Iron Ore Medium Ballast Bag

An ore bed on industrial sidings and at mines

The lines that brought ore down from quarries and deep mines tended to have a track bed laid from whatever was at hand – from crushed waste rock and the leavings of the dressing plant. The result was a permanent way turned rusty, sharply different from the gray gravel of the main lines. Such a bed is the mark of the ore railroads of Minnesota, of the mining sidings of the Ore Mountains and of the lines around ironworks, where in time the dust from the blast furnaces worked its way into the bed as well.

The medium grade

The manufacturer divides the stone into several grades, and this medium one suits models in the usual medium scales best, where a single grain matches a real stone the size of a fist. In the scale of military dioramas, that is, around 1:35, the same grain will serve as fine gravel on a road, on an embankment or in the bed of a tipper truck.

How to fix the stone down

The loose material is spread out dry, leveled with a soft brush into the correct profile and only then flooded with thinned glue with a drop of detergent, so that the surface tension draws the drop inside. Never pour the glue on directly; it would wash the heap away. Once dry, the bed holds firmly and will take pigment and a dry brush, with which oil stains and brake dust are added.

The contents of the bag will stretch to several tens of centimeters of track, and the exact consumption depends on the width of the embankment. Close any unused remainder up; the stone is dry and can be stored practically without limit. For a more natural look it is a good idea to scatter a little darker or lighter material among the rusty grains, because a real bed never has a uniform shade along its whole length.