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That white ballast of the Central Vermont Railway........hmmm...
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White ballast is fairly common, I would say more so in years past though. I am in the mining business and one aspect of my job is running a decent size quarry and searching for new limestone deposits. There are many different limestone members throughout the United States and each are unique in chemical content and, as a result color. <br /> <br />For example, in northern Indiana and the Chicago region you have a formation of limestone about 15 to 30 feet deep called the Muscatatuck limestone member on top of 300+ feet deep formation called Silurian limestone. The Silurian stone can be very white and of high quality while the Muscatatuck stone is gray or almost black in some cases. It is also tainted with assorted color clays. <br /> <br />Railroads in the past use to purchase more white stone for ballast, but these days there is a large difference on price between the higher and lower quality stone. (Higher quality stone has better freeze thaw characteristics than poor quality stone and as a result it is more ideal for ready mix applications) Poor quality stone maintains the roadbed just as good as high quality stone, so as a result we see darker shades of ballast these days. Also, limestone is not the only aggregate used as ballast, I have seen a variety of ballast that uses all sorts of materials…….but high quality limestone is the only one which will yield a pure white ballast. <br />
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