I really enjoyed the detailed how to article on ballasting and weathering track. It was perfect timing for me because I should finish laying the mainline on my layout next weekend. I have to do my wiring first but then it will be on to ballasting, etc. This is my first attempt at this.
I have a couple of questions. Do you have any general rule of thumb as to how much ballast to buy per so many feet of track? I’m assuming I should buy all of my ballast at one to ensure that the color matches. Also, the ballasted track in the article was less “sculpted” than I expected. It was spread out further than the roadbed and uneven along the edges. That looked more realistic to me but was not what I’m used to seeing on friend’s layouts. Any comments from the group on your preference? I know, it is my layout… Thanks.
I live close to the KCS main line between Lake Charles and Shreveport. While the ballast along the track is thick and heavy, it does spread out more in some areas than in others. I try to duplicate this on my layout as much as possible.
Good luck trying to figure out your volume. Personally I don’t worry about it as Woodland Scenics seems very consistant with their colour and if you were look at a main line the colour of the ballast can fluctuate depending on source, re ballasting some washout, etc, etc.
I estimate that you can ballast roughly an inch of HO track per teaspoon and the typical 18 cubic inch Woodland Scenics bag has about 72 teaspoons of ballast in it.
This means you can ballast roughly 6 feet of track per bag of ballast. The plastic 32 oz container has about 192 teaspoons, which means it will do roughly 16 feet of track.
Now these are only ballpark approximations to give you some idea of how much ballast these containers have, but your results could vary by say 50% plus or minus.
Ballast on major mainlines in the early part of the Twentieth Century were more sculpted, but after World War II as labor costs went up, most railroads were not as fussy about perfectly scultped ballast since they didn’t want to pay the labor costs to upkeep it.
Again, this is a general observation and not a hard-fast rule, but it’s something you can use to help set your era. In all cases observe your prototype, and do what they do if you want the most realistic results. Here’s my prototype, the SP Siskiyou Line in the 1980s:
How sculpted a trackbed is depends first on the wealth of RR… which depends on its traffic. But heavy traffic pays for the heavy track and ballast that it needs. So if you model the PRR in steam days the coal hauled paid for the track gangs and those massive drags needed the high maintenance. Wander out along a remote CNW grain branch and it maybe never had much ballast in the first place … and the track ripped up at the end may well have been the track first laid.
You make a statement that you assume you should buy all your ballast at one time to assure a uniformity of color. Why? The prototypes don’t do that. Admittedly through a particular section they may have (originally) gotten all of their ballast from a central location somewhere but as the need to reballast a particular section emerged the railroads would go out to whereever the product was cheapest at that particular moment and thats where they would get there ballast. These changes can be very pronounced and sometimes very dramatic. Remember, ballast trains may be a necessity but they are also a “red ink” entry in the ledger; the railroads ain’t gonna haul ballast any further than they absolutely positutely have to.
Joe, the video worked great for me. I even had my wife watch it because she is helping me with the scenicing part of the hobby and is much more artistic than I am. I am probably going to go with Woodland Scenics just because I find their quality in products to be pretty consistent.
Thanks to everyone else for your comments. You can always count on this forum to give you quick information and advice if you are asking legitimate questions.
