Sand will magnify the sound of your train on the rails, so I would advise against using sand. A cheap ballast that I have used in the past is Cat’s Pride cat litter that can be purchased at Wal-mart or Safeway. Cat’s Pride comes in a plastic jug and is basically just Kaolin clay, so it does not swell up when moistened like other brands. Cat’s Pride is made by Oil-Dri Corporation, and can also be used to soak up oil spills, which is their main business. I spread dry litter with a small paint brush, moisten it with a rubbing alcohol sprayer, pour on a 50/50 white glue/water mix, and then spray more rubbing alcohol. It gives you a gray colored ballast.
Does it attract cats? There are two of them in my house and I’d sure hate it if they found a “new” litter box.[:D][:D][:D][:D]
Enjoy
Paul
That cat litter is aprox 6" to 12" scale bolders in HO. You ballast with that or crush it up?
Someplace on one of these forums, someone mentioned parakeet gravel. So I tried it. Cheap easy to use. Two drawbacks
- the color, I will someday have to match it to the rest of my ballast
- there are some “big chunks” that occasionally pop out of the box, you need to sift these out as they are way to big for ballast, but do make nice stones maybe someplace else on the layout.
And so far my layout has not been attacked by any maurading parakeets[:D]
What color is this parakeet sand?
Parakeet sand is almost clear with a yellowish white cast.