HO ballast size and color

[trailrider]

Just wondering what coarseness and color ballast you are using on HO scale track. What brand, and are you blending different shades?

 

[D&J RailRoad]

I usually use an N scale ballast by Woodland Scenics. The HO scale ballast is a bit to big. Looks like rocks instead of ballast.

 

[santafewillie]

I use Woodland Scenics medium ballast for all rail lines. I use the light gray on the mainlines to represent mostly fresh ballast. I use gray blend on the passing sidings to represent a lesser maintained ROW, and I use gray on industry sidings and spurs. I use their fine ballast in various shades and blends to represent gravel roads and parking lots.

Here you can see the main on the right atop HO scale roadbed, and the passing siding on the left on N scale roadbed. I am aware that Woodland's medium ballast is slightly oversized, but it works for me.

 

[trailrider]

I haven't started actually ballasting just yet. In 63 years and four or five layouts, I never ballasted! I got quite a number of bags of WS medium gray blend. I have looked in several volumes of The Burlington Route in Color, and it is interesting to see the variation in colors at various places. The gray blend looks like it will be a good choice for some of my mainline track, especially where there are two tracks adjacent to each other. OTOH, in the yards and other places the ballast looks pretty dark brown/black, probably just dirt. I do notice on the mainline photos, the ends of the ties are more exposed, more like your siding. Also, the center of the track doesn't look as dense or is darker. That may be due to the shadows and dirt/oil deposited by the trains. I have looked at using WS Fine, but it just looks too fine...more like sand.
I DO like the way your ballasting looks. Haven't started gluing anything yet. Just trying about a six-inch long section to see how it looks before I make it permanent. When I do, I'll try to post some pictures. Might take a while, though as I have quite a number of turnouts and branches and will have to be careful not to foul the points and frogs.
Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Safe New Year!

 

[D&J RailRoad]

You might consider a blend of the medium and fine. Lay the medium down first, glue that in place then apply the fine to fill in around the medium ballast.

 

[trailrider]

Thanks! I'll try that. I had another off-the-wall idea I may try in an inconspicuous place... I have use Liquitex paint in various places over plywood and over plaster, spreading some scenery stuff over it while still wet...grass, cinders, etc, as appropriate. I may try using some gray Liquitex on the sloped surfaces of the cork roadbed, sprinkling the ballast, rather than trying to use the water/glue mixture with a drop of detergent. That won't work around the track, of course, but maybe between the roadbeds on the mainlines. Let you know...

 

[AirbrushNo5]

I did WS medium and fine brown, dark brown, black and sand all mixed mostly because I like the look rather than any reality…

 

[ctclibby]

A few years back BNSF used what was known as Montana Pink; a quartzite variant. You could find RoW with multiple colors - Montana Pink, an almost white quartz, some yellowish stuff; probably quartz, and of course a couple different shades of blue/gray basalt, depending on your PoV. BNSF found that Montana Pink was to soft and started lowering the percentage of that to the mix. Pink Lady in Wisconsin looks to be the same stuff. Montana hiway department also used Montana Pink for paving and you can still see it on the major hiways throughout the State. From what I have read, most of the Montana Pink came from the Essex Pit although I suspect that there were more pit locations as the stuff is pretty abundant around here.

So it boils down to: What do you have in your railroads area? Look at your carved rock out croppings as that could be your source and color.

Here is a pretty good read of the what's and why's: Ballast