sifted beach sand for ballast?

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

I am back at this after many years. Is sifted beach sand OK to use for ballast?
If it is, how can I secure it to the layout?
If it is not,what is a good alternative?

2

I used a lot of sand from a sand dune near Laws CA for desert scenery on several NTRAK modules. However I didn’t ballast the track with it.

It was clean , and I was able to get a number of different grades (very fine to coarse) depending on where on the dune I dug.

3

Hi. Some of us were discussing this just a couple of days ago (scroll to earlier posts).
I have just ballasted my first ever set of track, and I used local beach sand as well as WS medium ballast (brown). My main line is sand, a spur to a cement factory is done in the WS product.

First, both look great.

Second, the sand, carefully rinsed to desalinate and rid it of oorganic matter, is much easier to set up (shape and contour) in my one-time experience. The ground nut shells in the WS product are quite a bit lighter and are too sensitive to my brushing it off of the ties. Both seems to take a blast of fixing solution from a spritzer well, but the edge goes to the sand.

BUT…, and its a biggee,…you must test all of the sand for material that will move toward a magnetic source. I’m thinkin’ rotating, energized locomotive motors. Bad news there. So, wave a fridge magnet within 1/4 inch of several samples of the sand spread flat, and check to see if anything adheres to the magnet. You should have heard the exclamation that came from my mouth when I tested that neat darker gray stoff I just had to use on my spur.

I hope this helps.

4

The beach sand will work if you run a magnet over it and make sure it has no magnetic material in it as stated by selector. I have used WS ballast and sand and have had good results with both.

5

Thanks to all who replied. This is my first time applying ballast. I never thought of using a magnet. The beach I gathered the sand from could yeild quite a bit of ferrous material.Just what I need in my brand new 2-8-2,Thanks again.

Rich

6

Your local home depot or lowes sells bags of clean play sand for kids sand boxes it has already been washed and baked , I ran a magnet over some and found no magnetic problems.

bill