Have fun with your trains
richhotrain I am amazed at how many guys use N scale ballast on an HO scale section of mainline track. Looks way too small to me. Admittedly, from the height that we are viewing it, on the prototype from that scale height, we would't even see individual pieces of ballast rock. But, to my eye, HO scale ballast looks perfect on an HO scale layout. I do use N scale ballast in yards and as gravel parking lots, but not as mainline ballast. Rich
I am amazed at how many guys use N scale ballast on an HO scale section of mainline track. Looks way too small to me. Admittedly, from the height that we are viewing it, on the prototype from that scale height, we would't even see individual pieces of ballast rock. But, to my eye, HO scale ballast looks perfect on an HO scale layout. I do use N scale ballast in yards and as gravel parking lots, but not as mainline ballast.
Rich
I'm using WS medium ballast (which they claim is 2.9 to 4.3 inches in HO) on my HO layout and it looks okay to me.
Dean
30 years 1:1 Canadian Pacific.....now switching in HO
Alton Junction
Fifty eight years ago I used aquarium gravel for ballast - on my 8x20 Lionel layout. It looked pretty good as I recall, and natural color was pretty cheap.
I suspect its too big for HO, but you might get away with it. In any case, put it in a bucket and wash it down first, as there is typically a lot of dust in it.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
JimInMichigan$8 - $9 for 2 lbs of crushed gravel seems tooooo expensive to me.
The quart size of something like Scenic Express ballast, that sells for $11.98 as of today, will do about 50-60 feet of track on 1/4" cork roadbed with full ballast shoulders. It will go farther if you have a shallower ballast slope. Something like this is good for main tracks that need a manicured look.
For everything else you can use sand.
In this yard, the mainline at far left is commercial ballast, but nearly everything else is sand. This is material I dug up, but a 50 pound bag of play sand might have worked just as well and could be had for maybe $3 or less. It's certainly far more suitable for scale appearance than aquarium gravel, and cheaper too.
Rob Spangler
I would say that as a rule most ballast sold as "HO" and most ballast that I see on HO layouts is rather large, in my opinion too large. When you look at a prototype photo of ballasted track you hardly notice the individual stones or rocks, but rather you see an overall texture. Keeping loose grains of ballast off the tops of the ties helps capture the effect seen in photos of well ballasted track.
Dave Nelson
Jim,
I've used N scale ballast with success. HO ballast is way too large. When I was modeling Florida I used reptile sand purchased from Pet Smart that was white in color that I mixed with N scale CSX gray ballast from Arizona Rock and Mineral.
You go to a construction supply firm, and you buy a bag of sand-blasting medium. They come in a varety of sizes textures and colors. Most of it is black and would make a good load for a tender or a hopper car, but others are more roadbed like colors, softer and genteler on the material being sand blasted, that is what you want to look for.
LION does have a different approac to ballast. He goes to Walmart and buys a big of kitty litter. If you buy the old kind, you will need to sift it through a screen so that you get to keep the smaller pieces. (The cat will use the biger pieces and will not complain). The "Clumping" litter is small enough to start with, but you would not want to glue it in place since it will clump!
LIONS do not glue ballast to the roadbed, him thinks gravity works just fine, but the roadbed of him is not built up, so the ballast cannot slip down. Good for older branc lines or sidings. Subway of him runs in an open cut and so the ballast is obliged to stay were it is put.
Regular cat litter, sifted, no glue:
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
NP2626 Aquarium rock is too big for ballast
Aquarium rock is too big for ballast
Aquarium rock is too big for ballast; but, certainly usable as rocks along and in an HO river.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
JimInMichigan And they said there were no stupid questions...
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Or just collect some very small gravel from somewhere. Cost: 5 minutes max.
Before I would go with aquarium gravel which if I recall was always rounded like river stone I would get a bag of paver base or crushed limestone from one of the big box home supply places and sift it through several sizes of screen and pass it all over a strong magnet (use aluminum foil over the magnet so you can clean off any iron you might collect. You can save the oversize and either crush it further or use it for other scenery elements.
OR go to a farm co-op supply and get fine chicken grit which is crushed granite. A 50lb. bag is around seven bucks. Still a little large for HO but it HAS to look better than aquarium gravel.
Be forewarned that any of these products may contain conductive elements that will cause electrical problems down the road...
Ed
HO-Velo An HO inch is about .0114, so 5/16" would be roughly 27", that would be pretty big ballast chunks. Grain size of HO coarse ballast is in the neighborhood of .035-.070, and still oversize. regards, Peter
An HO inch is about .0114, so 5/16" would be roughly 27", that would be pretty big ballast chunks. Grain size of HO coarse ballast is in the neighborhood of .035-.070, and still oversize.
regards, Peter
Your right. I must be reading the nmra chart wrong some how.
I see what I did wrong. 3.5mm is 1 scale FOOT, not inch....duh....
Mod, you can delete this thread if you want. And they said there were no stupid questions...lol
$8 - $9 for 2 lbs of crushed gravel seems tooooo expensive to me. Whats wrong with using aquarium gravel? Aquarium gravel is usually less than a $1 per lb, or 1/4 the cost of a shacker of ballast.
According to nmra's chart, HO scale is 3.5mm to 1" standard. I picked up a piece of ballast at a local track, it was 2" at it's widest lenth. So chips of gravel thats 5/16" would roughly be proto?
And I know, it's my railroad, do what I want. Guess I'm just trying to wrap my mind around paying so much for crushed gravel.
Anyone feel like putting their caliper to work and measuring a piece of their medium ballast, for comparision?