Imported Stone Aggregates 

Joes Model Trains stocks 4 natural colors and 2 combinations- "Earth" blend and our NEW CSX Granite!

We like it for many reasons. But a funny one to mention here was discovered by one customer saying this ballast won't blow away or suffer displacement like many of the popular and much lighter crushed walnut shell ballasts when the ceiling fans get turned on or windows open with a breeze during a nice cool summer. And is literally able to use his vacuum to blow atmospheric settled dust off his layout without disturbing the track ballast! 

This stone ballast has a volume to weight that can be calculated reasonably well for estimating how much ballast is enough to do "x" amount of HO track. Certainly things like switches, tunnels, asphalt roadways, etc. all come into play. Below are the estimates for a straight lineal run of track in HO and N scales.

Ballast volume = (1 oz. / 29.6 ml.) = 55 grams

  Price $18.95 per 1 pound (16oz./ .45kg)  

HO / OO scale

 A question I can't answer well is 🤔"How much HO track can I do with a ...?" . A lot depends on so many variables! 

But here is the best idea and approximation we here at Joes came up with:

• We secured a 6 inch / 152mm section of HO Atlas code 100 track down to a mat.

• Using a funnel and maintaining a height above the ties to suffice enough estimated extra ballast to even cover the immediate outsides of the rails, ballast was poured from one end to the other. 

• The piece track was taken up and the ballast was carefully gathered into a petri dish.

• The Tare weight was 7 grams.

• Therefore 7 grams of ballast will about cover 6 inches or 152mm of Atlas brand HO   code 100 straight track. 

• 1 pound / 45kg. = 453.6 grams . 

•  453.6 ➗ 7 grams per piece of track = 64.8 pieces of 6" HO track.

•  64.8 pieces of 6" / 152mm track.

• Coverage is approximately 32.4 lineal feet / 9.88 meters of HO/OO Atlas code 100.

N scale 

• The same control and process was used on the Atlas code 80 N scale track at a approximate length of 5 inches or 124mm.

•  Interestingly, about half the volume of ballast was used to achieve same goal.

• Therefore 3.5 grams of ballast will cover 5 inches or 124mm of Atlas brand N code 80 straight track. Using the HO calculations is is seen as the coverage would be double that of HO or about 64.8 lineal feet or 19.8 meters

Any questions or comments please Contact Us

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 CSX Granite    🛤 Add To Cart