01-03-2015, 03:33 PM
Our ballast varies in color from week to week. It gets dirty and that dulls the color. I prefer to start with limestone sand as I think it looks like real limestone ballast, because it is. I use blue windshield washer fluid to dilute white glue (50-50)to hold it down and that adds blue to the color. A lot of branch line track today still has the black cinder ballast showing through the light coating of stone ballast. I used a black sandblasting medium to represent the cinders and in places scattered some limestone to look like work had been done in modern times.
On the main line in my area they appear to be using crushed granite. It too accumulates dirt and the color darkens. When new ballast is installed and worked it mixes with the old and gives it a salt and pepper type appearance, but it is shades of grey, not black and white.
The color won't be a big issue with well weathered track and the weeds. Most branchlines here get minimal maintenance. The Kiski Junction track to Bagdad Pa had not had any major work done between 1965 and 1995. The neighbor boy (3 years old) told us the "Blue" engine would go up the 4 mile line and would not come back for 2 days. When I saw the track for the first time I couldn't believe they even serviced the line. The crew told me they derailed every trip no matter how careful they were.
Charlie
On the main line in my area they appear to be using crushed granite. It too accumulates dirt and the color darkens. When new ballast is installed and worked it mixes with the old and gives it a salt and pepper type appearance, but it is shades of grey, not black and white.
The color won't be a big issue with well weathered track and the weeds. Most branchlines here get minimal maintenance. The Kiski Junction track to Bagdad Pa had not had any major work done between 1965 and 1995. The neighbor boy (3 years old) told us the "Blue" engine would go up the 4 mile line and would not come back for 2 days. When I saw the track for the first time I couldn't believe they even serviced the line. The crew told me they derailed every trip no matter how careful they were.
Charlie