I now use 5 different colours of ballast on the layout depending where the line is passing through.
A mix of solid Red and a pinky one on the Beaver Creek station and yard area
Dark grey from Beaver Creek through Pointrock
Whitish-buff From Pointrock through Arbour Summit
Light grey from outside Arbour Summit down to where the red begins on the outskirts of Beaver Creek
Also mixed 'horticultural' yellowy/grey in the Arrowhead township area.
Everything was fine, I was reballasting and........ I ran out of red, .......whitish-buff ......and dark grey. :wits::wits:
Unfortunately the local suppliers no longer stock any of them!:crying:
Following Don's example, I made my way my local gravel quarry and paid Anglian Bagging Company a vist. They actually do the 'real' 1:1 track ballast and do stuff called 'granola' which is granite 'dust' or fines. This looked good but would, without comprehensive gluing, wash completely away. They also do a, what they call 5mm a slightly pinky grey granite chipping (really 1mm-5mm) and that looked to be just the ticket as a substitute for the dark grey that I had run out of...BUT.... they also showed me the ideal stuff...it is 5mm (1mm-5mm) dark grey granite which is actually smashed up 'real' ballast! Fantastic but the best part is the price....I asked for 2 x 25kg bags....£3 for both!!!
a goodly group of nice guys who usually deal in very large multiple tonne orders but were really interested in what their product was now going to be used for.
Out of interest I measured a couple of average sized 'real' ballast lumps and they were about 50 to 80mm. Take a scale between 1:20.3 and 1:29, say 1:25, divide that into the 50mm and you get 2mm-3mm as the ideal size to replicate the real thing.....depending of course on where in the country or world 'real' ballast was being used.
A mix of solid Red and a pinky one on the Beaver Creek station and yard area
Dark grey from Beaver Creek through Pointrock
Whitish-buff From Pointrock through Arbour Summit
Light grey from outside Arbour Summit down to where the red begins on the outskirts of Beaver Creek
Also mixed 'horticultural' yellowy/grey in the Arrowhead township area.
Everything was fine, I was reballasting and........ I ran out of red, .......whitish-buff ......and dark grey. :wits::wits:
Unfortunately the local suppliers no longer stock any of them!:crying:
Following Don's example, I made my way my local gravel quarry and paid Anglian Bagging Company a vist. They actually do the 'real' 1:1 track ballast and do stuff called 'granola' which is granite 'dust' or fines. This looked good but would, without comprehensive gluing, wash completely away. They also do a, what they call 5mm a slightly pinky grey granite chipping (really 1mm-5mm) and that looked to be just the ticket as a substitute for the dark grey that I had run out of...BUT.... they also showed me the ideal stuff...it is 5mm (1mm-5mm) dark grey granite which is actually smashed up 'real' ballast! Fantastic but the best part is the price....I asked for 2 x 25kg bags....£3 for both!!!
a goodly group of nice guys who usually deal in very large multiple tonne orders but were really interested in what their product was now going to be used for.
Out of interest I measured a couple of average sized 'real' ballast lumps and they were about 50 to 80mm. Take a scale between 1:20.3 and 1:29, say 1:25, divide that into the 50mm and you get 2mm-3mm as the ideal size to replicate the real thing.....depending of course on where in the country or world 'real' ballast was being used.
