Just a warning about track ballast: If you ever think you will need more ballast in the future of the same color, buy it all now!
My story: My HO layout has been under construction for about 25 years. Most of the mainline was ballasted with Highball brand HO Limestone (HBL220) ballast years ago. Currently I am in the process of finishing a portion of the mainline and realized I was down to my last 2 bags of ballast purchased 10+ years ago. I was excited to see that “Highball” ballast was still being sold. I just purchased 2 more pounds of Highball brand HO Limestone (HBL220) from Walthers this week. As you can see in the pictures below of the old (left) and new (right) “color” of the brand HO Limestone (HBL220) ballast, they are nowhere near the same. The original ballast in bags, and on my layout, is close to an slightly off white color, but the new limestone color ballast is not even close to the original (more of a light grey). [Also, twice the price as to be expected!]
Just a heads up for any long term modeler….
Thanks
Nick
Ballast is a lot like paint. Alwasy a good idea to get all you need or prepare to blend or otherwise deal with variances.
One issue with Highball ballast is it’s actual rock. Rock can vary, depending on its source.
I’d also agree the best way is to not look at it as a problem so much as “things happen” on the layout, just like they do in real life. Different sources will look different. But the last thing a real RR would worry about is color-matching its ballast. That’s more a model RR thing. It may be aesthetically important at a certain spot, but it’s not exactly a deal breaker IMO.
Back when I was buzzing around the sky in a little Piper airplane, I would often follow the CP and CN main lines into the mountains. The colour of the ballast was far from uniform. Anywhere a repair or maintenance was done the colour change in the ballast was very noticable from above. For this reason I have a few different shades of ballast on the shelves and on the layout. It looks very real to me. I even mix them together for another look again. The same goes for ties. There are lots of sections where the track looks brand new from above for a few hundred feet.
What I find most interesting is they use the exact same bags with the exact same printing after all these years. Method 2 - dilute clear dope with thinner. Perfect for fiber ties. Traditional dopes are hard to find in the LHS these days, and fiber tie track? Some might have some in place on an older layout, but you can’t buy that any more. Nor would I particularly want to pour diluted dope all around my layout unless I had a LOT of windows in the room. And a few fans going.
I just sold a bunch of the old stuff on e-bay a few months ago, maybe you can trade old bags for new with someone. Even Woodland Scenics color has changed over the years. I had what should have been more than enough for my layout but some bags were way different than others and some only slightly. Luckily I had enough that the yards each get their own color and the main another. Don’t like to mix the colors on the main as it just looks splotchy unless it is an obvious repair to the main
To alleviate the abrupt color change you could mix your remaining bags of the old color with the some of the new shade. If you added the new in increasing proportions to the old the color would shift over a distance and would be less noticeable.
I agree, if one favors their ballast in one color and texture it’s important to buy all the ballast you think you might need out of the same batch. I realize that we all have our preferences as to how we portray prototype ballast, but the dramatic color difference in your photo would be too way too much for me.
Great suggestion! Since my layout is only 13 feet by 28 feet any drastic change in color on my double track mainline would look strange. Your suggestion of a gradual change by slowly mixing both makes total sense.
Don’t know your location, but last year I happened to see a bunch of the old light colored limestone Highball Ballast in a Napa, Calif. hobby shop called the Loose Caboose. It appeared to be the color of the lighter ballast in your photo and there were quite a few bags.
I too, on one of my prior rebuilding exercises, on my layout, extensively used kitty litter-sifted and sorted for size and color. That lasted until the resident bundle of purrfull fur discovered what was being done with something that he had great familiarity with, in the basement. To make the long story short, this prompted yet another rebuild with materials that were not recognizeable be the resident feline. Maybe it is a good thing that building a railroad is the dominant focus of this hobby-finishing one is more self delusion than actual reality. Come to think about it, even the 1:1, real world railroads are always in a state of recontruction somewhere along the way.
My cat does not go to the train room. The cat does not even like coming indoors. Two buildings over and three flights up. Just no way. She ain’t going up there nomatter what.
This is very timely topic for me because I am getting ready to ballast my the last un ballast ed parts of my layout. I have a few jars of W’S light Grey ballast and a few jars of W’S dark Grey ballast. I mix them together by eye before spreading so it is never completely uniform.
