I just got a pound of Highball Z scale ballast. I did a test ballasting on a six inch section. It looks ok, no ambient pieces of ballast attaching to the inside of the rails. Anyone else use Z?
And no engine hopping on the floaters? And no chiseling them off? And if you miss one little rock it now doesn't make a difference in operations?
So far no.. But, as you might have read in some of my threads, I have always used crushed kitty litter for ballast. I have have great results with that for many years. I just bought my first shaker of commercial ballast recently, just to try it out so I could make fair comparisons between my cost efficiant kitty litter ballast, vs. commercial ballast. So far, its not bad, but in all fairness I haven't run allot with it since my current layout is far from finished. I only have about 6 feet of Woodlands ballast down. I do have some stay pieces in between the rails, but so far have not been causing problems. But I have only been running a couple locomotives through it currently. I do have to say though, that after my kitty litter sets up, it is rock hard with no loose dust, or granuals, and the Woodland doesn't set up as hard, and can easily be busted loose, and it does have some loose granuals. So, so far, as far as looks, it looks great, but IMHO no better than my kitty litter. But as far as curing, and staying put, the kitty litter wins hands down. But, I don't really want to go on record with that yet, because I really need to finish, and run allot over the woodlands before my opinion is my official findings..
I don't even know what the stuff looks like, either dry or used, but I would imagine a Braun type coffee grinder might do the trick. I have used a grinder on Woodland Scenic clumpy stuff and it came out fine. Really fine as in espresso grind fine.
Well, I used to use a motar & pestle (spelling?) but that is a pain in the butt. But the last time, I used one of those little power coffee grinders I paid a couple buck for at a garage sale. I think they are new less than $20. But, I wish I had done that years ago, because that was a WORLD easier, and it is easier to get a consistent size in a batch. You just hit it until it is the size you want, all the way down to a powder if you want it that fine. The cheap tidy cat kitty litter is about $4 for a 10 lb bag (plenty for a lifetime for you, and a week for the cat so both of you can have fun with it.) and all it is, is gray clay. DON'T get the fancy scented, or clumping kind (experience here, lol) or you will have a mess. Just the regular, cheap clay litter (or oil spill soak/cleanup if you are a cat hater). I will say this again, that I have said many times. Kitty Litter is an awesome medium for several uses on a layout. It can be dyed very easy, it takes color very well (its clay). I wash it in black, rust, brown, tan washes all the time to make different type of rock debri from coal, to iron ore. It makes great coal, ballast, ore, coke loads. I make a thin wash out of acrylic paint and alcohol/water. As ballast, lay it down, wet it with alcohol/water (wet water), then a 50/50 white glue "wet water" solution, and it sets very nice, firm, and stays put (it's clay). I use it as coal loads and coal debri all the time, or even rock slides down mountain ridges. When you get it wet with the wet water and glue, it just sets up, well like clay.. (Did I mention, it is clay?) Anyway.. I digress before I get slammed by the AKLC (Anti Kitty Litter Coalition) again.. :thumbs_up:
Most Z Scalers don't use the Highball Z ballast because it is a little too fine, don't hold a steep ballast profile well, and after the glue sets you cannot re-wet it easily. It's like mortar at that point. It's like powdered limestone and the consistancy of silica sand, and the coloring tends to change during ballasting. We like to use the N Scale sized Arizona Rock and Mineral, or other brands of crushed rock for ballast. That tends to hold a steeper profile, don't float when wetting like Woodland scenics and silica sand or limestone powders do. Here is an example of the Arizona N Scale ballast use for Z: Notice how fine it is, and the slight color and size deviations of each granule, where the Woodland Scenics and the Highball tens to be so monochromatic, and symmetrical in size. Also, to use this stuff, you pour on, use a flat tip paintbrush to push to the profile you want, mist with wet water, and drip on 50/50 white glue to water, let dry 24 hours. It don't float, and when you want to take it up, just mist again with wet water, wait 5 minutes, and pull your track up easily.
I once tried some Z-Scale ballast, can’t remember the brand, and it was like trying to glue dust. I tried “wetting’ it with denatured alcohol (no water) and it still clumped up and left craters. It got even worse when I tried to apply thinned glue. I even went so far as to try the dry cement that you mix with the ballast and then wet with no success.
So if you wanted to give your ballast a color wash to match your line, would you mix the wash color in with the glue/water mix or color wash it first and then glue?
I have just started ballasting about 20 feet of N-scale mainline and I must say I actually prefer to "up-scale" my ballast to HO in the same way that the Z-scale modeler above showed N ballast being used in Z. I find that the ballast brands that are offered in N-scale are way too fine when applied; they look more like a sand pile than a ballast pile. I am using HO-scale Arizona Rock & Mineral ballast and in my opinion it looks just right for N-scale. I also think the Woodland Scenics fine sized ballast is an ideal size for N but it wasn't available in an appropriate color for my prototype. Before I started ballasting last week, I did a sample section (about 6" or so, no glue) with various sizes and colors and took some high resolution digital pics. I then zoomed way in on the pictures to get a good close-up look. I agree that the HO ballast is technically too large for N, but in the closeup photos and to my naked eye it looks VERY good. So far I have done about 6 feet of the mainline and I am extremely plesaed with the results. Jamie PS: I can post some of those pics if anyone thinks they will be useful.
Sorry for the delay--I actually had to get away from the layout for a while after the terrible work schedule from the TrainBoard Winter Layout Party! The following posts include some photos that I took when evaluating ballast colors/sizes. Jamie
Arizona Rock & Mineral CSX/SP/Wabash gray/HO scale: This last one is the ballast I settled on and I am very happy with the results: Hope this helps someone make a more informed ballast selection! Jamie
Never used it, but I have read in RAILWAY MODELLER of folk using N scale ballast on OO/HO and of using Z ballast on N. There's a feeling it looks better. Regards, Pete
The last picture has a better color mix, looking more realistic than the single color WS ballast. The size look good for N too from the photo.
You know, I took so long to post my photos to this thread that I forgot I was trying to show how the different ballast looks close up. Here are a few additional pics that I did not scale down: Woodland Scenics light gray/fine ballast Arizona Rock & Mineral gray blend/HO scale Personally, I think both brands look really good up close and at normal viewing distances in N-scale. When I have used Z- or N- scale ballast in the past, the grain looks too much like sand, especially from normal viewing angles. However, there are a few layouts on TrainBoard that use it quite successfully. Jamie
