Marble Chips for Ballast

[PJM20]

Hello, I was wondering if using the Mini Marble Chips from Home Depot (http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202257775/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053) would work for ballast. I went to the store and looked at them with the largest pieces being the size of a quarter and the smallest about the size of a pea. I don't know of any drawbacks of using this product, so I'll ask you guys if this is a good choice for ballast or not. Thanks for all the help. - Peter

[Greg Elmassian]

I know a lot of people use various sizes of marble chips. I personally would have problems with the alkalinity they produce, but many people have no problem.

If you are using strictly as ballast, I would not use something where any of it could not fit between the ties, so 3/8" would be about the largest.

If you are using it as roadbed, the larger sizes help keep it from shifting.

Marble chips normally have nice sharp edges, which is a plus.

I'd look for something smaller.

Regards, Greg

[kstrong]

If you're after that particular color, then you may want to head over to your local farm supply store and look for "Gran-i-grit" chicken grit. It comes in three sizes, "starter," "grower," and "developer," I think, from smallest to largest. The starter is a very "scale" size, but washes away easily. We used a mixture of the grower and developer for a while on my dad's railroad. Small enough to look good, but big enough to not wash away and lock in place. The marble chips you mention are far too large to be effective for ballast. I'd even avoid them for sub-roadbed, too. Stick with stuff that's around 1/2" or so for that at the largest. Otherwise your ballast will quickly wash into the voids. (Your ballast will wash into the voids of the 1/2" stuff, too, but it'll take longer.)

If you've got a landscaping place around you, head there instead and look for "breeze," "rock dust," "crusher fines," or whatever it's called locally. (It's got many names.) It's essentially small chips from around 1/8" to around 3/8" in size, and if you pay more than $30/ton for it, you're being ripped off. I head over to the landscapers with a half-dozen 5-gallon pails in the back of my SUV, fill 'em up, and top everything off once a season. Cost me about $7 total. If you need more, they'll deliver by the truckload. I think I got 5 tons delivered when I was first building the line, and it did 300' of track with a 4" deep trench. It's gonna settle and some will wash away, but that's railroading.

Later,

K

[mgilger]

If using Chicken Grit, then make sure you use the pure Granite type. Some is also made from bones and will deteriorate over time.

Mark