I am wondering if someone remembers (I don't) the color of the mainline ballast used in the St. Louis to Springfield corridor in the 1950's? Gary Gross |-|
Re: What color was ballast in 1950"s? This pic is a bit out of focus, but still shows the typical color of the Missouri red granite based ballast used on the Frisco Eastern Division - the main line of the SLSF - in the years up to the BN merger. I took several representative samples of the actual ballast on the Frisco between St Clair and Rolla in the early 1980's, ground it all up, and then tried to match the color using B&H and Woodland Scenics HO ballast purchased from Dasho's and TinkerTown here in St Louis. I think I am close to the slight rose colored tint the actual SLSF Eastern Division ballast had over the St Clair-Rolla segment. Recent samples of ballast I have grabbed from the same areas look the same. Hope so as I have a bucket of it! Ken
Re: What color was ballast in 1950"s? That looks pretty close to what I remember when I used to hike the tracks between Webster and Kirkwood. I know it had a fair amount of quartz in it. One time when I was about 14 I visited the Springfield & Ozark club in the old Webster Groves depot. At the time I was just getting my feet wet in model railroading and was using coark roadbed. I asked the guys at the club what they used for ballast and they told me it was crushed rock. So I gathered up a couple coffee cans of actual ballast and tried to smash it up with a hammer! I didn't realize you could buy the stuff in bags at the hobby store. Oh, well.... GS
Re: What color was ballast in 1950"s? Ken, what did you use to grind up the ballast that you collected? It appears from Greg's comment that a hammer does not work too well.
Re: What color was ballast in 1950"s? I broke it up with a big, oversize stonemason's hammer I have. Even so, there still were many pieces that were 1/4"-3/8" in size, but it gave me something to match with the HO ballast blend. Somewhere I have the mix formula I used. Alas, I've never put any of this ballast down on the layout! I have made several good looking hopper and gondola ballast loads with it, laying it down on top of a base made from Bowser plastic hopper car coal loads, which on their own are worthless but do have a nice contour. I've also done coal, wood chip and gravel loads on them. Ken
Re: What color was ballast in 1950"s? OK, Ken. I understand, a heavier version of Greg's device. I was hoping that you had used something that required less manual labor with better results. Oh well. I'll keep my search for the perfect tool open. Thanks.
