What's your favorite kind of ballast ?

[Bealman]

That ash ballast looks great to me, belstone!

[JRS747]

You got yourself a fine brush, a ballast spreader, a fine dropper and a heap of patience, John?

Welcome to ballasting!   

This is my first attempt, a little rough I know. And a bit less colour next time, I thought it would fade as it dried but it actually went a deeper colour. I thought that the Dapol ballast was too fine until I started laying it, now I wouldn't want anything coarser. The Dapol ballast seems to take colour well.

John

[Pierluc]

Nice start in ballasting.

[Maurits71]

chincilla dust £ 4 for 1 kilo

[Sprintex]

Chinchilla dust is WAY too fine for N Gauge - probably about right for T gauge actually!


Paul

[robert shrives]

Hi ,
Real ballast does vary in size with 75mm  down to 50mm common figures. And quality varies with locations in the country and around sections of route. So really layouts could have several sizes, from ash in sidings to a good clean stone on mainlines.

Having walked on the stuff many times (and shovelled a few tons in the day!) and compared the lumps on sleepers on our models to real stuff.  The finer the better! Ash ballast I have seen done with DAS clay and stippled with a tooth brush, chilla dust looks good for small fine top ballast and the woodland scenics mixes for modern or new works - and that adds another twist to choice as you could have "new works" lengths or around packed joints new colour and clean ballast.  It all seems to colour back to a brownish hue anyway.
Just my 10 pence worth.       
Robert