Ballast Size - Is This 'Bout Right?
- Thread starter Lighthorseman
- Start date
Great picture :thumb:
To me it looks just about right. I wouldn’t go any bigger.
As a kid I used to walk on the rail (like all kid do
) and I remember the ballast was pretty big. One "rock" would be the size of my hand. The ballast came from a quarry which used to be underwater millions of years ago all the rocks had fossil of snails and fish in it. I think I still have one somewhere....
To me it looks just about right. I wouldn’t go any bigger.
As a kid I used to walk on the rail (like all kid do
) and I remember the ballast was pretty big. One "rock" would be the size of my hand. The ballast came from a quarry which used to be underwater millions of years ago all the rocks had fossil of snails and fish in it. I think I still have one somewhere....Looks OK to me and the effect is good:thumb:
Full sized railroads generally ballast with what is most easily available, such as crushed rock (generally crushed to 2 inches), pit run (gravel straight up from a pit), cinders, mine tailings, etc.
A lot of narrow gauge lines (and a few standard gauge ones as well) often neglected the ballast, particularly during their final years of operation to the point that you would have to look pretty hard to find it anywhere near the tracks and weeds would tend to be the most prominent feature around the rails.
Cheers!
Terry
Full sized railroads generally ballast with what is most easily available, such as crushed rock (generally crushed to 2 inches), pit run (gravel straight up from a pit), cinders, mine tailings, etc.
A lot of narrow gauge lines (and a few standard gauge ones as well) often neglected the ballast, particularly during their final years of operation to the point that you would have to look pretty hard to find it anywhere near the tracks
and weeds would tend to be the most prominent feature around the rails.Cheers!
Terry
Thanks For The Input!
Much appreciated! This is a section of the "mainline", which is a simulated three-foot gauge. While the mainline will not be quite this well ballasted, it will be indicative of a reasonably solvent railway. The "branchline", however, will be a totally different story! The branchline will be an actual thirty-inch gauge, and living eternally on the ragged edge of fiscal ruin. Ballast will, for all intents and purposes, be all but non-existant on the branch. Dirt, occaisional cinders, and weeds will make up the roadbed for the branchline.
Thanks for the differing sizes idea, David. I'll certainly be including that.
Looking forward to this aspect of modelling.
Much appreciated! This is a section of the "mainline", which is a simulated three-foot gauge. While the mainline will not be quite this well ballasted, it will be indicative of a reasonably solvent railway. The "branchline", however, will be a totally different story! The branchline will be an actual thirty-inch gauge, and living eternally on the ragged edge of fiscal ruin. Ballast will, for all intents and purposes, be all but non-existant on the branch. Dirt, occaisional cinders, and weeds will make up the roadbed for the branchline.
Thanks for the differing sizes idea, David. I'll certainly be including that.
Looking forward to this aspect of modelling.
Judging from what I see around here, about any size is OK, and you can add fines and even dust, as long as it's Indiana lime stone! Oh, wait, everywhere is not IN
Oh, wait, everywhere is not IN