Using Multiple Colors of Ballast - Question

[Mr X]

Eventually, although I have been putting it off for a while I plan to ballast my layout when it gets hot. I have a couple of questions regarding the use of multiple colors of ballast on a smaller layout.

I have heard or read that railroads use ballast of varying colors depending on what type of track that they are ballasting or how often that track is used and the ballast gets replaced, etc. Such as main line track might be the lightest color of ballast used since it is replaced more often. Where a yard might be close to black since it has years of accumulated grime, oil, etc. Branch lines might be a color some where in between.

I was wondering if anyone had any opinions/views or feedback on using different colors of ballast on a smaller layout? If so are there any visual issues with having three and possibly even four colors of ballast that are in close proximity to each other?

The colors that I am thinking of using are:

Light Grey - for the main lines
Medium Grey - for the branch lines and the spurs that are not coal mines
Black - for the yard and for the coal mine spurs.

Thank you in advance.

Mr X

[Flash Blackman]

Different colors are okay, I think. ATSF Arizona's (John Sing) 2 x 2 foot layout uses the ATSF pink ballast through out. That is an excellent layout. One of the best for scenery.

If you use different colors, I would weather with grimy black paint to tone down the differences.

[Fotheringill]

If you can view a real yard or main line and see how the ballast blends in as to different layers and ages, I would suggest that you do so. At the very least, before you actually glue it down, take some pictures without a flash and examine the same to see if matches up to your satisfaction or to compare it to the work of others. Also, please post the same for comment.

[randgust]

Oh, absolutely!
Santa Fe is kinda notorious for ballast variation. It's not hard to understand though. There's a volcanic basalt cinder pit near Flagstaff (Darling/Winona) that produces a heavy ballast that ATSF has been using for years. It varies all over from iron-ore red, to gray, to brown, to pink and back again. Different parts of the pit seem to produce slightly different colors. That's typical of the 60's-70's, early 80's era for my prototype.

Then about 1985, ATSF started to use granite and heavy limestone, I don't think they were entirely satisfied with the basalt for main lines. So you get this gray layer over top of the original dark color. By the 90's they are laying concrete ties in granite, and it is light gray.

Now, on the sidings and spurs, most of it was cinder, mixed with dirt, mixed with touchups of whatever was handy - the basalt, or whatever. I'm modeling an interesting transition era where some tracks and sidings were being added, too, and the photos I have show that new track got limestone, or something else lighter gray.

So in this one shot, I've got four different colors. Both higher main lines are in the brownish, grayish, reddish "Darling" native basalt, the lower passing siding that has been there forever is about buried in a basalt/cinder mix, and the newly-relaid piggyback siding is in fresh limestone over top of the original black cinders. This is typical to my layout, it's like identifying track function and age with the ballast application:

http://gustafson.home.westpa.net/Flagstaff_Chief_West.jpg

This is before the concrete ties, more or less the way I have it from the same angle:
http://www.hebners.net/amtrak/amtStationCF/FlagstaffAZ25Jan1992.jpg

A couple years later, it got a touchup in the 'pink mauve' on the next lift, and a lot of the dirt buried the old passing siding:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=160422
If you study that shot, you can SEE the original ballast (darker cinder) under the mauve, pushed around all over the place, and the black cinders under the dirt on the piggyback spur to the right.

Edit: another cool thing it that shot - look at the relaid switch up by the grade crossing. It was touched up with light gray ballast that sticks out like a sore thumb.

If you'd look at the same spot on the prototype today, it's very gray ballast with concrete ties.

[Mike Sheridan]

... main line track might be the lightest color of ballast used since it is replaced more often. Where a yard might be close to black since it has years of accumulated grime, oil, etc. Branch lines might be a color some where in between.

While agreeing with all the above ideas, a newly laid yard will have pristine clean ballast, as will a relaid branch.
But your summary is what most people would expect and consider 'correct'.

However, stuff happens, so it's not uncommon to find a 'new' bit of track in an otherwise dirty line, such as where there's been a washout or serious derailment, and I think it adds interest to have a couple of 'patches' like that in a longer section of track rather than miles of the same thing.

[SecretWeapon]

WOW,
What a great scene Randy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbs_up: :shade:

[Mr X]

randgust -

That picture of your layout is just incredible! Nice work all they way around. The other pictures really did help as well. I believe you really caught the trure flavor of what is happening on the prototype.

All -

I do however have another question. How would you all blend the colors where they meet? Such as does it go to a salt and pepper look for a little bit or is there a cut and dry "line" where one color stops and the next color begins.

Also I have attached a track plan with my ideas for the balast below. How does it look, or how do think it will look? Any feed back that you all would like to provide would be beneficial to me.

I do use two of the major search engines images site to view all different kinds of stuff for my train. But I truely have never seen a picture where it blends together. Or a stark contrast picture where the color change continues going straight rather than side by side.

Mr X

[Pete Nolan]

Mr. X,

I think you want to avoid the salt-and-pepper look. For me, it just doesn't work in N scale.

I use one grade and one color of ballast, and then tint it with washes and stains. I've chosen fine light gray from Woodland Scenics, mostly for photography. Truly dark ballast, such as cinders, is a horror in photography.

I can darken the ballast with diluted india ink. I can tint it with other diluted inks. What I've learned over the years is not to go too dark. Even dead black pavement or ballast will appear grayish under most sun conditions. I learned this long ago with my first architectural model of a church and its parking lot. The architect rejected my first attempt as too black, even though I thought it was medium gray. He rejected the second attempt as too dark, even though it was a lighter gray. Finally he took out an airbrush and painted it at about 20% black--"That's what a parking lot looks like, Pete!"

I've learned these things the hard way. Asphalt and ballast is not black, in other words.

[Fotheringill]

I have done the salt and pepper blend and it looks like .......... salt and pepper. It was rewetted and removed.

[randgust]

When I'm putting down ballast, I try to think of the way it would have happened in sequence. I'm not sure how everybody else does it, but I do my track like this:

First, I spray paint it to get the rail color, and get the whole roadbed, cork and all. Then, I'll go back with some brushes to touch the tie colors up, usually just on the tops. THEN, some time later, I'll do the scenery all the way through the ground coloration, if not all the foliage. THEN, and only then, will I ballast the track. The ballast goes on TOP of the dirt, not the other way around. Then you have to think about the order of ballasting on the tracks.

Back in the day, pretty much everybody used cinders, so the cinder fill goes in first, or cinders mixed with dirt (Winslow yard). Then, the sidings, and lesser-used tracks, that actually have ballast. Finally, the main lines that get a regular touch-up (lift and raise) get ballasted, and if that ballast rolls around and contaminates the adjacent colors, that's exactly what happens on the prototype. Then, if I have any 'new construction' that I want to highlight, I'll put it in in a contrasting color.

I always felt grateful that my prototype had brownish/darkish ballast, because I think it looks better than most of the gray linestone out there for finished realism in N. Most of my colors are pretty close in tone, I try to stay away from the sharp contrasting colors. For limestone, I'll make the whites more gray and the blacks more dark gray. I used dark gray mixed with cinders and dirt to do the 'cinder' areas, no pure black there either though it may look that way.

Verne Niner did a GREAT demo on his old layout of putting a colored wash on top of the ballast to get the end color just right, so even if you don't think you have it, you can always change it with diluted washes.

EDIT: Oh, and as Pete says, blacks are really rare. My 'fresh pavement' color is SP Dark Lark Gray. It gets aged, etc., but in photos is looks like fresh asphalt. Going the other way, I'll take Floquil Concrete and put a dark wash over it, as it looks just way too pristine.

I'll put a link into the Winslow Yard shot too. I really had to pinch myself on what I was really seeing when I did this. It looked like the whole yard was laid on iron ore mixed with dirt, the ties were all turned gray from the sun, and the rails were dark brown. Who does a yard on iron ore mixed with brown ballast colors and dirt and paints the ties gray-brown-white? It's dead-on with the photos and aerial views I have of the area, but it's the strangest model combination you can imagine.
http://gustafson.home.westpa.net/Winslow_yard_overview.jpg
Study that shot and you can see the odd combinations. The fueling rack was added in the 1960's, so that has a gray basalt ballast, different from the yard that probably hasn't seen new ballast since the 40's. The main line is the brownish mix, and over on the RH side edge you can see a freshly-ballasted switch in gray/white limestone. Tie color varies from the grayed-out ones in the yard throat to jet-black ones on the new switchwork. The dirt is really, really red out there, surprisingly so, to the point where you're afraid to model it for what it really is.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=115323

I think your ballast plan is right on. Depending on your era, though, will indicate the final choices. Today, you'll see whatever yard tracks remain usually in pretty good repair, and often freshly ballasted. Back in the 60's and 70's the excess physical plant was usually buried in dirt, weeds, and poorly maintained. That 'Gulf Summit' layout always just screamed Erie Lackawanna to me, and E-L was local here. I'll never forget how GOOD the E-L's main line was, and how high and superelevated it was, and how awful most of the sidings and yards were. You'd go from 65mph track to 10mph track in about 100 feet. Of course, the PC locals in this area carried chainsaws, no kidding, just to get in and out of branch lines. That was way before the FRA mandated vegetation control.

[Mr X]

randgust

That yard shot that you shared was incredible! I liked the look and I to have seen some ariel photos that look very similiar. Great job!

I believe I am following your sequence that you decribed almost to the letter. Which is laying/installing my ballast last. Plus doing it that way I have corrected several issues with my track with out having to tear out ballast or replace track.

I am I guess kind of using cinders in a way, but not really the way that you might think. I know how real railroads used cinders in real life but my "cinders" are only going to be used on the two coal mine spurs. They are not really cinders at all but might provide the same effect.

The entire area which the coal mines sit are now covered in 'Mine-Run Unsorted Coal' from Woodland Scenics. This material does gray down with age although it does look fairly black when I first place it on there. What I plan on doing here is placing the fine black ballast over the road bed portion only and allowing the two textures to contrast a little bit. Around the mines I am trying to get an effect that is similiar to what is shown in the first picture below.

You are correct I am trying to model the Erie Lackawanna as much as possible. Although I do stray a little bit here and there but then it goes back to 'Well it is my train and I can fudge a little bit because I want to.' Thank you for sharing some of the history behind the Erie Lackawanna and the descriptions of the tracks that you provided.

All:

For the black ballast I am planning on using 'Décor Sand' that I purchased from Garden Ridge. It is a very very fine sand like what you might find in an outdoor ash tray in front of a hotel. Looking at the individual particles I would estimate them to be about 1" to 3" N-Scale. (Cost US$2.49 for 28 oz. or 780 g) I do plan on running a huge magnet over it to make sure there are no magnetic particles in it. Do any of you see any problems or issues with using this type of material for ballast?

Here are the different ideas or the looks that I am going for in the ballast

Picture 1 ~ is of course the ground around the coal mines - coal and burnt grass should do the trick here
Picture 2 ~ is the mainline - plan to use light gray ballast from Woodland Scenics
Picture 3 ~ is near the back of the yard near the engine service facility - the black sand
Picture 4 ~ is the cross section of the yard area with out main line - the black sand and wash it down a little bit
Picture 5 ~ is the a cross section where the yard and the mainline would be close together

I tried to look through railimages to find what it looked like but can some one share a photo or two of a model where they have two different colors of ballast coming together. Although the side by side was excellent I am now looking for same straight track with two different ballast colors used. I am trying to see how was it accomplished rather than a salt and pepper look.

P.S. On a serious note - I am partially color blind as are quite a few people out there. So if my colors do not quite match up - forgive me.

Mr X

[Metro Red Line]

While agreeing with all the above ideas, a newly laid yard will have pristine clean ballast, as will a relaid branch.
But your summary is what most people would expect and consider 'correct'.

However, stuff happens, so it's not uncommon to find a 'new' bit of track in an otherwise dirty line, such as where there's been a washout or serious derailment, and I think it adds interest to have a couple of 'patches' like that in a longer section of track rather than miles of the same thing.

Depends on the road. Wasn't SP known for its "salt and pepper" ballas?