Large Scale Central

Is ballast worth it?

Track and Trestles
#21

Kevin, your sans-ballast tracks look great!
Just out of curiosity, do you have any problems with dirt getting into your engine blocks, etc. and fouling things up?
I use “grower” sized granite chicken grit from the local “Southern States” and it works great. I “need” it to keep my track level. I have been lucky that in the last year it has stayed put rather well, even with some HUGE storms.

If I had a criticism of the chicken grit it would be that over time it seems to “bleach” to a white color. Still holds together nicely, though.

#22
Jon Radder said:
Function - not necessarily (depending on roadbed); Aesthetics - Definitely YES.
Interesting thread! Jon has succinctly summed it up.

I don’t care about aesthetics, but I do care about functionality. Wherever I want maximum stability, I dig bricks into the soil, level them up and screw the track into each brick at one or two points. This works for me because:

  1. I have bricks to burn.
  2. Frost is not a factor in Perth (it never drops to freezing here).
  3. Our soil is an easy-to-dig sand/clay mix.

It’s a lot easier to put the stuff most of you are using for ballast INTO your garden than it is to get it OUT. Years ago, I got a contactor to deliver a load of blue metal at the house for a concreting job. Later, after it looked like all the blue metal had been used up, I decided to lay a slab path across the spot where it had been dumped. Guess what? There was still a swag of the stuff in the sand!

Getting a level screed through what remained of the blue metal was a nuisance. I had to do a fair bit of unanticipated excavate and fill.

As Fred points out, the cost of this stuff is in the cartage. If I wanted ballast, I’d buy it by the truckload, and I’d be watching like a hawk to ensure the contractor dropped it EXACTLY where I wanted to store it. Then I’d use a method along the lines of what Bob’s described to ensure the ballast was contained where I wanted it.

#23

I use fines UNDER the track because I like the way it looks. Floating track adapts to expansion and contraction. One spot has track in the dirt and that looks nice too - like a old, poorly maintained siding. Ballast makes it easy to re-level/re-grade in the Spring.

I have tried mixing 50/50 stucco mix in and watering it down. This makes it pretty permanent and stable. But if you have to break it up you still can.

#24

My wife, who’s very active on the railroad herself, won’t let me put down ballast. She says it’s “visually distracting.” I’m working on forms of persuasion

#25

I find I get a lot less mud and sand on the rails after a rain, with ballast.

#26

We glued our ballast down. It would last a couple years at least. We also use chicken grit for ballast.

Jon.

#27

If I remember, Kevin has “little Orbisonia” in Seattle - known for the rain. In reaility it is only about 36" a year (albeit nearly all year) but rarely downpours. We have BUCKETS of rain (160") and nothing seems to hold the ballast in place but cement patch. Weed matt keeps the plants from heaving the concrete roadbed (overkill, I know). There are other more “plastic” solutions. Quickcrete makes a bonding agent in liquid form that is applied liberally and acts like a vinyl glue (it might acctually be vinyl) and would be applied as the indoor guys do it. Start with a “wet” water by adding some detergent to water and wet down the ballast before adding the glue. The water acts to provide better capillary action for the glue and helps it bind to all the surfaces and run into the cracks and crevices. Good Luck!