Gawd I hate ballasting

[wazzou]

I blended 3 colors of AZ Rock & Minerals to match the ballast from a pit on my branch line.
NP Gray, GN Basalt and what I think was called C&NW Mauve.

[randgust]

Original ATSF layout was done almost entirely with Woodland Scenics and Highball products stuff years ago.    It's OK.

All current work is done with AZ rock and mineral on the T-trak modules.   Man, I love that stuff.   WAY better results and far easier to apply.   Anything that clumps or floats is an invitation to insanity.

This is mostly PRR gray-brown stuff with a whole lot of cinders on the side tracks.





This is a three-level comparison:  C80 with Woodland Scenic brown under the 5649 - C80 with Highball dark gray center; Peco C55 with Highball blended mix of my own closest track.   I typically used HO because the clumping issues on that fine N stuff were so bad you couldn't control it.   With the Arizona rock stuff, no issues and much finer grain success.   It's real rock.  Accept no substitutes now.

My Flagstaff locale in the 70's was when ATSF was finally giving up on the legacy basalt volcanic cinder ballast that ran from dark brown to steel gray to iron-ore red depending on what part of the pit at Darling (Winona) it came out of.  Stuff ground up and made too much dust.  During that era any new track was starting to get granite or limestone, as it is today.   But the ballast colors on the main were anything but normal ballast gray, and the ground-up red-brown cinder dust colored everything from the frame down.   It's got to the point where I can identify the year of photos by just looking at the ballast color in that area.   You really do want to spend some time observing a line before you randomly buy a bag and put it down.

Here's a really cool shot of the pit - notice the extreme color variations:  https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/tucson.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/6b/96b3d13f-bd2d-5307-8506-ccfe4ae91365/54d6bf0340360.image.jpg

I also paint and weather all my track before I apply ballast.

Looking at the photos on this thread, another thing to be aware of is what era you're modeling.   Track and ROW maintenance was downright excellent until the Depression, and depending on the railroad and location, changed ever after.   'Modern' equipment and standards also look a lot different.

Here's the exact location of that first model shot in a picture my mom took when she was a kid.   That PRR line was just immaculate.



The same exact spot in 1975 under Penn Central was so weed-grown and dirt contaminated that you had to look close to even see that there was ever ballast in there, let alone what color it was.   I've walked the ROW there today and it is a lawn, with a few nuggets of ballast if you look very close.

[LIRR]

thanks, I'm real happy with the result, it's not only the ballast...I painted/faded each tie individually and brushed weathering powders on the rails after ballasting. I saw this in one of Mike Confalone's scenery videos, I bought both chapters, best $20 I've ever spent in the hobby. I also spent the time to clear away small clumps as well as individual grains of ballast from atop the ties and the rail web while ballast was still damp. tedious, but worth the result I think. I work on only a few linear feet at a time.

[LIRR]

[altohorn25]

Not my favorite part of the hobby.  We use Arizona Rock and Mineral on the Modutrak layout.  Here's what it looks like on my bridge module:

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[daniel_leavitt2000]

OMG, that looks so life-like!  You have the eye for colors and textures.  Are you sure you didn't Photoshop a photo of 1:1 scale track going through the woods?     You Sir, are an artist!

That's hawt.

[tehachapifan]

This looks great! What kind of ballast did you use here and what are your techniques?

[Angus Shops]

Woodland Scenics has relatively new (at least I think it’s fairly new; I hadn’t seen it before) product they call ‘gravel’. They intend it to be used for gravel roads, but it makes excellent ballast. It’s a mineral product unlike their regular ballast so it doesn’t float and stays in place during wetting and gluing.  Comes in fine (excellent for N scale ballast, it’s finer than the ‘fine’ ballast) and coarse, and in light grey, buff, and a darker grey. It has a nice variation in particle colouring so it’s not to uniform, but without being ‘salt and pepper’. The light grey is a little too light for me, but I’m not afraid to hit it with the airbrush or colour washes to achieve to look I want. Excellent product - I can’t see why they bother with the old stuff, but the colour selection is a little limited.
Geoff

[robert3985]

I love ballasting.  To me, ballasting my track is like putting the final touch on a painting or drawing.  It can make, or break the overall effect.

Although I realize there is a significant segment of model railroaders who think that making things look "real" in N-scale is taking the "fun" out model railroading, for me, making things look as "real" as I can in N-scale is a large part of what makes this hobby "fun"...and fulfilling.

So, for me, a successful ballasting job is when you're done and you take a photo of your work and it looks "real".  Sure, your track probably isn't going to look "real" since there is no such thing as properly proportioned and detailed N-scale track available, but a successful ballasting job will make even grossly out-of-scale track look much much better...."better" meaning more real looking.

That said, I'm going to show examples of ballasting applied to grossly out-of-proportion Atlas code 80 flex track and code 80 Peco Insulfrog turnouts, Rail-Craft code 70 flextrack, Rail-Craft code 55 flex track, code 55 hand-laid turnouts, and code 40 hand-laid track with code 40 hand-laid turnouts.

All these different types and styles of track have some basic things in common: (1) The track was fully complete before ballasting, meaning missing ties were replaced, kinks were removed, wiring was complete and it was all tested electrically and mechanically by running trains on it for at least several days before ballasting (2) The track was painted and weathered before ballasting (3) The ballasted track was weathered again (4) Lastly, the same mix and brand of ballast was used in every example.

Photo (1) - Wilhemina Pass in N-scale using Rail-Craft code 70 flex for Ntrak standards compatibility:


Photo (2) - Extra 824 at Riverside on Nate Goodman's layout using Atlas code 80 flex:


Photo (3) - Great Northern Challenger at the Branchline Yard on Nate Goodman's layout using Atlas code 80 flex and Peco code 80 Insulfrog turnouts:


Photo (4) - GTEL Turbine pulled reefer block at Echo Curve on my layout using Rail-Craft code 55:


Photo (5) - Close-up of Echo Curve double UP mainline using Rail-Craft code 55 flex:


Photo (6) - Echo Coaling Tower and Park City Yard using RC code 55 except for the Park City Yard which is hand-laid code 40 - still under construction on my layout:


Photo (7) - Park City Branch hand-laid code 40:


The ballast I use is Highball N-scale Ballast, which, unfortunately, is no longer being manufactured.  I bought a lot of it when it was available, so I have a supply.

When I went out and walked the track of the actual locations I was going to model on my modules then later on my layout, I took samples and photographs of the real ballast.  Real ballast rocks in my location are 2.75" to 3.5" in diameter and composed of 4 to 5 different colors.  So, I developed a grading process that first, blocked every piece of Highball Ballast that was larger than 3.5 N-scale inches, then another that blocked every piece of sifted Highball Ballast that was larger than 2.5 N-scale inches...effectively letting smaller particles through, including dust and leaving me with scale-sized ballast particles.

I use this four-color graded ballast for my UP mainlines, but I use graded Highball Cinders just as it is in the bag for my yards and branchline ballast.

I also use graded "sacred dirt" from the locations I'm modeling as you can see in the photos.

To get a consistent profile, I've made scrapers out of gray Styrene to shape the ballast on either sides of the rails...using the rails to register my little devices in code 55 and code 40.

Photo (8 ) - Code 55 ballast scraper for shaping ballast contour:


I use my contouring tools for mainlines, but for yards, branchlines,  sidings and spurs, many times there is no real contour to the ballast.  I use makeup brushes to shape the ballast into the contours or lack-of-contours for these areas.

I noticed that some of the real-rock ballast sparkles, and I thought that was "bad" for several years until I noticed that in several photos of real trains in Echo Canyon and Weber Canyon, that prototype ballast also sparkles...reflecting sunlight into the camera lens from flat, shiny surfaces on the ballast rock faces.

Photo (9) - Echo Curve - the real deal.  Notice the ballast sparkling in the sunlight...pure white pin points coming off real ballast:


When I'm happy with the contouring and with how many rocks are on the tops of the ties (mainlines, branchlines & yards all differ), I don't want my hard work to get spoiled by big drops of water or alcohol pitting the dry ballast surfaces, so I use an atomizer spray bottle to apply a fine mist of "wet-water" to my ballast before soaking it gently with my water/Elmer's/drop-of-Dawn ballast glue mixture.  The atomizer I've found that work well and is easily available is the small brown bottle that CA Accelerator comes in, easily found in most model train shops.

After the ballast is dry, I pick off any stray rocks from the sides of the rails, touch up the paint...then spray a very light dusting of reddish brown down the middle of the tracks, fading it out quickly towards the ends of the ties.  This represents the reddish weed killer that UP uses on its mainline trackage, and which accumulates over the years on the ties and ballast rocks.  You can tell if track has been laid recently because you can still see a difference in color between the ballast and the ties!

That's about it for me.  It's been fun!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Cajonpassfan]

Woodland Scenics has relatively new (at least I think it’s fairly new; I hadn’t seen it before) product they call ‘gravel’. They intend it to be used for gravel roads, but it makes excellent ballast. It’s a mineral product unlike their regular ballast so it doesn’t float and stays in place during wetting and gluing.  Comes in fine (excellent for N scale ballast, it’s finer than the ‘fine’ ballast) and coarse, and in light grey, buff, and a darker grey. It has a nice variation in particle colouring so it’s not to uniform, but without being ‘salt and pepper’. The light grey is a little too light for me, but I’m not afraid to hit it with the airbrush or colour washes to achieve to look I want. Excellent product - I can’t see why they bother with the old stuff, but the colour selection is a little limited.
Geoff

Thanks Geoff, your ballast scene looks great.
I will look into that, not that I can go into a hobby shop to see it first hand right now
Otto

[arbomambo]

Not my favorite modeling job but always rewarding when it's finished...
Here are some pics from my "Ballasting 101" Clinic/Demo that I hold at local Train Shows.
I use pre-ballasted 'sticks' for visual aids while I ballast one with an overhead projector.

HO stick





N Scale sticks on various widths of cork



Quick guide poster

[DKS]

Suggestion to add one more step... place a small fan blowing gently across the fresh ballast. It'll dry 10 times faster.

[mu26aeh]

I hate ballasting even more after seeing these photos.   Mine looks like ***** in comparison

[Ed Kapuscinski]

What products are people using for ballast? Woodland scenics, Real rock (sifted), other?

Sanded grout. It has made ballasting 100x easier.
http://conrail1285.com/n-scale-ballast-using-sanded-grout/

Some of my favorite ballast pics:

[randgust]

If you go back and look at that prototype shot of Robert3985's UP main....what do you see?

I see a couple things.   First, the ballast color on the two main lines is not the same.   Huh.   Sort of what I see on ATSF.   Second, whatever that inner track is is a very-much secondary track, lower, a little weed growth, and not as well maintained.    Now go back and look at his model shots, and the same subtle variations in color and density are there as well.

Just pointing out that the tendency to have consistent color and spic-and-span ballast on a model actually makes it less interesting than having a distinct contrast between recently raised-and-surfaced track, yards, secondary lines, and lines just left to die in the weeds.

I really admire the workmanship I see here though, and materials have come a long way.