Layouts and layout building

 This question/issue may have already been addressed on this forum. But, just in case:

 Is there a reliable source for HO scale ballast - in bulk quantities? Thanks,

G' Flash

 G

 How much do you need? A couple pounds goes a very long way. If you paint your roadbed a color that's close to your ballast color than you can stretch the ballast even thinner. I used less than 2 pounds of WS ballast doing my modules. The track laid down measures 45 feet of main line (3 main tracks on each module) and 58 feet of yards and sidings. I still have about 1/2 pound left.

    Pete

Are you willing to pay $2 a POUND for real clean STONE ballast. Google Smith & Son model railroad ballast. Youl`l like what you read.A week ago or so  there was a thread on this subject with some good responses. I have seen 8 different samples of Smiths ballast and like them all. For Ho you need the 30 or 40 screen type.

You will need something like this to form the ballast on the track. 

The front plow and side wings lower  to form the ballast.  Those are cut wire cables bundled around the rail slots on the plow to sweep away ballast from the rail.  I presume the two ties on top of the plow are additional weight to help keep it down when in use.  There is a seat and controls for the operator in the space between the two wings.

Mark

You're right, Smith & Son ballast is great, but I thought I heard they weren't selling it anymore. Is that true?

Another good source for ballast in bulk is Scenic Express. I think it's pretty similar to Smith & Son.

 Jim

Unless they stopped making it in the last week they are very much in business. I just ordered $50 worth of the stuff. Scenic Express used to sell Smith & Son ballast but now you can only buy from Smith & Son. This is agood thing because we do not have to pay for Scenics` markup. Harley did not raise the price once he dropped Scenic. By the way Harley dropped the & Son from the company name.

That's good news! The last thing I wanted to do was spread wrong info.

 Jim

I am also about ready to ballast. smith & sons sounds good. I am going to have about 300 ft of mainline. one  question. Roughly how many feet will a pound do? I realize there are some factors involved, but I'm looking for a ball park figure. don't want to under order. It will be in HO. Read one post that said about 100ft but unsure of scale. Any help would be appreciated. 

My advice is to call Harley Smith and have him calculate how much you need. He quoted me a length for his ballast but it seemed a little heavy (In the range of 8-10 feet per pound) but then again it goes by how heavy you want to apply the ballast. One word of advice is don`t expect the order in 7 to 10 days. He like the Homabed man is a lone wolf so you have to allow plenty of time for him to make your order.I would also recommend that you get some 25 cents samples first to check the color & size.  In any case a call is the best advice I can give you. His phone # is 440-286-4890. The turnaround for the samples is about a week .

Thanks for the info subman 

subman:

I would also recommend that you get some 25 cents samples first to check the color & size.

It would also probably be a good idea to apply some of whatever bonding agent you intend to use to the ballast samples to see what the color looks like after it has dried.

A friend of mine had purchased quite a bit of ballast for his railroad (I think from Smith and Sons) and was happy with the result.  When he needed some more, he ordered the same flavor.  But when he applied the same bonding agent to the new material he found that it had dried an entirely different color.  He later determined that even though the new ballast was labeled as being the same as the old, it had been "mined" from a different quarry.