Is there anything wrong or bad with woodland scenics ballast? my new rr club says it is no good, but I was given a large quantity of it at christmas. Should I sell it and buy another brand? bwchaney
There has been a lot of discussion about W/S ballast over the years. It is very expensive though. My experience is that it seemes to be made out of some organic material. I have heard that it is ground up walnut shell material. That may be as it does tend to 'float' when gluing it dowm. For the mos part I hav used real stone ballast(Campbell on my first layout many years ago, and either Highball or Arizona Rock & Mineral on the current layout). Real rock does not seem to 'float' so bad when wetting it. Some folks have mentioned the possibility of 'mildew' with the walnut shell stuff as well. I suppose that may be a real issue oin a damp enviroment.
You mention a 'large' quantity of it(like several of the 'shaker' containers?). The price was right, but what you local club folks are saying may be good info. Why not discuss the issue with them in a little more detail before making a decision.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I only every got around to ballasting a small section of my previous layout, and I used the WS grey since it matched the actual local ballast the best. I had no problems with it 'floating' when I wet it down - but I didn't use the "drop of dish soap in the water" old way - actually, I tried that and it failed miserably. I have hard water in this area and it just wouldn't soak in. Instead I used 70% isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol mixed with Elmer's white glue, that soaked right in to the ballast.
I too have heard things liek that it's made from ground walnut shells. Well, if the grey color stuff is walnut shells, those are the hardest walnut shells I've ever seen, I tried crushing some to test the walnut theory, sure didn;t seem like walnut shells to me. I do beleive a lot of the 'floating' problem shows up for the same reason the soap in the water didn;t work for me - hard watrer, the soap doesn't break up the surface tension enough. Bottom line, I had no problems using the WS brand and have no real reason to not use it again. Plus, if you got it for free, there's an even better reason to use it. Just try rubbing alcohol as the wetting agent instead of a drop of soap in water, it works MUCH better - and the alcohol isn't very expensive, just use plain, cheap store brand. 70%. If you have to get something stronger like 90% (which also costs more), add some water as well. I notice in the laatest examples in the magazines they too now use alcohol instead of the soap trick..hmmm!
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I have used Woodland Scenics ballast on my current and previous layout without problems. There is likely no such thing as "perfect" when one is trying to simulate small stones at 1/87 (or less) of their actual size. If the color that you have is what you want, I would see no reason to try to sell it and start over. There was a fairly lengthy discussion on this forum "Ballast Wetting Agents" (as I write this, the last entry to that thread was on 021309) that covered different wetting agents to promote smooth application of the ballast.
Bill
bwchaneyIs there anything wrong or bad with woodland scenics ballast? my new rr club says it is no good, but I was given a large quantity of it at christmas. Should I sell it and buy another brand? bwchaney
I don't like it. It is made of ground walnut shells and individual pieces tend to 'float' when flooded with glue/water mixture, and I'm pretty picky about how I lay my ballast.
I use actual rock ballast, i.e, Highball, because it stays where I put it, and nothing looks more like rock than rock.
What scale are you modeling in?
I ask because I've been testing WS ballast in N-scale and noticed that their 'fine' grade seems too big for the scale. If you're in HO, then you have a choice of sizes (or even mixing different sizes).
Overall I've used WS ballast before. I was able to deal with an compensate for the floating isssue, and the ballast lasted several years before I tore it out to re-do my layout (and I was more choosy about how my ballast looked).
I prefer Arizona Rock & Mineral and Smith & Son's out of Ohio, Phone: 440-286-4890
They both actually use "real rock" not some synthetic whatsit to make it. If you want the ballast lets say the Southern Pacific black cinders your getting exactly that. I had a very nice conversation with the gentlemen that owns the company (oh and he's a one man operation) and he takes trips here and there and collects actual real ballast and grinds it up and that's the real deal. The problem I have found with WS ballast is that it's not even close to scale. If you spread some on a section of track and look at it with a magnifying glass or a macro lense of a camera it looks like boulders. You don't have that problem with either of the other guys I mentioned. Higball isn't too bad and Scenic Express has some nice stuff alo. I would go to the next train show in your area and check out what the vendors have. SE is always at the bigger shows.
http://www.rrscenery.com/