Ballast from Arizona rock and Mineral Company


Raincoat2

Raincoat2

Well-Known Member
Everyone - I'm planning on ordering ballast online from Arizona Rock and Mineral. For HO scale, they list these two types of ballast: #1022 Kaibab Limestone HO Ballast and #1023 Kaibab Limestone Mainline Ballast. The only difference is the word "Mainline." From the enlarged photos it seems the Mainline Ballast is made of slightly larger pieces but it's hard to tell. Does anyone have any experience ordering from them and can advise which ballast works best on HO scale? Since I'm going to order quite a bit, I've got to know which one is right for my layout.
Thanks.
 
Ballast size was fully discussed in another thread. The consensus was, pick whatever you think looks best. The reason is that most HO ballast is larger than real scaled ballast, but accurate "scale" ballast just doesn't look "right" to most modelers, it appears too small.
 
railBuilderDhd said:
any results on your research on what to use so far?

Dave
Click to expand...

Dave - I ordered several bags of that one ballast - it seems awfully fine to me, like fine sand. I could return it but I may use it for dirt roads and unpaved parking lots and such. I'm going to go to my LHS and look through his stuff and talk with him about it. I've also got some tips from others on the forum about what ballast they use.
 
Wow, I would love to see picture of the stuff to see how fine it really looks. What about a mix of it with some other brand?

Keep us posted on what you do.

Dave
 
Dave - I don't have a photo to post right now - will have to take one later - I do plan to mix it with coarser ballast from another company, which would look more natural anyway since small stuff is always found among the larger stuff in the real world.
 
I use Arizona Rock and Mineral for ballast (N scale) and love it. Couldn't be more happier with it and the prices.

079e138c4cae3d857b12f1ac76247bc6.jpg


Steve


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I ordered both the regular and mainline ballast because I couldn't tell the size from the online description. I ended up using the mainline ballast on the mainline and about 1 bag of the regular covered the secondary trackage where I use it.

The longest run of secondary trackage is the branch which I used something else for the ballast.

Modeling the roaring 20's
President of the Lancaster Central Railroad
President of the Western Maryland Railway
 
Steve - that's a nice realistic-looking photo. Thanks for posting. The ballast does look good there.
 
RBMNfan said:
I ordered both the regular and mainline ballast because I couldn't tell the size from the online description. I ended up using the mainline ballast on the mainline and about 1 bag of the regular covered the secondary trackage where I use it.

The longest run of secondary trackage is the branch which I used something else for the ballast.

Modeling the roaring 20's
President of the Lancaster Central Railroad
President of the Western Maryland Railway
Click to expand...

RBMNFan - was the mainline ballast "chunkier" and bigger than the "regular' ballast then?
 
Raincoat2 said:
RBMNFan - was the mainline ballast "chunkier" and bigger than the "regular' ballast then?
Click to expand...
Yes it's bigger. The regular is smaller pieces. In real life a well maintained main line has a layer of larger stones as the sub roadbed.

Secondary lines often have smaller stones and less of them.

Industrial trackage can be ballasted with anything cheap. Especially in the past. And often the track sinks into the ground.

The regular ballast is too fine to my taste. The texture ends up looking like sandpaper after gluing. I may end up using it for roads. I think it looks closer to road gravel.

Modeling the roaring 20's
President of the Lancaster Central Railroad
President of the Western Maryland Railway
 
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