Ballast Size help!!!

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Long day Saturday on the layout…and disappointing results…[V]

I had laid approximately 10 feet of ballast on my layout so far. It was a mixture of brown and dark brown in a coarse size. I’ve had this ballast on my layout for a few weeks,and I liked it fine. (You can see the ballast in this picture)

Then I started colouring the surrounding mountains. That’s where the trouble started. Long story short, the surrounding mountains feature beige coloured rocks (Woodland Scenics Earth Colors Liquid Pigment-Earth Undercoat…you can also see this in the picture). Since ballast is typically made from local rock I thought in hindside that either the mounatins should be more brown, or the ballast should be more buff. And since it would be easier to change the ballast than the mountains I decided to change the ballast. Also, not only did I feel that the colour was off, but I felt that perhaps coarse grade ballast was too big.

So I spent a couple hours yesterday removing the existing 10 feet of ballast. Not an easy job! Thankfully it was only 10 feet… Once that was done, I installed new ballast on a 2 foot long section of track. Medium Buff.

While I think the colour is great, I’m not so sure about the size. That is to say I think the ballast may now be too small. I’m so confused!!![%-)]

My layout is HO scale wilh code 100 nickel silver track /w black ties. What size ballast should I be using?

I’d like to know I have the right size before continuing. I don’t want to have to remove more ballast. Help me out of my pickle here guys![D)]

Thanks,
Trevor

2

Medium or fine would be good for HO scale.

By the way, ballast isn’t necessarily from local rock, its usually mined from quarries with the proper type of rock, not all rock is good for ballast.

Dave H.

3

I’ve used both medium and fine and much prefer the look of the fine ballast in HO.

4

http://rrscenery.com/azrock3HO.html

The Arizona Rock Co makes real rock ballast based on prototype coloring. I don’t think it is uncommon at all for the ballast to contrast with local rock colors as the ballast will often be brought in from another location.

5

From my experience, (and that was in the UK) real ballast is approx the size of a fist, maybe slightly smaller, using this assumption and a prieser figure I would guess that a mixture of fine and medium would be pretty accurate with a 2-1 mix in favour of the fine ballast.

Have fun & be safe.
Karl.