Ballast - would you do it this way?


Would you spend the time to sift material to get ballast?

  • Yes

    Votes: 15 35.7%

  • No

    Votes: 27 64.3%
  • Total voters
    42
cncproadwarrior

cncproadwarrior

North of the 49th
Most of you know that I'm trying to find a realistic looking ballast for my HO railroad for... cheap.:D

I just can't bring myself to spend the unrealistic prices for ballast that is charged by hobby shops.

While out and about and always on the lookout for potential sources of ballast, I spied a nature trail that had, what I will describe as, stone dust laid down at the the entrance. It consists of various sizes of stone from dust to 1/2 inch stones.

I took a small bucket of it home and, first of all, cleaned it with water to remove the mud. Then I sifted it with a coarse sifter to remove the larger rocks. Then I sifted this with a fine sifter to remove the fine dust and stones.

What I ended up with is very realistic HO stone ballast. The down side is that I'll probably need 50lbs of stone dust to get the amount I need for my approximately 300' of track.:eek:

Now with the oncoming winter and long cold days and nights coming up, I have a lot of time on my hands. So I think I'll spend some time sifting to see how much I can come up with before I get sick of it.:rolleyes:

The pics below show the results of one "sift" - not the whole pail.

My question is: would you spend the time to do it this way?
 
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Of course it all would depend on the railroad's budget, but I would still buy a commercial ballast. One WS container will ballast a lot of track and the proper size/color always looks good.;) Now for ground cover, I do sterilize and sift real dirt :D.
 
Your not counting the time you'd have to invested in collecting, washing, drying, sifting and sifting again. Time is money as they say. There are so many different commercial brands of ballasting material available today that it's cheaper in the long run to just buy it and lay it out. That's my humble opinion. :)
 
If you enjoy doing the work go ahead. I spent 20 to 30 hours building an HO 4.5" x 9"diorama log cabin with outhouse, well and wood pile with chopping block and ax. I cut all my shingle strips, dye sawdust for ground cover, all for $1.39. Am I cheap? Maybe. Am I crazy? Possibly. Did I have fun? DEFINETLY!

But I do use commercial ballast.

Armchair
 
I'm not sure that it is exactly legal, your municipal government most likely paid for that for the benefit of users of the trail.

However

As long as you put back whatever you dont use, you can argue that you are only using a very small amount of the total material.
 
I come from a road construction background and i do believe what you are sifting through judging by the picture is called (DGA) or dense grade aggregate. It is used as the final grade material that goes under the asphalt. If you will go to your local gravel pit or Quarry you can buy that stuff for like 5 to 10 bucks a ton.
 
thaddeusthudpucker said:
I'm not sure that it is exactly legal, your municipal government most likely paid for that for the benefit of users of the trail.

However

As long as you put back whatever you dont use, you can argue that you are only using a very small amount of the total material.
Click to expand...

Yea I thought of that too. And technically, I guess you're right. But I would argue that the money used by my municipal government to pay for it came from my pockets.:D
 
Good ol government, then stealing from you is legal but you stealing from them isnt. YAY FREE SOCIETY!!

At any rate, when I ever get around to building my layout I will probably use beach sand as my ballast in HO.
 
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For that matter just go to anywhere they crush rock and collect the "crusher fines".
You'll get small rock down to fine dust and it's usually free for the wee amount you'll need.
I have a bag of sand a friend gave me, it's about the right size and color for ballast, just very heavy!
 
Rico said:
For that matter just go to anywhere they crush rock and collect the "crusher fines".
You'll get small rock down to fine dust and it's usually free for the wee amount you'll need.
I have a bag of sand a friend gave me, it's about the right size and color for ballast, just very heavy!
Click to expand...

Great minds think alike.:D

I went to a cement plant about 10 miles away and asked the guy in the office if he had anything like the sample I brought with me. He said yes but that I would have to sift it. It's called "manufactured sand" but it's actually tiny grey rocks. Perfectly sized teeny tiny rocks down to sand. I just sift the sand out and presto!! Tons and tons of free ballast. Well scale tons anyway.:D

He gave me a pail full - about 40 lbs. I've already got about 4lbs of free ballast so far and I just started. All it cost me was my time.;)

How many pounds of ballast will I need for about 250 feet of track?:confused:
 
"...But I would argue that the money used by my municipal government to pay for it came from my pockets." No offense, but that sounds like situational ethics. It is the park district's property.

I agree with the previous poster that you should consider your time into the equation. There are more ballast suppliers than merely WS and the prices are all over the board so bargains can be had.
 
duckdogger said:
"...But I would argue that the money used by my municipal government to pay for it came from my pockets." No offense, but that sounds like situational ethics. It is the park district's property.
Click to expand...

"Situational ethics"??? Have you ever drunk beer on your porch or deck? That's illegal too in case you didn't know. :rolleyes:

Then I remember reading about a guy going to jail for stealing a loaf of bread because he was hungry. And I also read about a guy getting a suspended sentence for serioulsy injuring three people while driving drunk. I guess that's also "situational ethics".;)

I agree with the previous poster that you should consider your time into the equation. There are more ballast suppliers than merely WS and the prices are all over the board so bargains can be had.
Click to expand...

Well I looked around on internet hobby sites and eBay and prices are all the same. About $9 give or take for 32oz. Sorry but I refuse to pay $9 for two pounds of rocks.:p

And being retired, I have a lot of time on my hands. So whether I'm sifting ballast or sitting on the couch watching TV, it's all the same to me. The way I look at it, I'm saving money by sifting ballast and not watching TV.;)
 
Fiend,

I thought about that but right now, I'm enjoying the warm weather and doing it on my deck. So not only am I saving money by sifting legally[u/] aquired ballast material but I am getting my daily dose of vitamin C as well. :p

Got I love retirement. If I would have known it was this much fun, I would have retired 30 years ago.:D:D:D
 
Awesome. I'm happy that you were able to find a source for your ballast.

When I was younger, I used to watch TV while winding and unwinding a roll of thread. Maybe I'm wierd that way, but it was something for my hands to do while doing otherwise nothing. Sifting ballast out is a perfect mindless tedious task to do while watching TV. After a while, you may even find yourself wishing for a pail of sand to sift... LOL

Then it will become a functioning railroad operation that you can actually do, all you need is some mechanical ingenuity.

You could take it so far as to equip your hoppers with rotary couplers, build a couple of rotary dumpers, build an auger to haul it to the top of your mill, have a couple of vibrator motors in there, haul the too fine stuff off to the shore of the HO scale lake, haul the correct size stuff to the other end of the layout and have a separate dumper that dumps into a five gallon bucket that you would repackage and sell back to your LHS...

Sorry, did I go off on one of my tangents? :rolleyes:
 
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