My recollection of slag, from when I lived on the Burlington in the 1930's,
is that it was so dark that I thoughit was black. I use coal for ballast on
my pike. Looks pretty good to me; however now that I know it wasn't black,
I'll probably start spraying a dark brown on my roadways. Dale
----- Original Message -----
From: "Denny Anspach" <danspach@macnexus.org>
To: <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 10:55 AM
Subject: [CBQ] Re:Ballast color
> Slag ballast was gray only when fresh, but in use it rapidly
> accumulated a coating of stains, dirt, etc. that covered each piece
> with a uniform medium rusty brown color.
>
> I recently examined and compared real-time samples of used slag and
> limestone ballasts (both ballasts mined from ancient debris pushed
> off a near-Chicago CBQ embankment). Although you could readily
> discern the limestone from the slag by weight alone, in addition to
> the angular shapes of the limestone, and the softer outlines of the
> slag, in fact at arms length, both looked identical in their rusty
> coloration.
>
> I took some of this real slag ballast and pulverized it with a
> hammer, in the process of which the underlying uniform medium gray
> color was uncovered- identical to the "slag" model ballast produced
> by Smith & Sons (Scenery Express).
>
> What did I then do with the pulverized "real ballast"? Some has
> already been applied to my HO trackwork. The remaining will be
> applied to the trackwork in front of my Riverside depot.
>
> To get it to its "in use" color, all the slag ballast will be
> thoroughly washed with coats of thinned Floquil Rust.
>
> Denny
> --
> Denny S. Anspach, MD
> Sacramento
>
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