Can anyone suggest a realistic looking limestone ballast for a midwest n scale line? So many commercial ballasts look artifical. I looked for Highball ballast but don't think that is made anymore. Flint Hills limestone ballast is out of stock. Arizona Rock and Mineral limestone could work if it doesn't look southwest. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.
If you have a limestone quarry nearby, see if they'll sell you a couple pails of "screenings" or "fines". When you get it home, you can run it through progressively finer seives until you get the size you want.If there's no nearby quarry, a building supply yard or even one of the big box home improvement places should have similar material in bags, as it's often used for setting paving stone and walkway-type brick.
While I have several quarries within a 20 minute drive from here, a friend gave me some pre-screened stuff, and parts of my HO layout are ballasted with Ohio limestone...
I also picked up a couple bags of the screenings mentioned, and have seived enough of it to know for sure that you can get N scale ballast from it. I bought mine at a local lumber yard - you can get 50lbs. of it for less than a container of Woodland Scenics ballast.
Wayne