I have some sand that looks a lot like gray granite that I have sifted to approximate HO scale ballast size. I have also washed it to remove the rest of the fine powder and any small sawdust-like particles that float on top of the water. Then spread it out on a sheet of glass and let it air dry in my basement. I am wondering if there is any reason I should not glue it down and use it for track ballast? I think it looks like the real thing and the size is believable next to the ties, but I am concerned there might be some hidden problem I am not aware of. This is my first time at ballasting a model railroad and don’t want to make a huge mistake that will cause untold hours of frustration later. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I have heard of people doing htis in the past. If you do try it, glue it down well and make sure you get rid of any excess or loose pieces, you don’t want them getting in your equipment.
It should work, but for safety’s sake, run a magnet through it to pick up any small iron particles. These would be attracted to your locomotive motors and you could have a problem. But I’ve heard of a lot of modelers using sand for ballast pretty successfully.
Before you install ballast, be sure that you have the track in a position where you will not have to move it later. That includes having to “gap” the track later with insulated joiners, or increase or decrease the radius of a curve. I assume that you are familiar with the need to thoroughly wet "one foot sections at a time, with “wetted water” (add a few drops of detergent). A 50/50 solution of white glue and water will hold the sand in place. Finally, be sure to vacuum the track, so that no stray partical can get into the loco gears. You have completed the necessary “sand preparation” steps. So go to it! Be sure to stay clear of switch points and frogs. I personally like to use a final coat of spray adhesive. Bob Hahn
It seems every so often one of the layouts reviewed in MR mentions that they use a sand local to the prototype for ballst, so I believe this is a fairly common practice. Of course, the magnet filter is very important as mentioned above. By the way, if anyone has not viewed the most recent David Popp video in the subscriber content, it actually has a very good segment on how he (and Cody too?) did the ballast for the industrial extension to his N-scale layout. Jamie
Depending on your sand, it can look like big lumps of crystal in closeup photos. That’s the thing I personally have against it, and I prefer to use something dull and opaque, or else paint some greys over it. Maybe you were planning to do that anyway.Or maybe yours doesn’t look like that.
You have made a worthy point there, Tom! Eastern Idaho contains some extensive bassalt lava flows and I have given thought to saving a little money and blending some black bassalt sand with commercial product creating a unique color blending for–at least some of–my ballast. Somewhere or another I encountered a post warning that bassalt can contain upwards to a 3.5% or so content of iron. I haven’t completely discarded this idea since I have family in Eastern Idaho and go up there occasionally; even then, I think, after gluing it down I would go over it very carefully with a vacuum.
Definitely, but carefully run a vacuum over it to get loose particles. I shoulda mentioned that myself in my previous post. You don’t have to put it directly on it but make sure any loose particles can be removed. If you did the ballasting correctly then you shouldn’t have to worry much about vacuuming up any of it you don’t want to.