Economical Ballast?

Your local grocery store.  Buy the cheapest cat litter they have.  Pick out the bigger chunks.  Looks fine.

Check out Scenic Express i get all my stuff there

Scenic express sells ballast in 5 gallon cans   Brennans ballast is pretty good

First, get a good deal on GOOD LOOKING ballast!

 

Second, purchase 50 pound bags of CHEAP sand box sand at Home Depot or Menards.

 

Third, put the cheap sand box sand down on your track first, then lay a VERY thin layer of your GOOD LOOKING ballast down to cover the sand.

 

Last, glue in place with diluted Matt Medium (Mod Pog from Michaels).

 

 

Using the above method will save you a tremendous amount of actual ballast, and it will still look like you used thousands of dollars with of the good ballast! My whole layout is done this way. The process was developed by GNNPNUT on his huge HO layout.

Once I ballasted a large modular layout, as well as built a layout for a client. I used bulk bird gravel. It's available in better pet shops in a bin, where they scoop out what you need. And you can see what you're getting, as far as color and size. It looked nice. And I don't recall it costing more than $15.

The sand sounds like a great idea, especially since the GarGraves ties are so thick.  It's not necessary to glue the sand down by itself?

No, you do not glue the sand separately. Just use your fingers to get it the shape you want, then spread the real ballast evenly over the sand. Obviously use enough ballast to cover up the sand. Use a stiff, small paint brush to clean off the tops of the ties.

 

Moisten the whole thing with CHEAP alcohol, then apply the diluted Matt Medium, using a pipet. Works great.

50lb bucket of loose roofing granules.

 

Fred

AMEN!!  Used almost four 50# buckets.  Very inexpensive compared to all the hobby products.

I like the chick starter grit at Tractor Supply. Fred

I second the chicken grit!

50# bucket of roofing granules....about 20 bucks plus tax.  Comes in a variety of colors so you can mix and match!!

 

Alan

I bought ballast from scenic express. Love it. Look fantastic. Lays great and adheres well to glue.

Where do you purchase the roofing granules?

 

Thanks,

Don

John, Stay away from kitty litter and chicken grit, too dusty. I like hot waters tip the best of all. Give it a try. Brennan's ballast is the best to use on top of the sand.

I have seen it at Lowes and Home depot. Also any roofing supply house has it.

WOW.....200 pounds of just gravel on the train board.

Put a fat guy, lots of trains, track and scenery on there, and now we know why many use 2x4 and 2x6, and 3/4 board top construction. 

Greg

I used over 3 ton of gravel ballast on my garden railway, and still need at least a couple of hundred pounds extra annually during my spring maintenance schedule. But I do tend to over-engineer things.

Greg,

Sorry, but my layout is built using "L-girder" open framework construction.  2x2" legs support 1x4" with 1x2" L-girders topped by 1x2" with 1x2" L-girder tops.  I did use 3/4" plywood for the freight yard and kneeled/sat on it several times working on scenery in the back.

 

IMHO L-girder is very fast, light weight, strong, and easily adjusted.

 

 

I used Brennan's Ballast, buying what I needed as I went along.  It didn't cost that much overall to do a 6 X 15 layout and came out looking great.  I used Ross sectional track and switches which were set into Ross Roadbed, then ballasted with Dennis Brennan's product.

 

 

 

My rule is "If you're going to do this once in 10 or 20 years, take a little longer to put together the extra bucks and buy the better product."