Arizona Ballast Color

[HAZMAT9]

To the person who asked about ballast color in Arizona, here's what I viewed while on my way into work this morning. BNSF has two mainlines which run parallel through west/central Phoenix. It was funny to see that each line had a different color of ballast. One line, the color was grayish/white, black would be too dark. The other line, the ballast was brownish-rust in color and in areas the ballast was mixed between the two colors in areas which looked worked on and filled in. This color ran for most of the mainline into the Phoenix yard area. if you want pics, I'll have to get permission since security levels are pretty high....but I currently only have connections with UP Railroad....I know that the ballast on their lines are black/gray mixed with white. I know that you had questions specifically about the route more in North Central Arizona, I can only guess that this would be darker in appearance since the weathering isn't as intense as Phoenix (N. Central AZ is much cooler), where the sun beats pretty hard during the summer. Hope this helps. Steve

[ereimer]

that was me asking , and thanks !!! for checking for me . no need for pics , i think i get the idea

[cacole]

Here in SE Arizona there are two rail lines -- an old SP line that ran along the banks of the San Pedro River from Benson southward to Naco, and crossing the border into Mexico, and the now Union Pacific Sunset Route running East-West through the state.

The old SP line along the river was ballasted with copper smelter slag, which is black. The still-active UP line is ballasted with white granite all the way, which must have been hauled in from a long way off, because most of the rock around here is reddi***an or gray.

After the Sunset Route passes through Tucson and heads toward Yuma, the ballast is a dark gray color, so I think they are using local rock there.

[ereimer]

thanks for the info on the copper smelter slag , i'm planning on having one on my layout so i guess some black balast in the area would be authentic . i'm alos thinking some red ballast would be likely since there's a lot of red rock up through Sedona , Jerome etc and they must have had to blast a bunch of it to build the roadbed