I’m curious which brand and color of ballast you chose to use for mainline? I’ve looked at Woodland Scenics fine gray blend, thinking of using that.
Alternatives?
Thank!
Hi Chris,
As for colour, are you modeling a particular railroad, or do you have a geographic location in mind? If so, the railways that you are modeling may have had a preferred ballast colour for the mainline. If you look at some pictures you might be able to see what the ballast looked like. Also, the availability of ballast may have determined what colour was used. Most railways would not go to huge additional expense to haul ballast from hundreds of miles away if there was something closer that would work.
The ballast on a single line doesn’t have to be all the same colour. For example, there may be a different colour ballast where a repair was made to a section of track or a switch, or it may just be lighter in appearance because it hasn’t had time to accumulate all the grease and oil and soot.
Keep in mind that it is your layout and you can do whatever you want. If you are being faithful to a prototype then you will want to find out what colour ballast they used. On the other hand, if you like the look of a particular ballast then go for it! Personally I like the look of cinder ballast because that is what was used in my area.
I have not worked with Woodland Scenics ballast, but I have read that it can be tricky to keep in place as you are soaking it with glue. Regardless of that, literally thousands of modelers have used Woodland Scenics with success. I suggest studying Cody Grivno’s methods.
I have worked with natural stone ballast and I didn’t have any problems keeping it in place when wetting it.
Just make sure to thoroughly soak the ballast with glue. At my old club we had constant problems with ballast because whoever installed it didn’t saturate the ballast. That created a layer of glued ballast on top of a layer of loose ballast and the glued layer would come loose regularly.[|(][:(!][banghead]
Dave
Obviously there are many different colors out there, primarily depending on what’s readily available (or priced) to the RR when the track was put down or re-ballasted. And while it looks nice to have the mains all one color, that isn’t a primary concern for major roads as availability/price are more of a priority.
I’ve preferred a light medium grey for the mains, darker grey for secondary tracks, and very dark for sidings, and even black (coal/ash) for the steam terminal tracks.
It depends on the RR as ballast varies. D&RGW used cinders for many years. Other RR’s often use materials they can obtain. So you can either try to follow photo’s from a RR you are interested in or you can choose your own.
Chris, I don’t recall whether you model in N scale or HO scale. Woodland Scenics Fine Ballast is intended for N scale mainline ballasting and consists of rather small grains for HO scale mainline ballasting.
I have both Woodland Scenics Fine Ballast and Woodland Scenics Medium Ballast. On my last layout, I used the Medium Ballast for my HO scale double mainline. I used the Fine Ballast for areas like parking lots and country roads.
I have used both Gray and Light Gray ballast from Woodland Scenics. The Gray Blend is a 50/50 mix of Gray and Light Gray. In my experience, I found that Gray looked a lot better than the Blend because the Light Gray tended to give a whitish appearance to the blend, not only on the layout as mainline ballast but also in photos where the blend almost looks total white. So, I would recommend just the Gray Ballast for mainlines.
On my new layout, I abandoned Woodland Scenics ballast altogether for my double mainline. I went with real rock ballast from Scenic Express, and I highly recommend it as an alternative to Woodland Scenics. Scenic Express makes ballast for both N scale and HO scale in both Light Gray and Dark Gray. The Scenic Express Light Gray is the equivalent color to Woodland Scenics Gray, and the Scenic Express Dark Gray is just that - - a bit darker gray. I used a 50/50 blend of the two grays from Scenic Express, and it looks terrific on my double mainline.
Scenic Express ballast is heavier than Woodland Scenics ballast, and that makes a big difference when ballasting. Real rock ballast takes the glue/water mix more readily, and the ballast stays in place as opposed to floating with the Woodland Scenics ballast.
Rich
Yes, the ballast color varies on location, railroad and even age.
This is an interesting topic b/c I plan to use two different colors on the layout–mainline in one and sidings/yard in another.
I would suggest you get a real rock ballast such as Scenic Express or Arizona Rock and Mineral brand ballast.
Why? Because it’s real rock and not ground up walnut shells that Woodland Scenics uses, which has a tendency to washout and float way when you apply dilute watery glue.
For people with little experience with ballasting, real rock will be easier to use because it’s dense and stays put much better when applying the liquid adhesive. The Woodland Scenic crushed walnut shell ballast has a tendency to float or wash away if you are not careful when applying the liquid adhesive.
I use gray, just because it looks right to my eye.
I use real rock from Arizona Rock And Mineral. There will be several different colours of ballast on the layout.
Woodland Scenics ballast is way too uniform for me.
-Kevin
Good advice. One reason I enjoy looking at Morning Sun color books for my favorite railroad (the C&NW) is that by coincidence it also gives great information about the color and type of ballast used in various locales and eras. Most railroads had a bias towards using more or less local sources, for economy reasons. Here in Wisconsin in the era I model the C&NW was using a granite ballast known as pink lady, and indeed some of it was very pink. But over time as they dug into the vein of stone the colors would vary from dark maroon to nearly purple.
Interestingly at the big local freight yard, Butler Yard, the C&NW used pink lady BUT they used the small chips from the mining process rather than the fist sized rocks used on the mainline. So the color was the same, but the size and texture were entirely different.
At further outreaches of the C&NW they did not use pink lady.
The Milwaukee Road by contast was locally using large pebbles as ballast, mostly white-ish and probably limestone. When the Soo Line acquired the Milwaukee, when they would reballast a section (or even just a short segment where ties had to be replaced) the new ballst tended to be dark gray basalt or granite. Quite a contrast! And some little used sidings were seemingly devoid of any ballast at all - mostly mud and perhaps very old cinders from decades earlier.
I personally like the WS stuff. It dose not wash out if you pre wet it properly. I use medium grey blend for my HO. This in reality is too large with small being closer to the real size but I find the medium looks more real in HO as you can see the detail. What our eyes see and what the brain sees can be two different things.
Yes, and this could be a topic for a very interesting discussion.
Building a layout to be viewed by the eye is different than building scenes for close-up detailed photography. What looks absolutely perfect in photographs could be unpleasing to the eye.
Ballast size, road color, tree shapes, aircraft sizes, etc. are things that the brain sees differently than the eye.
-Kevin
Basically, a thing I often say. “See what you see and not what you thought you saw.” (Generally two different things.) [:)]
David
I’m modelling in HO. I’m probably going to build a freelance RR. I’m not looking so much for the look of a particular prototype, just something that looks realistic.
I’m still doing “experiments” now, so I wanted to try a few different products and ultimately pick one that I think looks right.
I have had a similar experience with Woodland Scenics mixed gray - it looks too white, especially in photographs for my taste, so I wanted to see if there were other products that might look better. I will try the Scenic Express ballast.
Thanks for all of the feedback.
With any scenic work to get the color I want I remember being told, ‘There are 50 shades of green in Nature’. I find that if I mix different shades of a color (most probably from different companies) it turns out the one I want.
David
Another vote for Arizona Rock and Mineral.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
I acidentally deleted my reply to your query last night, but I’ll try again. I’m modelling the track of two railroads (both freelanced), and deliberately chose two different colours for the mainline ballast.
In the photo below, the track from which the loco is exiting and the rising track to the left belongs to the longer of the two railroads, while the downward bound track, with the lighter ballast is the shorter road…
(Click on the photos for enlargement)
The darker ballast is Woodland Scenics Gray, while the lighter stuff is Woodland Scenics Light Gray, both in the “Fine” size.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all the ballast on the lower level is the same colour, as is evidenced here…
…and here…
…and here…
…and here, too…
The longer of the two roads isn’t restricted to just one colour either, as seen here…
…and here…
Given that the WS looks “too light” as some mentioned, how to avoid that? Should we darken it a bit w/ paint once added and secured to the track?
Dr. Wayne: What a thorough and helpful guide. While I can’t see the pics, good to have the information. Revising and elevating the track further reinforces why I’m glad to have waited on ballasting.
I use a foam brush to spread the ballast, tends to do a better job with less scater.
Good idea. Some mfg. provide samples, at least they did a few years ago. My fav. is Arizona Rock & Mineral real rock ballast and powders. Some real rock ballast can darken and or change hue appreciably after applied glue mixtures dry.
Regards, Peter
I’m modelling in HO. Does it make sense to get the HO scale Arizona Rock and Mineral ballast or the N scale ballast? WS seems to have the “oversized medium” ballast problem.
Thanks!