# Homemade ballast???????



## concretepumper

I'm sure it has been asked here before but I am wondering if anybody has came up with a home made sort of ballast? Crush and screen your own rock? I think I read cat litter somewhere. Maybe but I am afraid my cat might think my train layout was his new "area"!   Also what method works best for application? I checked out Youtube and saw several methods. A few looked OK and some were "WOW" terrible! I would rather not ballast than dump crap all over the landscape you worked so hard to perfect. Does anyone use any sort of clear coat over roads and such? I know about H20 & glue for making the ballast stick. I am not ready to ballast yet just thinking ahead. Pics and Videos help this :newbie: if you have something. Thanks in advance guys!


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## tankist

i imagine cat litter will be dusty and that dust not going to be good for mechanical parts of locos. many do make their own ballast from various products. but personnlay I do not see a reason to. WS ballast is not that expensive and savings will be negligible.


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## Reckers

If you're really determined to search out alternatives, you might look at things like canary grit or aquarium gravel---both in Walmart's pet department. I agree with Anton about the cat litter---being clay, it will tend to break down over time and create a lot of dust. Also, it's lack of weight would make it prone to blow around unless really well-glued.

Personally, I'm saving all those little dessicant packs that come when you buy electronics and such---those lil pouches that are about the size of a dime. Once I have about 80 pounds of them, I should have enough to open them one by one and ballast my track. I should have enough by....oh....2057 or so.


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## concretepumper

So basically you guys are telling me not to be a cheapskate!  Just wondered if there was any tricks!  Thanks for the help guys.


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## NIMT

I have tried every alternative known to mankind and have determined that real ballast rock is the best method. Nothing else lays quite right. I do know of a guy that goes to the rail yards and picks his own. The rail yards get enough traffic that it breaks down the rocks to fines then you just screen out the big stuff!
I've seen this guys ballast and it is very good and he has it a lot of different colors.
Arizona Rock and Mineral Co.


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## Xnats

My job allows me to do a lot of reading. Almost everything I have read says it is best to use a known commercial product. The deciding factors are having unknown foreign matter sucked up inside expensive engines. The other is, the cost is reality low and one bag goes pretty far if laid out to proto standards.
Doing landscape is a whole other story though. The sky is the limit there.


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## tankist

concretepumper said:


> So basically you guys are telling me not to be a cheapskate!  Just wondered if there was any tricks!  Thanks for the help guys.


if you want set on making your own, by all means do. you will need collection of screens to sift through the material of your choice to the right size. sand, all kind of rock products are used.

for my smal layout however i don't see why bother. one 10dollar bottle is all will i ever need, 2 tops.
althoguh i had sifted and baked me bottle of garden earth to use as ground cover.


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## concretepumper

tankist said:


> if you want set on making your own, by all means do. you will need collection of screens to sift through the material of your choice to the right size. sand, all kind of rock products are used.
> 
> for my smal layout however i don't see why bother. one 10dollar bottle is all will i ever need, 2 tops.
> althoguh i had sifted and baked me bottle of garden earth to use as ground cover.



Not dead set. I am going to make a trip to Calico Ghost town and collect some natural rock and sand for landscaping my layout. Maybe I will try some ballast from that area. Crushing and screening I can do. I used to work in a Rock & Sand quarry. Might be fun for me and the kids to do.


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## Seventy7

*Cheap Ballast*

One option for cheap ballast that I got from another forum and have tried successfully:
Unscented Cat's Pride kitty litter (MUST be this brand, as it's make-up is different from most other types) from Wal-Mart (under $10 for 10kg/22lb), and india ink (a couple bucks for a few ounces). I sift the kitty litter into 2 or 3 sizes (fine, medium, and extra fine?) using cheap dollar store kitchen strainers. This can be a dusty process, so you might want to do it outside in a light breeze so the finest particles blow away, or wear a dust mask. Mix the kitty litter with water and ink (roughly 5-10 drops of ink per cup of water...this is where experimenting will help). I use a 1 gallon milk container with about 2 cups of litter and 4 or 5 cups of water. Don't mix it too vigorously, or the kitty litter will break down into finer particles and become like mush. The stronger the water/ink mix, the quicker the color will change, but about 5 minutes of gentle swishing around should be good. Separate the solids from the water (save the water for the next batch, and just add a bit more ink to strengthen it up) and dry the kitty litter completely on a flat surface (I use old styrofoam food trays). When dried (a day outside in the sun) you can break it up and re-sift it to break down the chunks into ballast size rock again. 

You can try different variations of ink strength (more ink creates an almost bluish hue - quite nice), or you can try black acrylic paint mixed with water. I have about a dozen slightly different variations of grey/black, so if you want to be able to repeat a specific color then you should measure the amounts accurately, or make larger batches. You could also mix multiple shades together to get a "custom" color. I'm assuming this would also work with other colors (reddish, yellow, etc), but I have only experimented making grey/black.

The sifting process (both before coloring, and afterwards) is one of the most time consuming parts of the entire operation, as I don't have any LARGE strainers (only a 3" and 8"). If anyone knows of sources where I can find bigger, cheap strainers, or large pieces of screening material (other than window screen) that comes in multiple sizes, please let us know, as it would greatly speed up the sifting process.

Cost: for under $15 you can get over 20 lbs of ballast. It runs about $15 for 2 lbs at my hobby shop, so that's about 1/10th the price. It is also heavier than the Woodland Scenics walnut shell ballast, so it won't float away when you try to glue it down with the water/glue mix.

Hope this helps.


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