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Beach Sand Ballast, OK to Bake???


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I'm 99% sure that I want to use beach sand as ballast on my current layout.  I've seen several threads to recommend this idea too, but most advise rinsing and then drying.  Now that the heatwave of summer is most likely behind us, I was wondering if it would be ok to bake said sand in the oven after it had been rinsed? Or would baking actually negate the need to rinse? Obviously sifting would still be advisable and I also intend to scour the whole lot with a large magnet, as to remove metal particles.

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I never baked the sand that I used for ballasting. I did make sure that I gave it a long time to fully dry out. Sifting is essential to get a uniform size as well as removing the excess rubbish.

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10 hours ago, bimble said:

 

If it's beach sand you might want to rinse it to remove any traces of sea salt

 

Is that a problem if the sand is locked up in PVA, just theorising really- can the salt then do much damage?  I probably will rinse it, but it just occurred to me that it could be omitted if needs be?? Happy to be corrected tho! :D

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20 minutes ago, Ray Von said:

 

Is that a problem if the sand is locked up in PVA, just theorising really- can the salt then do much damage?  I probably will rinse it, but it just occurred to me that it could be omitted if needs be?? Happy to be corrected tho! :D

Yes, it may be a long term issue. The salt will pick up any moisture and corrode anything it can reach. A good rinse with warm water in a bowl, pour off the water and repeat as many times as you can before drying out. I know because, in my youth I made a sand table with sand illegally* taken off a beach, and any unpainted metal corroded.

 

*IIRC It's still illegal!

 

Better to invest a couple of quid on sand from the builders merchants. they'll have soft and sharp sands, soft has much smaller grains.

Edited by GeoffAlan
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32 minutes ago, Ray Von said:

Have to admit to coming down in favour of purchased sand, for the reasons stated above.  Anyone know what size bags they usually come in? 

20KG approx, that will keep you going for years...

I would recommend , Kiln dried sand, saves all the problems of drying... £4:90 from the big orange shed.

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8 minutes ago, Ray Von said:

Yikes, that's a lot more than I think I'll need - maybe I'll tip what's left on the beach.... :laugh:

knowing  our stupid laws that's probably illegal too

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The size of beach sand can be very variable, even from the same beach. Some beaches have very very fine sand. One thing you do get with beach sand that you don't get with builders sand is colour variation. When you look closely at sand from a beach is a fantastic variety of colours. Unfortunately most ballast is quite uniform in colour. 

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Quite prototypical using sand as ballast if you are modelling the SE&CR or the LBSCR who both used beach shingle as top ballast. The SER and later SE&CR got theirs from a ballast pit at Dungeness and the LBSCR got theirs from the Crumbles at Eastbourne. It was not good as ballast as the rounded nature of beach ballast did not lock together well and was a factor in the poor track condition leading to the Sevenoaks accident in 1927

 

 

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Another vote for play sand or washed builders sand. I use sieved grey builders sand and play sand on my N layout, parts of which are 10 years old now, no corrosion, lifting or shifting has occurred. If you use PVA etc like normal ballast it never gets loose or falls off. 
You can also dye the PVA mix with inks to weather and tint the finish. The picture below shows track ballasted with building sand and the cess laid with play sand. 
85E04836-0C8C-4521-B0CC-0BBA3F718E40.jpeg.d8e3d8f8fd174963992be8d58ef783f2.jpeg
 

I dried both fully in a low temp oven, then sieved and bagged the stuff for later use.

Edited by devondynosoar118
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