Hi everyone, I am trying to come up with an inexpensive method for ballast (O scale uses a LOT of ballast). I came up with the idea of using used coffee grounds then topping the coffee grounds with Woodland scenic ballast. I am trying to make the WS ballast go as far as possible due to its cost. Has anyone ever tried using USED coffee grounds for ballast? If so what were the results? Were the results good or bad? Thanks.
I'm not in O scale but I wouldn't use food products on the layout just for fear of roaches and their vermin brothers and sisters. In your situation, I suggest ordinary play ground sand and then cover that with the ballast. You can get the play ground sand at a building supply.
Find a place that supplies garden rocks or building rock. Ask em if you can have the fines that collect around the bins. Take the fines and sift them with a sieve. Instant real rock ballast. Coffee grounds are best used in the garden as compost.
Coffee grounds used to be a staple for model railroad scenery before commercial ground covers became widely available. My first layout was in the early 70's, and by that time commercial groundcover and ballast had become the norm, but many people still used coffee grounds. I did, but only for forest and garden soil, as they will retain their brown hue forever. They can be colored too. Obviously you have to make sure they are completely dry. I never heard of any bug issues with using them. I had never heard of using them as a ballast filler though, that does not sound very practical. Getting yourself some sieves to make your own ballast is the way to go. I gold prospect, so I have a full assortment of 5 gallon bucket screens from 1/2" "Growlers" all the way down to 200 mesh sieves, which is practically rouge. Window screen is a pretty good ballast size, probably even for O scale, so you can make your own sifter. A good starting point would be playsand if you are in an area devoid of natural gravels. If you absolutely must have a certain color of ballast you can paint it. I have a whole variety of gravel colors available here in Arizona. Good luck with whatever you use Carey, and Happy Railroading.
One possibility, I believe it is called builders sand. Anyhow, it used to be quite inexpensive at the big box home centers.
I second or third the use of sand as a filler under ballast. But I think that sterilized play sand would be a better choice than builders sand. This way you won't have to bake it in the oven or barbeque grill to kill off any critters still living in the sand.
I love the idea of going out and collecting ballast supplies from the surrounding area, but would not have worked for me when I lived in England, where our local soil was heavy clay! Here in Slovenia soil is very light with lots of stones, but nothing to be used as ballast. Arizona sounds like the place for endless supplies! Yes, best would be play sand, as it must be cheaper the WS ballast. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Hi Cary, Do you have a rock quarry near by? I received 10 gallons of crushed limestone (free son in law works there) from a local quarry. I got all sizes (most smaller then a pea) of stone, some way to big for ballast for N-Scale and possibly even for O. I use a couple screens to filter down to the sizes I want to keep. Even some to the big ones are kept for non-ballast use. Gary
Alan, The Carso is made up of lime stone. Go to a riverbed and collect some ballast. It'll be a good reason for a day trip. While you're at it it, order me a slivovitz and some chivapchichi.
Over here, in OO/HO, quite a lot of people employed "used" tea leaves for the same purpose. As mentioned above, this seems largely to have died out after the arrival of specialist bits such as Busch, Peco and Woodland Scenics. Regards, Pete Davies
Pop over anytime and we can serve you some cevapcici, but slivovitz? Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Tile Grout..tried it on HO but too big and wrong colors. Took to white glue fine. Bet it'd be good for O, painted later or maybe a grey stain dripped on it...Big bags at building supplier...Also, I believe sawdust was used in HO..Maybe make up the bulk of it with it. Bet you can get it free at local lumber yard. After dry cover with the grout, say..
Thanks for the responses everyone. Sounds as though coffee grounds as ballast is not a good idea. Saved me some time and effort. Garden snad sounds like a good alternative.
Oops, I didn't realize this was an old thread, well since I went through the trouble of typing up a response. I'll post it anyway. Oh Well. I haven’t used ballast on my O-scale yet, but I have collected the wash out from real ballast after a heavy rain around rail road crossings. I sift it out into different sizes. I actually only used the small stuff for N-scale but I have quite a bit big enough for O-Scale. You just need to go to a dollar store and pick up a cheep colander of the correct hole size.
Looks good Johnny B. My girl called up and said "Come on over, nobody's here" . I went over. Nobody was there.... I get no respect. No respect at all I tell ya.:teeth:
