I also agreeith the cinder/ dirt method. Larger areas and between tracks can be done with a base of fine sand (Play sand or silica) to help the more pricey scenic materials to go farther as a final topping. In on of the clubs yards, a member actally used the "play Sand" only as the ballast. The sand was colored with washes of grimey black and some dirt and cinder added to the final.
This is the yard done with the colored play sand base and dirt/ cinder
Here you can see yard tracks to rear and the freshly maintaind/ ballasted commuter track in the forground.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
In my o/p for what sit worth I think your right on the money. I am plan on using the same real sifted dirt first right on top of the Homasote just painted with straight white glue and then$1****$2the dirt right on top of the white glue.nothing fancy just rolled smooth with one of those small paint roller used for touch up.
I used Arizona Rock & Mineral's Southern Pacific fine cinder ballast in my engine servicing facility and was very pleased with the result. So i plan on using it in the new yard as well.a trick i picked up from one of the guys in our club was to put a base of black sand down first to stretch the ballast and give it a nice base to sit on. I have also seen guys mix the black sand in with the fine ballast as well. You can get it in any AC Moore or Micheal's craft store etc. they have several colors used for sand art. I also would say limestone ballast is a good choice main line and arrival /departure tracks. Highball ballast has some really nice lime stone ballast and a lime stone mix just in case you don't want the mains and A?D tracks looking exactly the same.There is a subtle difference thats just enough for my taste. Good luck sounds liek your on your way to a nice well planned yard.
I am modeling the Santa Fe in Oklahoma, era 1989. This is where I grew up, and worked for Santa Fe during the summers from 1955 through 1959 while going to seminary. My dad was a Santa Fe yard engineer so I had a little pull. Union wages for 3 months every year were appreciated by a college student. Anyway, the Enid OK 10th St yards of the Santa Fe in that era consisted of 16 tracks, it was a double ended yard, except for one lone little short track called 8 1/2 (the tracks were numbered 1,2 etc.) The ground was hard too see as there was all sorts of ballast of different colors, I accused the ATSF of dumping all the left overs on the system in Enid yard. And in some places, the ballast had absorbed pet products from drippy tank cars, other places, wheat grain that was shaken loose from the cars when they were dropped or coupled up. To sum up, 10th st yard really had no defining color, it was a hodgpodge. My last visit down there showed nothing much had changed except the addtion of BNSF.
So in my model of Enid yard, circa 1989, I did basically the same thing and it looks right to me. There wasn't as much pet products on the ground as the old Champlin refinery had closed a few years prior, but there was enough to still have that smell.
The Frisco yard looked the same way, ATSF and SLSF yards were side by side with mainlines separating.
Bottom line, my yard ballast at Enid yard and Oklahoma City yards are a combined mess of everything imaginable, and does draw favorable comments from visitors who are modelers.
Bob
Hello Craig,
There are several color photos of the N&W's Roanoke, Va., yard in Jim Nichols' book, Norfolk & Western in Color, 1945-1964. The yard ballast looks to be almost exclusively cinder fill and dirt, in varying shades of gray.
It's mostly pretty dark, relieved in some places by sand from locomotives along the rails, grass sprouting between the ties, bits of coal, and other detritus. One panoramic view of the eastward departure yard shows an overall fine-textured dark gray, with no distinct chunks of cinder or rock ballast in evidence.
Your idea of using dirt makes sense, especially if you can sift it pretty fine. Judging from these photos at Roanoke, I'd save the lighter gray limestone ballast for the main lines.
Good luck with your layout,
Andy
Andy Sperandeo MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
Out here in so. cal. main line track is crushed granite. The yards are a finer crush and dirt mixed together.
I'm with cowman, sheet cork and cinders form a great base , add dirt and weeds as desired.
most of the yards i worked in had one of two surfaces. dust or mud. the rock used for main line ballast would be way too big for use in the yard because it was too large to walk on safely. if your railroad handles a lot of coal then the area near the receiving end of the classification tracks might be covered with it from the impact of coupling the cars when switching. i was at one place where the coal got so deep the railroad hired a contractor on a regular basis to come in with a front end loader and dump truck and clean it up before it got over the tops of the rails. (i think he sold it back to the mine) once in a great while when the MOW department had to fix track in the yard, they would throw down some fine lime stone like chat when they finished digging up the dust/ mud.
grizlump
Hi!
I'm putting down the cork sheets this week for my HO yard and sidings. I'm putting in 1/8 inch cork "all over", and will put in some handcut 1/8 inch cork under the yard leads over the base to match the mainline tracks that are on regular 1/4 inch roadbed. This makes it so I don't have to fool with inclines from the main line to the yard tracks, but gives the illusion that the yard tracks are close to ground level. Hope I explained that OK.
In previous layouts the yard and sidings were ballasted different from the mains. I used grey for the mains, and browns/blacks for the other tracks, depending what they were. My era is transition, so black typically became the predominent color around railroad facilities. Oh, as said above, don't forget the weeks and junk and "stuff" that is so common in yards.
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
From what I have seen, folks often do yards on a solid piece of cork, foamboard, or right down to the base level of the bench, as there is little for drainage ditches between the tracks. Cinders is a good choice, especially if your era is steam or transition. Probably only lesseer used tracks would still have cinders in a more modern setting. Fine dirt and a little fine gray ballast would also work. They use fine as crews have to walk in yards, so finer surfaces are preferred. Don't forget some weeds and grass growing in the little used areas.
Have fun,
I am working on the yard tracks for my N&W layout. I have a mainline track, 2 arrival/departure tracks and 6 classification tracks. The mainline and arrival/departure tracks will be code 83 and on cork roadbed. The classification tracks will be code 70 and on N scale cork roadbed. All track will be painted rail brown. The question that I have is what kind of ballast to use for the classification tracks (and servicing tracks to the roundhouse). I plan to leave the mainline medium gray blend, as this is what I use for the result of the layout. I was thinking of using the same medium gray blend for the arrival/departure tracks. But, for the classification tracks and the ground between all tracks, I was thinking of using cinders. Probably, medium in size. But, I want a "natural worn look". Therefore, I was contemplating the using of real dirt in combination with the cinders. I was wondering if the cinders should be of a smaller size. Comments and opinions welcome.
Craig North Carolina