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If you are doing a big yard, you might be better off using a sheet of cork or homosote for the roadbed. It will be cheaper, quicker, and not so critical that you place it correctly. I have seen those paper-based ceiling tiles used as well. WARNING - They may expand if you use waterbased materials. The colour and size of ballast you choose may depend on what the real thing uses. If you are modelling a specific location on a specific prototype, try to find pictures of what they use(d) and find something to match. Ballast in yards is often much more dirty (especially between the rails) than any mainline would be. As far as getting the ballast to stick, there is more information on this forum and others than you'd possibly be able to read in a reasonable amount of time [;)] - just try a search! My favourite method for well maintained mainline (as represented by cork roadbed) is to: 1) run a bead of full strength white glue along each side of the cork on the slope. Spread it with your finger if necessary. 2) Sprinkle ballast into glue with a small spoon or dixie cup bend to make a pouring spout. This ballast will keep the ballast on the outsides of the rail from falling downt he slope. 3) Put ballast between the rails with spoon or cup. Use a soft bru***o level it with the tops of the ties, and to make sure there are no stray bits against the inside of the rail (these will cause derailments if left in place). 4) Wet the ballast between the rails and outside the rails with "wet water" - I use 50% alcohol and 50% water most of the time. This allows the glue mixture (50% water, 50% white glue) to flow between the ballast, rather than washing it away. 5) Let dry. Some tips: - use an eyedropper from children's medicine to apply wet water and glue mix. You could also use a syringe without the needle tip. - only attempt about 2 - 3 feet at a time until you get really good - be very careful around moving parts of turnouts! - if you are in a hurry, you can use a mix of alcohol, water and glue to skip the "wet water" stage. This is not as good as doing it in two passes, but it does work if you are careful. - you can colour the glue mix to alter the look of your ballast, but only to a certain degree - e.g. you can't make black ballast white... I have tried a whole number of things beside Woodland $cenic$ ballast, and they work reasonably well: Fine aquarium gravel - a bit chunky for ballast, but makes a great coal load! Sand - looks ok, be sure to run a magnet through it to avoid possible problems with moving parts in locomotives. May or may not resemble you local ballast depending on size, colour, etc. Bird Grit (budgie gravel - various names) - the stuff I found is off-white, but takes a stain of india ink or paint well. A bit oversized, but not as much as the aquarium gravel. Good luck! Andrew
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