Making your own ballast | Model Railroad Hobbyist | MRH
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- čas přidán 28. 01. 2016
- mrhmag.com - Greg Luers demos how to make your own ballast from common road gravel. The price is certainly right! Part of the February 2016 issue of Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine.
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I've been doing that for years but I always add in a washing step at the end of screening to remove fines and float off wood or leaf debris. I dry it on plastic sheets on the patio.
If there is any iron particulate in it, it will cause havoc with electronic switches... run a strong magnet though the gravel before you use in on the tracks.
You should never use a magnet on your ballast. It there are and iron in the ballast you just magnetized it and all the other rock. When you lay ballast on the track it will never stick to your engines or and thing else. AZROCK.PAGE
All the laybys in the UK have this gravel ready for road surface dressing. I'm sure no-one would complain at us "stealing" the sweepings up! Just an hours therapeutic sifting sat on a pinic chair with a flask of tea works wonders and by using graded sieves will bring good results as shown.
You could buy a bucket of gravel from the stone yard, reduce it with a heavy hammer or press then sift it in stages to get down to the size you want.
Can't complain about the price. Thx for the video.
This relly helped with my price for ho trains I no longer have to buy ballast I have a bonch of road gravel
Thank you, really is gonna come in handy.
question what type of strainers do I use or what to look for to get the Ho and N scale ballast
Where did you get the two sifters from
The only concern for this is salt that snow plows deposit on the road.
The salt could rust and ruin parts of the layout.
If you want some fine powder dirt, I pick the dirt that I use off of a pitchers mound at a baseball field. The dirt on a pitchers mound is real fine.
Doesn't the rigidness of the rock negate the padding of any underlay? I would expect that any noise reduction benefits of the underlay would be lost.
Depending on the scale you model, you could package the other scale and sell it at a train show?
Where do you get this stuff??
+dexterdog62 It's roadway shoulder gravel.
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Might want to run a magnet thru it to remove any iron products
You should never use a magnet on your ballast. It there are and iron in the ballast you just magnetized it and all the other rock. When you lay ballast on the track it will never stick to your engines or and thing else. AZROCK.PAGE
Roadway shoulder gravel? So we go out on a road a shovel it up, or is it available commercially? If the former, what would you recommend we tell the police when they come by?
+Douglas Alexander Just tell them you're taking a roadside soil/gravel sample. If that's a concern to you, you can go to a hardware store or gardening supply store and buy paver sand or any other brand of sand or fine gravel. Paver sand is available on Amazon in many colors for $50 per 50 lb bag (free 2-day shipping with a prime membership) - a lifetime supply.
+Douglas Alexander Also, colored sanded grout works, and once you sift it you will get several different sizes you can use - and since it's colored, you pick your color.
Thanks. I used to work for our DOT, so I'm kind of sensitive about that! ;-)