Greg: In that era D&RGW ballasted exclusively on the main lines with smelter slag from two sources: Eilers, Colorado, on the Leadville Branch, and Midvale, Utah, junction of the main line and the Bingham Branch. Eilers was the site of American Smelting & Refining Co.'s AV (Arkansas Valley) Smelter, and Midvale the United States Smelting, Refining & Mining Co.'s Midvale Smelter.
The slag from these two smelters is visually indistinguishable, and is a dark purplish-black rock. It's easy to pick up samples from Leadville. "Black" is not the color; it has definite purple-red tones showing. If I were modeling again, I think I would go load up on samples and find some way to have it crushed to size, and be 100% accurate. It's very high in iron content, so it has magnetic properties. It would be possible to crush it with a sledge and screen to size, which would be a lot of exercise, because it's very hard.
The Moffat Road in that era still had some of the original Moffat scoria ballast showing, which comes in two colors, black and red -- the red is very similar to a brick-red color. Scoria is popular as a landscaping cover and you can see what it looks like at many lawn-and-garden stores or nurseries that sell rock. In many places on the Moffat you can see the old scoria peeking out at the base of the ballast shoulder, especially on embankments where the material is sloughing down the side of the embankment. Similarly on the "Rio Grande proper" main line, cinder ballast, pit run, and native materials often show at the edge of the ballast shoulder.
Most branch lines were still ballasted with the same native material as the embankment on which the track rested, or used washed river rock, or pit-run rock, from some local source. These so-called "ballasts" (they're very poor -- but cheap) are highly variable in color and generally are not in the least bit uniform in color or size, are not clean, are not neat, but often match the local exposed dirt and rock. "Model railroad ballast" which is clean, uniformly sized, and uniformly colored is hopelessly unrepresentative of most D&RGW branch lines. Cinders were often dumped in soft spots such as fills across wetlands.
Yards were commonly surfaced with cinders. New or rebuilt yards would be surfaced with slag screenings, i.e., the small pieces. Generally the color of cinder ballast is charcoal black, with a lot of mud patches and weeds showing through here and there, especially in low spots. Main line sidings would be surfaced with cinders, native materials, and slag screenings, variably. Often in a siding you would see all three -- cinders and native materials where there hadn't been issues with holding surface and line, and slag where they had. Most D&RGW sidings have been extended more than once, and the newer end of the siding (or both ends) would have the better ballast.
Main line turnouts will usually have good ballast under them. The good ballast will usually end at or just beyond the foul point on the side track, and screenings or native material will be used. House tracks usually have native materials under them and a very thin lift of slag. Controlled sidings will usually have a decent ballast lift under them, but may have many thin spots where the drainage is good and there hasn't been problems with holding surface and line.
Beginning in the 1990s with concerns that slag ballast leached heavy metals into watersheds, D&RGW began using crushed granite ballast. UP currently supplies crushed granite from the Martin-Marietta pit at Granite, Wyoming.
RWM
Greg--
I model Rio Grande, and color photos I've seen of the track seem to have a black-brown color to them, especially against that darker ballast. I've duplicated it to a degree by using Grimy Black and Boxcar Red to paint them--I first spray them with the red, then overspray with the grimy black. Seems to work for me.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
Hey everyone. I've been doing a lot of searching and digging through the forums here trying to get an idea of what paints yield what looks when it comes to painting track. I've been looking at a lot of pictures for what I'll be modeling, which is a kind of generic Glenwood Springs and Tennessee Pass, CO type locale: lush pine/evergreen-covered mountains with rock outcroppings.
anyway, I know I'm going to have to be using a cindery/dark gray ballast, but I'm stumped as to what I should do about painting my track. I haven't been able to find anygood pictures of what other people have used.
any suggestions? Anyone with similar modeling interests with pictures? Should I just go with grimy black?