Large Scale Central

another ballast question

I am in the process of building a new outdoor layout. The small decomposed rock is no longer available at home depot. As I live on long island no quarries are available. Has anyone ever used aquarium rocks as ballast??

Sounds expensive.

I go to a builders supply and buy the fine aggregate they use as an underlayment before pouring cement. My local supplier sells it by the ton, or by the 5 gallon bucket, but I have to bring my own buckets.

Usually a Garden center that handles hardscaping supplies will have that “Decomposed granite” or crusher fines as they call it around here.

jack s schaefer said:

I am in the process of building a new outdoor layout. The small decomposed rock is no longer available at home depot. As I live on long island no quarries are available. Has anyone ever used aquarium rocks as ballast??

Wait…there’s NO quarries in Long Island? Where do the builders get stone from?

How far are you from Port Jefferson? TILCON has an operation there that brings in stone by barge from CT. They should stock Stone Sand which is a very fine crush with chips as big as 1/4" down to dust. They will load enough into a small U-Haul trailer (1/2 ton) to last you years for less than $50.

If that doesn’t work for you, look for Paver Sand in big box and landscape supply. I used to get Old Castle Step-2 at Home Depot which was really nice, but they discontined it and brought in a product I didn’t like.

@Bruce - I believe he is correct. It’s all shipped in via a rail/barge operation.

Jack;

Not sure if this will help, given your location, but people are starting to keep chickens in town again. If you can find a place that sells farm type supplies, look for a product known as “chicken grit.” Chicken grit is finely crushed granite. The birds need it to grind the seed they eat in their gizzards. I used the starter grit size way back when I had my outdoor track. I generally dry mixed three parts chicken grit with one part smooth mortar mix. Once the ballast was in place and level, I misted it with the garden hose. It set up firm, but not so firm that I couldn’t release the grip with a screwdriver or a dandelion weeder. I also kept the mix out from between the ties where the switch throw bar was located.

Regards, David Meashey

At the Farm store you can get #2 and #1 cherry stone grit I prefer #1

https://www.ruralking.com/cherry-stone-50lb-no-2-grit-105238?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=shopping&utm_content=4650250&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzN71BRCOARIsAF8pjfjNxSNYDy_Dh_NTU3Ht_9RRSA0iB5Kg3gKi6xRIdz_OEvi4jah6my4aAgAUEALw_wcB

Dennis

I use paverbase and get it at lowe’s.

Has anyone ever tried reclaimed asphalt fine? With roads being repaved everywhere, it abundant and cheap. It will need to be screened to removed the larger bits but I would think the fines would make a great ballast material that won’t easily migrate.

Dave Meashey said:

“…If you can find a place that sells farm type supplies, look for a product known as “chicken grit.” Chicken grit is finely crushed granite. The birds need it to grind the seed they eat in their gizzards. I used the starter grit size way back when I had my outdoor track…”

I went to our farm supply place recently looking for either chicken or turkey grit to ballast a small portable layout. They didn’t have either but were able to get me a 50# bag of pigeon grit. It’s a good size, made up of calcite and granite. Unfortunately it also coated with a red vitamin and mineral supplement that smells like black licorice. My husband is currently washing it for me small amounts at a time in a shell tumbler. Seems to be working but my car still smells like fennel.

Aquarium rocks are expensive, and usually not crushed, but have been taken from river beds. During the first rain, they will roll away, never to be seen again.

Even dirt is expensive here in Northern Virginia. I’ve yet to figure out where all of the ballast has gone to over the years. I’m suspecting that somebody in a parallel universe has much more than they ever wanted; mine doesn’t seem to exist anywhere in this world.

Here in northern Vermont the feed stores always have chicken grit.

STOP!

A LOT of the grit they sell is oyster shell.

Maybe OK for the chicks and other birds, but not a look I’d want on my layout.

I was getting at the feed store Starter Grit and Grower Grit from a North Carolina crushed granite place.

(both seem to melt over the seasons like Bruce stated)

There is a pinkish/red crushed stone in a quarry west of Minneapolis, MN, but I did not need a pallet load, and had no cheap way to get it to northern Vermont.

(also VERY attractive under some Bonsai plants as seen in the Montreal Botanical Garden during the last century)

I use desert sand, a combination of ocean sand and broken rock. My monsoons sort it by weight as it’s washed off the hill and then deposited as it slows down. After it dries I sweep up piles by size. On windy days I winnow out the dirt and I don’t feel bad when it runs away!

I know where it goes!

Here in Ft. Worth, Texas a cubic yard of crushed granite is around $50.00, if you don’t have a way to carry that much weight delivery fee is around $65.00, $15.00 for a big plastic bag to keep it in. You don’t have a color choice, most of the time it’s a gray reddish color, looks great for G scale ballast. Holds the track in place very well and if you need to do track work something like an ice pick works well to loosen it up. Also works well for walkway in the garden, I have it between the stones on a patio down by the lake, does not wash out.

trainman

Don Howard said:

Here in northern Vermont the feed stores always have chicken grit.

STOP!

A LOT of the grit they sell is oyster shell.

Maybe OK for the chicks and other birds, but not a look I’d want on my layout.

Yep. I got sold a bag of crushed oyster shell when I was decorating my first indoor loop around the Christmas tree. In my head I justified the white color as a winter scene around the Christmas tree!

Besides the white ballast that GP-9 sure looks silly on R1 curves!

Tractor supply has chicken grit as well, in reasonable size bags. I have gotten a red color here locally that I like but you need to be carful as the color of stone you get can vary from white to red to dark grey, best to source all you will need at one time and check color. the next batch may be something different.

AL P.

One day I found course pea stone and used that as the granite places no longer let the public enter the yards due to insurance regulations. Unfortunately the place I got this stone from is now closed. Good thing I had extra and now at my age I will not be expanding, just run with what I have, too many trains and not enough track.