Woodland Scenics Ballast

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

For those of you who have used Woodland Scenics Ballast for HO scale what size did you use and what blends? Medium or Fine or a mix of the two?

I model the Burlington Northern and plan on using Medium -Blended Medium Gray for mainline, Medium dark gray for secondary/sidings… and black cinders for engine terminals.

Does anyone blend the medium and the fine for a mix? I was thinking on doing that for a change?

Thanks ,

Mark

2

Mark,

I’ve used medium, fine, and blended the two. I think the blending of the two gives a nice effect, but it can be hard to work with and get right…the medium tends to sink while the fine comes to the top as you work it.

YMMV. [:)]

3

I generally use medium with a little fine mixed in.

4

I have already bought all my shaker containers with the medium blend. Last weekend I was at Larrys Hobbies looking at the fine ballast, I am thinking of buying 1 container of fine blend and mixing it with the medium. The fine alone looks to powdery to me and to work with in glueing down. I looked at the ballast on the BNSF mainline near my home and the ballast looks quite large, so I think I medium mix will look right.

Mark

5

I model in HO & found the medium looked too large, went to the fine & am satisfieg with how it looks. If you weather it to represent oil from the engine & bearing boxes you won’t have to mix colors. The mixed colors look like salt & pepper to me. Jerry

6

I guess it might depend on what era you model and area of the USA. Does the steam to modern day vary in what type of ballast one should use?

Looking at what the modern day BNSF mainline uses, the ballast is big compared to even 20 years ago on the mainline near my home.

Back then it was the CRIP/BN Joint Texas Divison, seemed back then they did not have the money to but down high qaulity ballast.

Mark

7

I use medium. I’ve got a small bag of fine, which I use for gravel by the side of my roads. It’s a bit lighter shade than the gray ballast, too. I’ve also got cinders, which I use inside the subway tunnels because I want it dark. I made up a 50/50 mix of ballast/cinders to use for a few inches on either side of the subway tunnel openings where the tracks come to the surface.

8

I used WS fine light grey. Very pale and hard to photograph, but it stains nicely.

Looks ok to me, but I know nothing about ballast!

At least it might help you decide.

Mike

9

I use a mixture of medium and fine. My ballast is Sierra granite, so I mix light grey, darker gray and cinders for the mixture I need. My light gray and cinders is WS fine, which gives me the color and mix combination that seems to work for me. For my yards, I use WS fine light brown and cinders.

Tom

10

Check out the pics posted in this forum. In person, medium may look OK, but when photographed, medium looks like the tracke are balasted with 6" to 10" rocks!! The fine photographs much more realistically. [:)]

11

mikelhh , your photo and layout looks great. I like how your ballast looks.

whats your technique?

Mark

12

Mark - I poured the ballast from an eggcup. I found the ballast so lightweight that I had to gently pre-mist it with water that had a dash of detergent, before carefully using an eye dropper to add diluted PVA glue. The misting had to be done with a very fine sprayer so that it didn’t move the ballast.

I used an old pump action room deodoriser. I also used a soft paintbrush to tidy it up before it got wet. Once the ballast was wet I found it clung to the brush, so there was a fair bit of tidying up to do after it had dried.

It was a fiddly job.

When it was good and dry I stained it with acrylics. Makes me wonder why I didn’t start with a darker ballast [:)] But I do like the pale colour to start with.

Mike

13

The ballast on the layout here is Woodland Scenics medium size. It is a blend of three colours as follows:

2 parts buff

1 part brown

1 part dark brown.

If I were doing it again I would add 1 part grey blend.

Of course a primarily grey mix could be used and a bit of buff added.

14

I use medium gray, medium size. Works great for me.

15

HO, WS Lt. Gray, Medium Ballast:

I like the texture of the medium better then the fine, enough the fine is closer to scale.

Nick

16

I’ve just started ballasting for the very first time. I am using fine and currently am working on the parts that are near my tunnels. The only problem I’m having is that non-train people who come by ask why there’s “sand” on my tracks.

17

I am getting close to finally ballasting the HO layout. It never was done dating back to when my dad started it in 1973.

Woodland Scenics doesn’t make any “pink” ballast do they?

I know Arizona Rock & Mineral does. And I believe they get their product near the Dagget, CA area, just like BNSF and former Santa Fe.

Not too divert too much from this topic, but what do users of AZ Rock think of the product, and do you have any tips on sizes to use for HO? Fine HO or HO Main Line? Or a mix of both?

Here’s a photo link that shows the unballasted main (bare cork) on our layout.

18

I am probably going to use medium size, light gray ballast on the layout I have going now.

I also color it with a wash that is the same color as the “dirt” around the track after it has dried. This tones it down and blends it in with the rest of the scenery. I will also apply some black paint lightly down the center in heavily used areas, then brush it with some wet water to spread it out and let it soak in.

For lesser used tracks I use a darker gray or buff and weather it heavily as described above.

For going in tunnels, I will apply the ballast as usual, then take a spray can of flat black and shoot it inside the tunnel portal to make it seem dark inside. I also use some type of tunnel liner. Most of the time its just poster board painted black.

19

I’ve used mainly medium for my H0 layout. spurs with some mixed with fine:

Wolfgang

20

For my layout, whose locale is set in Virginia/North Carolina, I use a mix of two parts fine gray and one part fine light gray to simulate crushed granite.