Ballast for model railway

[Mojo]

My better half is building a model railway in our garden studio. He has painted the baseboard grey but wants some ballast.

We’ve been looking at the local shops and also on eBay but the prices seem extortionate for what is effectively crushed up stones.

We’ve got some horticultural grit in which has been sieved to make it a bit more in scale, does anyone have any experience of whether this will work, or any other common building products that can be bought fairly cheaply; even if a little bit of work is required we don’t mind.

 

[John Webb]

The only reference I can find in any of my railway modelling books to anything other than the stuff produced specifically for model railways, is in a book by C J Freezer. He suggests you get a large bag of 'stone dust' from a local quarry, who apparently will have lots of the stuff they don't want!

I'm convinced that many years ago I came across a reference for using grit supplied for use with budgies and other cage birds. But I can't remember the reference and so can't guarantee the accuracy of my recollection. [EDIT] I can also recollect something about using grit from gardening centres designed for improving drainage in flowerpots - but that might have been for use on larger-scale outdoor lines?

 

[Peter C]

The only help I can give is, if trying to find building materials fails, going to some of the smaller model shops' websites. If you have a copy of Railway Modeller you will be able to find countless numbers of tiny model shops which will likely have ballast for cheap. I'm not saying that it will work all the time, but it's something
C J Freezer's modelling tips, as mentioned by @John Webb, are likely to be the most cost-effective. He was (and still is) known for doing an awful lot, if not everything, for model railways on the cheap and he managed to get some brilliant results apparently.
Talking about C J Freezer reminds me of Budget Model Railways on YouTube: they did some videos about ballast when they started so that might help.

-Peter

 

[Cowley]

My better half is building a model railway in our garden studio. He has painted the baseboard grey but wants some ballast.

We’ve been looking at the local shops and also on eBay but the prices seem extortionate for what is effectively crushed up stones.

We’ve got some horticultural grit in which has been sieved to make it a bit more in scale, does anyone have any experience of whether this will work, or any other common building products that can be bought fairly cheaply; even if a little bit of work is required we don’t mind.

I think horticultural grit is fine to use @Mojo, I’ve definitely seen it used before. Is it slightly yellow in colour?
If so than you could just tone it down with a wash of diluted water based paint (worth doing anyway I reckon).
Definitely sieve it like you’re doing a few times to get the right grade.

It might be worth just getting a little bit of board with a short section of track to practice before committing.