Different Ballast Types?

[farecoal]

I've noticed that different lines, especially from satellite view, seem to be supported by ballast of varying shades of gray to a chalky white. For example, take a look at this location: http://wikimapia.org/#lat=41.968076&lon=-88.2370645&z=19&l=0&m=b I've noticed that lighter lines tend to have the brightest white ballast of all, while more heavily used lines tend to have it in more darkish gray variety. What precisely is the nature of ballast? I know it consists of rocks and pebbles, but do certain railroads acquire it from certain companies? I'm pretty intrigued by this one.

 

[cascaderailroad]

They use dark gray ballast for dilapidated, rusty, weedstrewn, branchlines ... to replicate Trainz realism.:hehe: And cleaner ballast for Class V trackage.:hehe: :hehe:
Ballast is usually regular old (ignious) Granite, which varies in shades, from dark gray, white to pink

 

[SD45T-2]

Its depends on the area, here in Louisiana, we have ballast similar to that aerial view. While in the northeast it has somewhat of a darker favor.

 

[gfisher]

Here on the north shore of Boston they used a traprock (basalt) locally called Rowe Stone, which is a dark gray with a slightly purplish cast. It came from a quarry just north of Revere which was served by the B&M. Lately I notice that repairs to the ballast are being made with a light gray rock, probably granite from Chelmsford.

New Jersey had and still has a lot of traprock, and I think most of the railroads used it at least in the past.

Any low cost convenient hard stone will do.

 

[SuperFudd]

Apparently much of the UP in southern California uses purple ballast.

 

[sniper297]

Main thing is they rarely care about color, and it makes the most sense to buy it nearby rather than having it shipped from a quarry in Lichtenstien. Railroad on the east coast gets ballast from a quarry with mostly dark gray, ballast is dark gray, one on the west coast gets it from a quarry that's mostly pink, ballast is pink. Since railroads tend to travel around rather than staying in one place you get intermingling, C&NW gets pink ballast from Wisconsin, Burlington gets white ballast from Iowa, you'll see the pink and white side-by-side in Chicago.

Once it's on the ground it's gonna pick up weathering, ballast from the steam era tends to be darker from coal dust and cinders, new ballast in the desert will get sandy colored from the dust blowing across it.

 

[GossenGarrat]

Continuing from Sniper,
a line that uses a lot off older diesels will usually have an oil line right down the middle.

Some railroads dont even use rock for ballast, there is a logging railroad in Louisiana that uses the bark from the trees as a ballast,