Whats the best size of ballast to use ?

[daveblueozzie]

I am wondering what is the best size ballast to use on the layout, oo gauge, ive noticed there are different grades and colours (i know the colour is personal to the layout)

Is there an alternative to the shop bought stuff which seems a little pricey for what it is .

Ive read somewhere that course sand could be used and coloured, and even sieved cat litter

What do you the experts suggest.

[daveblueozzie]

Dont seem to be able to edit my post, sorry for the spelling it should read coarse sand.

[BRealistic]

I'll be using a gritty sand collected from a river bank near where I live... suitably sieved so that it's no more than a mm (scale 3 inches) in size, which I understand is about the max of the real thing. The river's nice and clean... so no probs with salt etc.

 

Here's a photo of a trial I've done using a 10cm piece of 'old', code 75, peco track. Also trialled spacing the sleepers...

 

Hope this helps!

Edited August 8, 2012 by BRealistic

[BRealistic]

Hope the upload works this time!

[Mark 37]

I read loads of posts covering this subject and the over all opinion is fine ballast mixed with a small amount of medium for texture.

 

Best regards,

 

Mark.

[BRealistic]

The colour on my previous upload was awful, so I've taken another in daylight. Much better rendition! I think it improves appearances if you try and leave a bit of a gap between the rail and the ballast. I use a coffee stirrer (McD) with one end cut straight and shapedinto a wedge, which is good for poking around. As it happens, it's the same width as the space between the sleepers! ... so I think I'll be making a spacing jig out of them. (They're a fraction under 5mm wide)

 

[BRealistic]

Thanks for that Simon. Looks like I'll have to get my sieves out again! Can't remember where I got the 3 inches from... althought I thought I'd actually measured some on the South Devon Railway!

Edited August 8, 2012 by BRealistic

[marc smith]

Hi Alan,

 

As others have already said, it really depends on what you're modelling....

The colour of stone will vary, depending on where the stone was quarried from

 

If you're modelling the distant past, this is more likely to have been a local quarry,

than todays railway. It will also weather differently, depending on amount of usage,

location, local weather, traffic etc....

 

Have a look at plenty of prototype pics, and even a site visit...

Also, remember that your chosen glue may have an effect on colour

 

A local MR club use tealeaves for ballast, I kid you not

They are a large club, and hold many open days / live steam events...

and so they sell a lot of tea & cakes....

hence, they re-use the leaves from the bottom of the urn.....

It's fine, and when suitably coloured, looks pretty good to me

 

I have seen a superb layout by someone using Chinchilla dust!

A product which I knew nothing of...... but it appeared very fine, and a good base colour

 

Personally, I tend to use woodland scenics or other brands, and blend them

HOWEVER, I think they are almost always over-scale...

 

So I tend to use N gauge ballast for OO/EM

and OO gauge ballast for O

 

Also remember, some lines / sidings used ash or grit....

 

Good luck, let us know how you get on....

Marc

[gordon s]

Just to agree with those above. I use Woodland Scenics Grey Blend ballast in both Fine and Medium Grade on Eastwood Town. A mix of both gives a good variation of size. By the way, you'll be amazed how little you use if you hoover up the excess after every application, so the overall cost is probably much lower than you expect.

[BRealistic]

After viewing your ballast, Gordon, I think I'm gonna use my sieved sand to improve my garden soil (heavy clay)! ... and go for Woodland Scenics!

Edited April 26, 2012 by BRealistic

[daveblueozzie]

Thanks for all the replies, that has given me some things to consider and maybe with a bit of experimentation might turn up what im looking for.

[Physicsman]

Just to agree with those above. I use Woodland Scenics Grey Blend ballast in both Fine and Medium Grade on Eastwood Town. A mix of both gives a good variation of size. By the way, you'll be amazed how little you use if you hoover up the excess after every application, so the overall cost is probably much lower than you expect.

 

I was about to post almost exactly the same as Gordon when I noticed his post! So-called 00 ballast is too coarse in my opinon. I've used a mix of 4 parts Woodland Scenics Fine grade to 1 part WS Medium, both in grey blend. The mix is a bit rough and ready and adds to the variation. Try it and see.

 

Jeff

Edited April 26, 2012 by Physicsman

[daveblueozzie]

Had a look for the first time at the ballasts that are available (Liverpool model rail) I see what you mean by the oo gauge ballasts seeming rather large.

Not decided what to do yet, not quite at that stage in my layout, but it looks like the medium and fine grade mix is the way to go.

[37255]

Again echoing the point that it depends on your prototype. My NCB layout (I'll get round to it one day) is likely to be 'ballasted' with coal dust!

Edited April 30, 2012 by 37255

[daveblueozzie]

Again echoing the point that it depends on your prototype. My NCB layout (I'll get round to it one day) is likely to be 'ballasted' with coal dust!

That's another reason why ive not decided on what to use yet, the way mine is set out it will have different ballasts for different areas, like you said coal dust or even slate .

[bike2steam]

Take yerself off to yer nearest railway line, and measure a sample of half a dozen lumps of ballast off the top of the bed, and you'll find they are between 2, and 3 inch across the longest dimension, as someone said before, too small it wont drain, too big it wont 'lock'. Take yerself off to Tesco's and buy a cheap plastic tea-strainer for about 50 pence, the mesh is 1mm. Buy a few bags of extra fine ballast, and check 'em thro' the tea-strainer ( most, if not all, will go thro') - no problem.

[BRealistic]

The sand I used in the photo in post 3 all went through a 1mm sieve... as I did what you suggest, Paul, and measured some (not far from Staverton) on the South Devon Steam Railway. Maybe it's because the photo isn't pin sharp that it doesn't look the business? .... and maybe I won't be chucking it onto the garden just yet! Others have said, though, that 2 inches is the max, not 3.

[bike2steam]

Others have said, though, that 2 inches is the max, not 3.

 

I only work from figures quoted from the pwi, and products from Meldon Quarry when we ballasted the track during the Corfe Castle extension on Swanage Railway - but there again what difference will a scale one inch matter ????

Edited April 30, 2012 by bike2steam

[Kallaroonian]

I started to look into this topic.

 

If you google the subject you find the RL UK ballast is supposed to have a peak size of 63mm but with a general range from 10mm to 50mm with I think the bulk of the size distribution occurring more towards the larger end of this range.

 

I bought some Woodland Scenics Medium and Fine and experimented. Unfortunately I couldn't get the same colour for my quick test which doesn't help but here are a couple of photos :

 

 

Fine size in brown

 

 

Medium size in grey

 

The camera got a bit tetchy about these photos so they are not the best but definitely enough to get the idea. To me the Fine grade looks much too small. On the other hand the Medium grade looks slightly too large. A crude estimate of particle sizes came up at 0.6-1.0mm for Medium and around 0.3-0.5mm for the Fine grade. This equates to roughly 2-3 inches and 1-1.5 inches scale size.

 

This link is also interesting :

 

http://www.mrol.com.au/Articles/Scenics/BallastSizes.aspx

 

I know it's a matter of opinion but again to me the Fine grade just looks wrong. It seems that what you really need is the medium grade sieved to remove the 1mm particles. This is not really a process I want to spend time going through !!

 

Perhaps, as others have a tried, a blend of Medium and Fine would be best. I fear that too much Fine would return it to the beachside look so I'm inclined to think that I will either stick with Medium or go with a 50:50 blend.

 

rgds

[Silver Sidelines]

I think if you use Google and do a search for ballast that you will find the Military Rail Specification which talks about '3 inch down' i.e. 1mm size in 00 scale. This fits in with a lot of what has already been said. I also have a theory which says that historcially good stone was cheaper than it is today and that perhaps in the past the mainlines were ballasted with a larger size of stone than is used today.

 

Just my twopennyworth

 

Ray

Edited July 3, 2012 by Silver Sidelines

[BRealistic]

I suspect, too, that what may look 'spot on' between the sleepers of C&L track doesn't look quite so good between the sleepers of peco track because the space is 2mm narrower. Just a thought.

[Kallaroonian]

I thought I would post an update. I ordered some woodland scenics gray blend in fine and medium sizes with the idea of blending the two as required.

 

Stupidly, after the event, two unplesaant realisation have revelaed themselves. The first is that if I look at old HMRS photos I have of Hatfield then I see that the ballast size is definitely smaller on these pictures taken in the 60's than is currently in use on the ECML. Therefore while a blend may still be valid the ratio needs to err very much towards the finer size.

 

Secondly, to add insult to injury, I have realised that the ballast in use both in the past and currently is essentially a brown colour. Woodland scenics brown ballast is probably close to ideal in terms of colour. It now looks like one of each gray blend fine and med actually needs to be replaced with 4off brown fine and 1off brown med.

 

At least I have established this before starting any ballasting I suppose.

 

Rgds

[BRealistic]

Hi Kalleroonian

 

Not sure how interesting/useful you or anyone else will find this, but I'm also taking time to choose ballast I'm 100% happy with. The 'model shop' varieties really don't appeal to me. I prefer that lovely, natural medium... sand. I'm lucky enough to live near seaside and riverbank supplies a golden mix from the beach and a browny one from the river (Dart). I prefer sand because it's so variable (and I do mean full of variety), both in colour and size, quite unlike the purchased examples. It's also inexpensive!!

 

I sieve off anything larger than just under a mm in size, which means I'm left with grains that scale to no more 2.5 inches. I used to discard the really small stuff (see pic in post 6 above), but now keep most of it and only throw the really really tiny specs.

 

The first photo below is of the ballast at the north (or so called east) of Newton Abbot station, showing the appearance I'm wanting to near-enough create.

 

 

This second photo shows a test piece using my original mix of sea and river sand, which is quite light in colour (and not unlike a great deal of ballast around these parts).

 

 

The last two photos show my first attempt at achieving the Newton Abbot colour having treated a spoonful of my original mix with Modelmates Sand Brown Weathering Liquid. Misted water on the sand first, then added a few drops of the Liquid, then gave it a good ol' mix before leaving in the sun to dry.

 

 

 

 

The result makes me think I'll be adopting this pre-colouring approach to all my ballast, making use of other colours from the range as required. Slate Grey came out nice but Soot Black will probably be very useful. Spot colouring with Oil Brown (after ballasting) might have potential where locos stop and do their business! But first I need to find out what effect the gluing process (using Copydex) has, if any.

 

Cheers

Edited September 27, 2012 by BRealistic

[marc smith]

Hi Kalleroonian

 

Not sure how interesting/useful you or anyone else will find this.......

Cheers

 

I think it is interesting and useful sir!

Nice result.....

It's surprising just how much variation in prototype ballast there is

particularly in its colour

the sand you have used looks great

 

Cheers

[BRealistic]

Thanks Marc.

 

It's because there is so much variation (where I've been looking, anyway!) that I shy away from the model shop stuff... and would never dream of air-brushing the lot in a track-grime colour. Like to use brushes and treat every 6 inches or so in the same, careful manner that I would 'lavish' on weathering a wagon. But then I'm retired and have the time!