Railroad bedding

[Anonymous]

Hey,

I'm brand new, this is my first post and first forum!
I was reviewing the other posts and couldn't seem to find much on railroad bedding. I am finishing up an all digital LGB MTS layout in my backyard that's about 50 ft. x 20ft (it's huge[8D]). The rails lie on 4x4s that have been staked to the ground. I'm not sure what kind of rock i should use for a bedding material but i'm leaning towards slate (on looks only). I was wondering if anyone knows of a company or website I could visit to purchase large amounts of bedding material to give the track a more realistic appearence but because of the scale of my layout i'm having a hard time finding the volume of material I need. I'd say i'm looking for a few hundred pounds of this stuff. It crossed my mind that i may be better off beatting the crap out of large pieces of stone i can get at the local stone yard, but that would take a lot of time and labor.

Another thing I've noticed and is quite surprising it the lack of LGB MTS retailers in Los Angeles. Which means I have to order 80% of my parts!- that's two week wait! ([B)]) I've heard some people metion that it's because only 3% of model railraoders are running full digital layouts. Does anyone know of any retailers around the country that carry large quantities of MTS parts (modules and decoders) in stock?

Thanks for your time and help,

Mike

[vsmith]

Welcome to the forum Mike, from a fellow Angelino.

For ballast, it depends on where you are and what your looking for. Near me is La Canada Stone in Pasadena, small but pretty well supplied. Out in Baldwin Park is a large stone supplier, cant remember the name,on the south side Live Oak avenue just west of the 605 freeway. They had everything, I got crushed decomposed granite, the small 1/4"-3/8" kind thats great for ballast ready packed in bags for a very good price. This was a couple of years ago hence my memory failure.

I dont have MTS, but have you tried Train Shack in Burbank? or Upland Trains? They seam to be the better places for LGB around the L.A. area, I would also suggest Allied Trains out near Santa Monica but I always seam to get a slight bit of "attitude" when I'm in there. Guess they can sense a non-LGB dedicated large scaler...[:D]

[Anonymous]

try chicken grit! from feed store starter feed is 1/29 scale i think medium feed is 1/22.5 scale.

[Anonymous]

[#welcome]


mbhuff

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the quick response everyone! I appreciate the help!

[Anonymous]

I USE 1/4 TO 1/2 IN. DECOTRIVE STONE FROM LOWE'S AND HOME DEPOT THEIR ARE DIFFERENT COLORS AND I THINK IT WORKS WELL FOR ME. BEN

[bman36]

Hi Mike,
Welcome to the forum! Have you tried any landscaping suppliers? Gotta' be crushed stone out there somewhere. Granite is nice for colour. Enjoy the forum! Later eh...Brian.

[jmozz]

welcome to you try pet stores someone told me to try the rock they use on the bottom of fi***anks jmozz

[Anonymous]

I use crusher fines or quarrie fines depending on what part of the world you are from and I regard them as ideal for the ballst to lay your track on, absolutely unbeatable. However they have a couple of problems 1) they don,t look very nice and 2) when you get a tropical downpour, they splash grit up and make your rails dirty. So we put a further layer of decorative gravel or small stones and they can look very nice.

50' X 20 " sounds a good size to me but you would not regard it as huge, reasonable though very reasonable, could you advise the length of track, this is important as well. I have 65 m (200') and am in the process of putting that much down again and this is not regarded as big. I know a person who has a a main straight 100 M (110 yards) long and he rides a horse to get around it and I really don't know what joy you can get out of such a thing; it owns you you don't own it.

Rgs Ian

[Anonymous]

Hi Mike,
Welcome on board!! I use pea gravel laid on top of hardcore between brick edgings and when I have got the track where I want it I in fill the ties with a fine gravel from our local DIY super store. It's got a stupid name, Alpine Pink, but it looks superb.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[Anonymous]

i just laid my track over the holidays and used 3/4 of a ton of #8 crushers.that was for about 50+ feet of track, my total cost......$8.00 AND IT WAS WORK!!
I was really happy with how it has turned out.Im going to get some chicken grit just for the fini***ouch.

jeff

[vsmith]

Sunburst Decorative Rock Inc.

That was where I got the crushed granite in ready-bag form! They are on Live Oak Blvd, in Baldwin Park in the San Gabriel Valley west of the 605 freeway

[Anonymous]

The fish rock is pretty expensive considering the amount you need. I have seven big fi***anks and will be adding some more this fall. Right now I'm trying to find a cheaper way to put rocks in them. About $30 US for a 55 gal tank. It won't pack well either if you are using a system that requires packing. There are no sharp edges to avoid hurting the fish.

I'm just starting my first GRR and will be headed to the gravel pit soon to look into crusher fines for the roadbed. Still don't know what to do for the fish.

Tom