HOW TO BALLAST YOUR TRACK (AND WEATHER THE BALLAST TOO!)
EPISODE 6: MY BRAND NEW MODEL RAILWAY BUILD - THE LADYKILLERS
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Ballasting! Not everyone's favourite part of layout building, I know. But what I found in making this episode is that the more you learn about what ballast is, where it's from and how it gets to look the way it does on a railway line, then the process can take on a life of its own - and become infinitely more interesting.
Not to mention - it's quite a therapeutic process if you just accept that it will take some time. You might as well relax - don't fight it!
I mention a specialist ballast in the video - it's from Specialist Aggregates - their True to Scale model railway range. I'm not affiliated with the company at all - I don't get paid to promote them - but I do like to acknowledge companies and people who are really passionate about what they're doing in the model railway hobby, and owner Steve is one such person.
Steve is actually a geologist by training - I forgot to mention that in a previous Wednesday Express - as well as supplying specialist aggregates for big movies and advertising. And I just wanted to share his email with you as I thought this was very interesting - and explains more about choosing the right scale ballast for your layout. You also get a sense of how incredibly knowledgable and passionate about ballast he is!
My favourite quote from the below: "
Any stone that can not be placed in a man’s mouth is mischievous"
John Loudon McAdam (1756–1836)
From Steve Le Chevalier - Specialist Aggregates Ltd:
"Ballast is really interesting stuff, honest ………………
There appears to be a tenuous link between the stone that was used for ballasting sailing ships and the use of the same stone as a ballast under early narrow gauge tracks. I can just about relate to that, for instance you can find flint pebbles from the South of England on the beach at Saltburn in the North East of England alongside mine waste from the allum mines ( A story for another day) . But in all honesty I can't see “waste” ships ballast finding its way inland any kind of distance in the late eighteenth / early nineteenth century.
Chinchilla dust as railway ballast was mentioned last evening. On the up side the product is lightweight and can be easily coloured, however, it can be a bit dusty as this is what the chinchilli ( Is that the plural of chinchilla ?) like to absorb the sweat from their fur. The product is actually pumice that is imported from Arizona, surely we can use products sourced from the UK rather than 5000 miles away ?
Regarding the size of ballast, I have been trying to convince the world that the specification for track ballast was actually derived from Macadam’s specification for road materials. Around 1825 he stated that “in constructing highways, any stone that could not be placed in a man’s mouth is mischievous”, ie the maximum size of the stone should be no greater than 2 inches.
There is no record of why this method of grading aggregates did not catch on, however, the top size of railway ballast even today complies with aperture of the Euro-mouth at 50mm.
Finally the OO/TT/N ballast size debate. The point that is not widely recognised is that because we are working with volumes rather than linear measurement, OO gauge ballast is actually eight times bigger than N Ballast – hence the USP of True to Scale Aggregates. ( had to get a plug in somewhere !)
So if you do the mathematics, to the nearest rounded figures, TT ballast is four times smaller than OO, but just under twice the size of N . So according to the maths the closest approximation for TT ballast is N.
Thanks Steve for clearing that up. Definitely worth taking a look at the True to Scale range - yes, a little more expensive than the standard ballast, but I am super impressed with the results. I'm also using the company's coal in my wagons - I'll share more in the upcoming episode about weathering your rolling stock.
Dawn x
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