffs I will be modelling are old and wave worn, and have a purple cast to them.
I hope this answers your questions…
Trevor
Hello again Trevor,
I would have a couple of colors then for your ballast. In our club we went with the Woodland Scenics Med. Grey Ballast B83 or B93 mixed with the Lighter Grey color. Then for our sidings we used a darker color mixed with cinders. Just remember your Mainlines will be kept up by your MOW crews. Sidings and Branchlines will look nasty sometimes. Kevin
Real railroads tend to use what they find in quarries locally. There’s no real point to hauling rock too far from a source. Ballast is intended to be functional, not pretty. Ballast doesn’t have to look like the rock work in the rest of the scene. That rock may not be the right type for ballast. Bottom line, your options are wide open. It’s your railroad, make up the story.
By the way, I voted for gray.[:)]
I voted other, because I use whatever the prototype I’m modelling used. My main road (NKP) used limestone, the IC used a differently colored limestone, the GM&O used whatever they could find, and the P&PU used all sorts of stuff, including freshwater clamshells! Everyone used cinders for secondary tracks…
Although gray is the most common, gravel color and composition varies considerably with local. In the Northeast even w/ gray granite prevalent, I will use varying colors of ballast. Gray mix for mainline, darker or soiled at interchages and yard approach, very heavily soiled and stained appearance in yards and engine facilities. Branchlines can be different even browns or a mix. A narrow gauge yard being completed now is being ballasted in cinder/ dirt combination. Haven’t decided what color the rest of narrow gauge mainlines will be.
Bob K.
I wonder if there is no right or wrong answer! Personally, I like a buff color, mixed with some cinders. Some yards I have seen have no ballast and seem to be simply mud. On the high iron, in my locality, I see gray, light gray and buff colored ballast. Over on da Iron Rainche the ballast has more red in it. I am unsure how far ballast would have been hauled, but think we might be surprised! There are so many variables to this question that even if you were strictly following a prototype you might have more free reign than you would think ! Oh, I voted OTHER.
I you dark grey mixed with the iron ore for the mainlines and cinders for the secondaries and sidings.CN and CP use a lot of slag from stelco around here so you get that rusty grey look on their ballast they use granite mixed with it as well so it’s a nice balance.Go with what you see most if your modelling prototype otherwise just pick colours you like and have fun with it. TB
I am using Woodland Scenics grey medium ballast for my HO layout. Why? Because it’s pretty much an exact match for my prototype. How do I know this? Well, I went trackside and grabbed a piece of the real thing, and set it next to a section of ballasted model track, and it looks real close to me.
–Randy
CNW Pink Lady.
There’s no right or wrong here, Trevor–actually I use just about all of the mixes you offered in your poll. My mainline is set in the California Sierras, so it’s basically a mixture of light and medium gray, with just a hint of cinders mixed in, to reflect Sierra gravel, which is pretty much a granitic mixture. My yard ballast, which would not be kept up as well as the main, is a mixture of gray, buff, and cinders, and the ballast in my locomotive service area is practically all cinders, to reflect dropped coal and spilled oil. As stated in another thread, the color of the ballast usually depends on the type of local rock that is quarried. Since you live near Toronto, the ballast available there would probably be quarried from Canadian Shield rock, so it would, I assume be a darker color from the igneous and metamorphic rock of the Shield. I’m just guessing, understand. I’d think a medium to dark gray color. I use Woodland Scenic’s ballast, and I have jars of each shade that I use, and as my railroad passes through several climatic and geologic zones, I tend to use a ballast color reflecting the underlying rock of the particular geologic zone. Hope this helps.
Tom [:D]
My layout will have roadbed made up of the surrounding rock s, which as its set in the Arizona desert will have a decidely red/rust hue to it. Probably have to do a road trip out to the desert to “collect” enough buckets of the stuff to doe my raodbed and scenery .
Who is going to post some photos.?
I’ve said this before but eventually you do not notice the ballast but it’s very easy to get hung up on it at the ballasting stage. I only build small switching layouts for both home and exhibition use and often spray fini***he ballast and track anyway - if you look at prototype photos - which I’m doing a lot at the moment because I’m also spending an age deciding what color to do - the ballast quite often looks quite uniform and merges(color-wise) with the surrounding colors and track).
Personally I’ve gone for a mix of woodland scenics gray and buffs -all fine - with some British ballast in as well with some ash added for my cheap and nasty shortline interchange.
'hope this helps
Chris
the color of the ballast depends on what i’m modeling…I use woodland scenics fine and medium for ballast but the colors are very versitile…I model different sections of the UP/SP in Texas and there are a lot of different roadbed colors…some is white, some is gray, some is a salt & pepper ballast and some is red (iron, rust color)…it just depends on what i’m modeling and what colors are in the scenery…Chuck
Randy,
I did the same thing on a trip to my mom’s a few years ago. After grabbing a couple of pieces I determined that Woodland’s scenic medium gray ballast with a small amount of the light gray ballast seemed about right.
Hey guys,
Thanks for all of your replies and for voting.
Trevor
believe it or not, but the color in Greater Boston, at least within Route 128, on the mainlines is (hold on to your seats) LAVENDER!!! functional AND pretty. I don’t know what quarry it comes from, but Boston Sand and Gravel is a big operation, and runs its own private trains up north. i forget the reporting marks, but it’s engines are green and black, i think. The color on my shelf layout is Dupont blue, because it’s glued on styrofoam, and i dont have the time to ballast.
Here’s a photo of some of my ballast: I prefer a light gray, as that is what one sees on the prototype, and generally exceeding scruffiness, with weeds growing everywhere, was the rule in the past so I try to represent that. I tone down the lightness of the gray and weather the ties and track with an ink wash, which also helps distribute glue when gluing down the ballast.