Seems like I have heard of M.O.W. machines that take up the ballast, clean it, and then put it back.
I also remember some comments in a thread about ballast on this very forum a few years ago that some RRs in the south see no need for ballast on their roadbed. And, I was in Florida a few years ago and noted several tracks that, from my viewpoint in my car as I crossed a grade crossing, seemed to be just rails on the lawn… no ties visible, no ballast, just rails in a patch of mowed weeds in both directions. I did see one train on one of these tracks and although it was not moving at any great rate of speed, it was moving freely, without much in the way of wobbles or tipping (I have seen much worse on ballasted track around here!), so the track did not seem to be suffering from a lack of maintenance.
Also, I have been reading some recent books on Steam Locos and noted in the photos that many of the tracks in the photos didn’t seem to bother with ballast at all. Many photos show the track just laying on the ground with nothing but dirt around and between the rails and ties.
For not having researched my previous message about ballast I didn’t goof up too much. Here’s some additional information I found:
Some of the rock suppliers have information posted on their web sites, also Wikepedia was helpful.
Concrete Materials/Sweetman Construction (Sioux Falls, SD) stated that the LA Abrasion Loss (ASTM C535) was 20% for their rock (Sioux Quartzite Formation). Standard ballast size is 2.5"x0.75".
This Sioux Quartzite is the formation that I discussed previously; it’s located in southwestern Minneasota, southeastern South Dakota, northwestern Iowa, and the extreme northeast corner of Nebraska.
Dresser Trap Rock, Inc. operates a quarry in Dresser, Wisc. that I also mentioned previously. They also produce ballast in 2.5"x0.75" gradation; the stated LA Abrasion Loss (ASTM C535) for their trap rock ballast is 7.7%. Guess my beloved quartzite might not be the ultimate after all!
There don’t seem to be any non-railroad quarries operating around Baraboo so I couldn’t find any information about Baraboo Quartzite. It might be tougher than the Sioux Quartzite as it’s less granular-appearing and has more of a glassy look; this suggests a higher degree of metamorphism with more grain fusion from higher temperatures.
I did neglect to mention dolomite (rock, as opposed to the mineral chrystal of the same name); although harder than calcite limestone it’s still not as hard as the “big three” (quartzite, traprock, and granite), and has the same cementing properties as its cousin so I still consider it an inferior ballast material. By the way,there is a wide variation in the limestone/dolomite family with pure calcite limestone and dolomite on the extremes and varying mixtures of the two in the middle.
I agree that dolomite is not as good as any of the “big three” - but it’s better than ordinary limestone, which is generally significantly softer.
One of our local traprock and ballast quarries is the John T. Dyer Quarry at Birdsboro, about midway between Reading and Pottstown in southeastern Pennsylvania. The following is from its webpage at -
Dyer Quarry, Inc. is located in Robeson Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania. The Dyer aggregate deposit is located within the Northern diabase sheet.
Current mineral extraction at Dyer Quarry consist of diabase, an igneous hard stone commonly referred to as trap rock. It is utilized primarily for railroad ballast and construction aggregate.
The Quarry is located on 525 acres of land and contains approximately 100 million tons of permitted diabase reserves. The facility is strategically located and serviced by Norfolk Southern Rail lines. Dyer has adequate rail sidings and its own locomotive to handle up to 200 rail cars at a time, loading at a rate of 1,000 ton per hour.
Back in the 1980’s, Amtrak used to get from 20 to 40 cars a night from the Glen Mills Quarry in the far western suburbs of Philadelphia - a little southeast of West Chester, west of Media, and east of Chadds Ford, to provide a general reference for location - of the General Crushed Stone Company. See N 39.91663, W 75.48574 - on the former PRR, now SEPTA’s Media West Chester Line, which I understand is still inactive for passenger service this far out - it now stops at Elwyn, about 3 -4 miles to the southeast. I understand that the Glen Mills Quarry ballast stone was used mainly south of NYC; north of there, it came from a quarry in Connecticut - Tilcon, perhaps.
I have no idea where Amtrak gets its ballast currently, though - the siding at Glen Mills seems to be inactive now. There’s a tall steel trestle just west of Swarthmore College that may have deteriorated too much to carry the ballast trains anymore - or another one along the way - but I don’t have certain knowledge of any of that.
Back when I worked for WSOR, Martin Marietta Aggregates operated the Rock Springs quarry for UP, there was also a sizeable truck loading operation there, loading rock for local DOT projects. We loaded two sizes into railcars, the ballast loader was on the main line, and we loaded “chips”, or fine crushed rock (biggest size was about 3/4 inch) with the old ballast loading structure that straddled the sidings north of WIS 136. I do remember a lot of mud around the ballast loader, caused by the water sprayed on everything to keep the dust down.
WSOR used to use Rock Springs rock up until a few years ago, when there was a payment issue between them and the quarry, the preference now seems to be a trap rock (I think) quarry to the east of Waterloo, WI, where CP and Metra get some of their rock.
The ballast size obviously was used for ballast, and the chips were used in yard areas around switches to provide better footing and reduce injury.
I know of no other operating rock quarries in that area of WI, but the Rock Springs/Baraboo/ North Freedom area has a lot of this rock, the ex-North Western branch from North Freedom that Mid-Continent Railway Museum operates has a large deposit of this rock at the southern end of the line.
just a cautionary note to any short/tourist line that might be considering using highway-specification rock for railroad ballast. i’ve only worked as a civil engineer in washington and oregon and the rock specs are a little different, but both specs call for a lot of fines (small gritty sand) and intermediate sizes so that graders can process the stuff; that is, roll it over to eliminate variations. railroad ballast needs to have NO fines! -arturo
Rock Springs Chip tower, taken from ballast tower on main.
At the time we were loading 60 car Herzog sets, which just barely cleared to make the run-around move. Load 30, then make a cut, set them over, and load the other 30. They do it different now.
There are a few gravel quarries in the area up there, but I don’t think any produce ballast size rock. Most of the roads in the area have a definite purple-pink tone to them.
Martin Marietta is no longer the operator. WSOR now gets ballast from here.
