Loose ballast WILL find its way into the gearing sooner or later. I had a single grain of small ballast stop my Atlas GP9 dead in its tracks.
I don't like ballast at all, but it's a necessary evil if you want your RR to look the part.
I've been trying to find rubber or cork ballast that's been ground up and set it in place using Matte Medium to help quiet things down.
My plans are to ballast outside the rails and leave between the rails unballasted.
