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Dan, In a Myrick book it noted the dark ballast which he stated was cinders--apparently the SP used a lot of that in AZ. Otherwise, they probably--assuming the rock was usable--didn't haul crushed stone far to use as ballast, thus use local agnates. That said, today I drove along about 20 miles of the SP line from Gilbert towards Florence Jct., AZ. The ballast was a browni***an, a bit darker than the local soil. I noted that where the ballast ended at the soil, there was often a thin dark border--cinders? I should have gotten out to look. THAT said, the track's ballast along the Arizona RR Museum in Chandler, looked like good old fashion midwest limestone ballast! As I am planning part of my layout to go through the Phoenix area, I am planning to get a sample of the ballast tommorow. I wish I'd thought about Arizona Highways (one of the most highly acclaimed state mags in the USA)--I subscribed to it for 5 years! Duuuh! One thing I've learned about magazine pic references, the colors can be deceptive. The printing process, the inks, and especially the photos themselves can be "not quit right". Note that many A. H. pics give info about the camera, film, and filters used. The filters make a BIG difference! I've always begrudged that the red rocks of Sedona do not look as red in through my eyes as they do in a magazine. Put on my sunglasses, they get more intense. Anyway, the notes I took while there tell me that much of the ground around Tucson is "sand", just a grayish beige. Large areas of silt from the darker mountains "cloud" large areas of the sand. Sand I've bagged is closely matched by Polly Scales' Concrete, while anohter bag has that nice pinkish cast to it. And if that ain't enough, when my mom was having her yard done, she had 7 different mixes of local sand. They ranged from "sand", to "desert pink", to a brown-rusty gray. From the air I think Polly Scale's aircraft Italian aircraft Hazel Tan, and Isreali armor sand matches great areas of local soil, while I plan to use a lightened Khaki Drab for mountains. Prior to my subscribing in 1996, MR had an article about modeling desert flora. Don't recall the author, and about 2 years ago there was a NICE layout modeled in AZ in your era. Regards, Fred
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