I use the kittylitter/oil dry. You may not be old enough to know what I talking about next, but to size it I run it through an old sausage grinder that is hand powered. It has the different plates that can be exchanged to change the size of what you are grinding. A little stain or diluted paint can change the color. I also grind up charcoal used in fi***ank filters for coal as loads and ground cover around my engine service facility, dumping area at the power house and coal mine. I think it looks good and is inexpensive.
Ah Jeff,… if your dinner guest don’t show up from now on, it could be because they read your post. [;)]
Oh yea,… I know what a sausage grinder is, but I had to break up with her. I caught her grinding my buddies sausage too. [:I]
i used coarse ballast (grey blend) and i like it
Greetings,
Caution with the cat litter. I used cat litter to start and found that it would swell when wet and then when it dried it left a void between the litter and the base. When you pressed down on the litter it would crack and fall away. I bought a 50# sack of what they called composted granet. I sifted through a 1/4 inch hardware cloth first and came up with about 10#s of large stone. I say large because it was about the size of your thumb before hitting it with a hammer ha. The balance i sifted through a flour sifter and this was about the size of med ballast. It is a browni***o red color and looks great on the layout.The larger stuf I use on my garden railroad outside and it packs exceptionally well. Infact hard rains fave no effect on the material and weeds dont grow through it.
By the way, I have about 350 feet to HO and I have about 1/3 of the track ballasted. I am using track in a raised plastic road bed and I ballast to the outside rail. I have used approximately one gallon of ballast so I figure that one $4.00 sack of composted grannet will be more than enough. I have used a little less than a gallon so far.
I buy the granet from a garden supply store.
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Neal Melancon
highball and arizona rock and minerel rock!(literaly.)