Replenishing Stocks of Ballast

Keeping a modelling workshop stocked and ready for work is part of the fun of building a model railway. While I do my best to continually replacing used materials (like grass tufts and plastic profiles and card) sometimes a type of material is suddenly used up. In a previous post in early December I mentioned that I almost ran out of finely sieved gravel for ballasting and landscaping.

The ballasting work on my little layout almost used up my available supply of sievd gravel. Now the depots have been filled again.

The finely sieved gravel I use is homemade. Basically fine gravel dried and sieved at my own facility. The basic gravel used is a standard product for laying concrete tiles scooped up from a left over heap at a 1/1 scale railway construction project.

Bucket of fine gravel. Being in the construction business helps getting new materials for Nystrup Gravel and at the same time reducing wastage.

Gravel sorting in progress. The sieve allows only fine gravel through to the plastic container. Some of the residual materials are saved in the pink container.

The gravel is spilt up in small portions and dried indoor in smaller plastic containers. During drying the gravel is being stirred once every 24 hours. Drying usually takes 2-3 days and the gravel is ready for sorting through a kitchen sieve. The sieve I use produces gravel that is slightly too fine for 1/19 scale. I use the fine ballast for the first application and to build up a good ballast profile around the track. The fine ballast is easy to shape with a soft brush. Once the ballast looks good I simply add small, random 'drips' of coarser ballast  from another container with some of the material held back in the sieve. 

New Years Eve provided me a new supply of wooden sticks for all sorts of modelling projects.

I spent New Year's Eve in Berlin and the Germans seem (at least in the neighbourhood where I lived) more prolific users of fireworks than Danes. It literally rained rocket sticks from above! I had a good handful of good sized rocket sticks assembled in no time. Next morning a short walk produced more in good 1/19 scale relevant sizes for bringing home in the car.

The great thing about the above modelling materials is that they are totally free, and would otherwise be destined for the municipal dump or a some earth depot. Good for my wallet, society and a step towards 'sustainable modelling´ where also 'garbage' can be upcycled. As an example of what can be built from garbage, I built the lorry loading ramp on my layout from a framework of rocket sticks.