Track ballast / scenics

[jhb171achill]

Question - I have heard that in order to look somewhat "past its best", N gauge ballast is suitable for 00 scale track, perhaps with small amounts of 00 scale ballast scattered here and there too. I would be interested if anyone could point me in the direction of photos of track done in this way. Quite soon, I will have a serious amount of ballasting and scenics to do, and I want certain sidings to look prototypically neglected, with main running lines varying from old to pretty good and well kept.

Any thoughts / ideas / photos very welcome.

[Broithe]

I would say that N Gauge if preferable in any circumstances to the supposedly 00 Gauge stuff that I have seen, in an 00 scenario.

The alleged 00 stuff is generally well over-sized for its intended use.

 

[Broithe]

When the through tracks were reballasted at Ballybrophy, it was fairly chunky stuff, in real world terms, but still probably smaller than N Gauge ballast against 00 track, I think.

However, ballast that is actually to scale may well appear to be too fine - looking right matters more than being technically accurate in this situation.

[Galteemore]

Also bear in mind that many sidings and lesser lines were ballasted with ash rather than stone. Chris Nevard has a good technique worth googling.

[jhb171achill]

Thanks - excellent stuff, folks; yes, I suspected N might be better.

[Noel]

2 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Question - I have heard that in order to look somewhat "past its best", N gauge ballast is suitable for 00 scale track, perhaps with small amounts of 00 scale ballast scattered here and there too. I would be interested if anyone could point me in the direction of photos of track done in this way. Quite soon, I will have a serious amount of ballasting and scenics to do, and I want certain sidings to look prototypically neglected, with main running lines varying from old to pretty good and well kept.

Any thoughts / ideas / photos very welcome.

Javis ultra fine granite can look the business. It's much finer than their 'fine' version. Used this on Gort.

[Broithe]

My test rail with a bit of genuine Lisduff sand brushed on.

Even then, some of the bits are too big...

[Noel]

Javis granite

[David Holman]

Interesting! Never been keen on the Jarvis stuff, while fine granite can look very green - but certainly not here!

 Still find Woodland Scenics hard to beat and use their fine ash even in 7mm. They do several colours and mixing the pale with brown can work well for newish ballast. I think the stuff is made from crushed coconut shells, so is fairly light too.

 A pox on my spellchecker - substituted Jewish, for newish. As if, already....

Edited June 16, 2022 by David Holman

[Broithe]

4 hours ago, David Holman said:

Interesting! Never been keen on the Jarvis stuff, while fine granite can look very green - but certainly not here!

 Still find Woodland Scenics hard to beat and use their fine ash even in 7mm. They do several colours and mixing the pale with brown can work well for newish ballast. I think the stuff is made from crushed coconut shells, so is fairly light too.

 A pox on my spellchecker - substituted Jewish, for newish. As if, already....

That would be matzo ballast..?

[irishthump]

On 14/6/2022 at 3:50 PM, Broithe said:

When the through tracks were reballasted at Ballybrophy, it was fairly chunky stuff, in real world terms, but still probably smaller than N Gauge ballast against 00 track, I think.

However, ballast that is actually to scale may well appear to be too fine - looking right matters more than being technically accurate in this situation.

This is exactly the point I was going to make myself.

[Sean]

As well as the grain size I do think the actual colour itself can say a lot about the condition of the ballast.

Having done this recently, should I want to repeat the build I would use a much darker shade to insinuate older ballast.