# Ballest Material



## live4FW (Jun 22, 2011)

Hi all,

This is my first post here. I am in the process of setting up my railroad. I am located in the NW Atlanta area and have a red clay base for the most part. I went down to my local landscape materials store (Stone Forest) trying to find a material to use for ballast. They only suggested granite sand which they have or "89's" granite chips which I may be able to get from vulcan materials.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to use?

I am planning to put the roadbed material directly on the dirt.

Thanks


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By live4FW on 22 Jun 2011 05:26 PM 
Hi all,

This is my first post here. I am in the process of setting up my railroad. I am located in the NW Atlanta area and have a red clay base for the most part. I went down to my local landscape materials store (Stone Forest) trying to find a material to use for ballast. They only suggested granite sand which they have or "89's" granite chips which I may be able to get from vulcan materials.

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to use?

I am planning to put the roadbed material directly on the dirt.

Thanks


This gets asked a lot. Searching this site will reveal many suggestions and counter suggestions.

Personally I use "Chicken Grit" (Granite, NOT Oyster shells!) as it is a pink color and pretty much matches what the U.P. uses on their track around here. There are usually 3 sizes available, small, medium and large and I recommend the medium or large. You get it at Farm type stores (Farm and Fleet, Theisen's, etc.). It is fed to chickens so they can "chew" their food in their gizzard.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Man, you have opened the door for the hordes of opinions that will come. Screenings or crusher fines or whatever they're called in your area are my choice. It ranges in size from dust sized particles to maybe 3/16" pieces. Once it has been laid down and allowed to get wet, it will semi harden keeping the track in place and allowing foot traffic for maintainence. Least expensive source would be the quarry.


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## Ron Hill (Sep 25, 2008)

Hey live, check out this website of Martin Marietta's GA. bulk aggregate product yards: 
http://www.martinmarietta.com/Products/results.asp?stateid=GA&sortby=city 
or go to Martin Marietta Materials website and check out their product locations. There should be one close to you. Martin Marietta is a bulk supplier of aggregate materials. They will have Quarter Down limestone which is quarter in inch down to powder. It is a good roadbed material.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

For those of you buying ballast I suggest putting down a weed barrier cloth first. Rain and time will allow the rock to migrate into the clay. 
You want broken rock, all the sharp corners lock it together. 1/4" rock is a little oversize, but rain can still move it. The smaller bits help lock it togetner. 
If your Granite sand is what they call decomposed granite around here, that should be fine. 

Welcome to a great hobby and a fine bunch of folks here. 

Happy Rails 

John


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## live4FW (Jun 22, 2011)

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I am going to check in with Martin Marrieta. John, I was also considering a weed block so I think I will take your suggestion. I am just getting back into the hobby so the good news is I already have track, rolling stock, etc. The dirt/ballest parts are the cheaper part.... Of course, once I am up and running, I will have to get that new "this or that"!


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

I would concur with the suggestion to go to a local Quarry. The stone places always mark their stuff up 3 - 4x what you could get the same material at the local quarry. 

Next is to try to find some "fines" or something like that. Since your placing it right on the ground you need to have the small "dust" in the material to get the larger particles to lock together. At first glance the stuff will look dirty because of the fines. Once a few rains come through the dust will settle down in the cracks and crevices and you will have mostly the large rock on the top. The difference is the large rock will stay in place better because of the settled "dust" around it. As far as size, every quarry is different with what the largest size in their fines is. A -4 Fines, as we called it at my quarry is ideal. The -4 is a #4 sieve, and means that the material consists of fines material that will pass through a #4 sieve (approx 3/16" diameter). If you can get a material we called "Air Separated Fines" which is used in asphalt production then you get a little less of the dust material which is better.


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## Pete Chimney (Jan 12, 2008)

Another suggestion is to use a product meant to absorb oil from garage floors. This product can typically be found at Home Depot ot Lowe's or other big box home improvment centers. It is usually sold in 50 pound bags.

Names vary but many carry Absorb in the name.

This product is actually diatomaceous earth which is a stone composed of trillionms of small single cell silicious organisms. It is an oil reservoir in the fields near Bakersfield, CA. 

Being porous means it can aborb oil from your garage flor but it also can aborb dye. In the concrete section of the store where you find this product there are bottles of concrete dye, the usual brand name is Quickrete. Colors for the concrete dye are black, earth brown, dark, brown and red.

Simply mix the dye in a bucket of water and then pour in some of the Aborbs product and let it steep for a bit. Then strain out the material with an old sieve and let dry on newspapers, colored ballast is the result.

One health warning, the material is siliceous and thus avoid breathing the dust in an enclosed space such as a garage.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Posted By Pete Chimney on 27 Jun 2011 11:30 AM 
Another suggestion is to use a product meant to absorb oil from garage floors. This product can typically be found at Home Depot ot Lowe's or other big box home improvment centers. It is usually sold in 50 pound bags.

Names vary but many carry Absorb in the name.

This product is actually diatomaceous earth which is a stone composed of *trillionms of small single cell silicious organisms.* It is an oil reservoir in the fields near Bakersfield, CA. 

Being porous means it can aborb oil from your garage flor but it also can aborb dye. In the concrete section of the store where you find this product there are bottles of concrete dye, the usual brand name is Quickrete. Colors for the concrete dye are black, earth brown, dark, brown and red.

Simply mix the dye in a bucket of water and then pour in some of the Aborbs product and let it steep for a bit. Then strain out the material with an old sieve and let dry on newspapers, colored ballast is the result.

One health warning, the material is siliceous and thus avoid breathing the dust in an enclosed space such as a garage.




*I would be concerned that one day I would wake up and find that they had walked off with my ballast *


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## Pete Chimney (Jan 12, 2008)

Have no fear, these little guys are long dead and they were oceanic floaters, they did not have any legs to start with.


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## Madman (Jan 5, 2008)

Phew..........what a relief it is!!


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