I am buying the Grey Fine Ballast bag for HO scale
https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/item/BAL-G
How many linear feet of track?
Rich
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is there a way to calculate this for an L shaped layout? it is a 4x8 with a 4x4 next to it so I am not sure how I would divide it by the width
The only way is to add up the length. For curves use math, for tangents (straight) you can measure it with a tape measure.
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i dont have tracks bought yet, im just trying to plan ahead
+1
Do you have a track plan yet? If not, there’s no way to know how much track you’ll have, so you can’t know how much ballast you’ll need.
Here is the trackplan from an earlier post, it’s 8’ x 8’, and I haven’t done the maths cos it’s been a long hot day and my brain hurts!
Cheers, the Bear.
Oh yeah, I’ve seen that. I didn’t realize that was brandon1’s plan.
Let’s see - just a ballpark estimate, but it looks like you have somewhere around 65 feet of track. That’s pretty rough, so for estimating purposes I’d use 75 feet.
i have updated it a lot more, ill send it in a little bit
someone said it was 8x8, 120 linear feet (rounded 77 sq feet to 80)
I found my notes from when I ballasted my current layout in 2020.
On my prior layouts, I used Woodland Scenics, but in my current layout I switched to Scenic Express. But I believe the coverage should be the same with either product.
According to my notes, I used 5 level cups of ballast to cover 36 linear feet of track. So, 10 cups of ballast would cover 72 feet of track.
10 cups is equal to 2 1/2 quarts.
The Woodland Scenics shaker bottle appears to be a one quart size, but I can’t say for sure.
Rich
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My Woodland Scenics ballast shaker bottles are marked 57.7 cu in.
That’s “coverage”, or at least coverage that WS claims. I have some empty WS bottles. I will measure one.
Here is a Woodland Scenics bottle with 4 cups of water added. So, the WS shaker bottle is probably a quart size bottle by liquid volume.
I realize that a cup of water is not the same as a cup of crushed walnut shells (Woodland Scenics) or tiny stones (Scenic Express), but I am going to stick with my estimate that 5 cups of ballast will cover 72 linear feet of HO scale track.
Rich
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57.7 cubic inches is one quart. I did a quick size measurement of the bottle and got 58 cubic inches, close enough. Were the 57.7 cu in intended as “coverage” it would say square inches, not cubic inches.
So this is a quart bottle. Coverage of 72 linear feet of track seems about right, but I am in S gauge so the number would be a little less.
Well, I’ll be. I was surprised to read this, so I looked it up (which is what I should have done in the first place). Yep, 1 quart = 57.75 cubic inches. Now enraged, I Googled ‘how do you convert cubic feet into linear feet’. Answer: “You can’t”. Thanks, AmFlyerTom for setting thing straight. 
Meanwhile, we agree that a quart of ballast will cover 72 linear feet. 
Rich
Dimensional measurements and volume measurements are interchangeable, but rarely are converted. That is why it is strange to see 57.7 Cu. in. on a bottle. Concrete is purchased and delivered in cubic yards rather than gallons, no idea how that came to be. Gravel is sold by weight, which is logical because of the variable pebble shape and size.
Glue is sold by the (liquid) ounce, pint, quart or gallon. Ballast is apparently based on the manufacturer’s whimsey.
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I pulled out all the invoices for my layout to see how much ballast was used, here is the result.
There is 460’ of ballasted track, including 80’ of freight yard tracks. The freight yard is ballasted over the entire area rather than just the track. It required 2.5 bottles of the Woodland Scenics cinders. The yard tracks are about one track apart, so we can double the linear track length and add about 20% to approximate area. That comes out to about 50’/bottle.
It took 12 bottles to do the remaining 380’ of track, about 32’/bottle. Here is how I reconcile the usage. Below is a picture of a two track mainline that shows the area between the tracks is also ballasted. There is about 120’ of track similar to that which adds at least the equivalent of 120’ of track. We are now at 45’/bottle. Multiply that by 87/64 (the ratio of S scale to HO) and the result is about 62 linear feet/bottle.
The 87/64 is a linear (one dimension) scale up that does not account for the thicker (taller) ties to be filled in, a second dimension. So, with much more background than anyone likely wants, the ballast quantity used on my S scale layout appears to support something around 72’ in HO.
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so how much containers should i buy?