Create an authentic look of a real railroad with this HO scale track ballast- large 5 POUND PACKAGE. These real crushed granite stones have shades of gray and dark gray.   We suggest you purchase enough at one time to do your project. Colors vary with each crushed batch. One bag covers approximately 10- 15 linear ft. depending on the thickness you apply.

This ballast is a great way to complete your model railroad project and add realism to the train layout, dollhouse scenery, and other craft projects. People will use different amounts depending on techniques used, the desired look of the ballasted track, the particle size of the ballast used, brand of ballast, etc.

Some people lay track ballast right up to the tops of ties while others prefer to have more railroad tie exposed. Smaller particles will require more ballast by weight. There are different types of ballast, but we have found that actual granite rock is easy to lay on the roadbed and makes a very nice, realistic look to your train layout.

The question keeps coming up … how much ballast does it take to ballast model railroad track?

It’s going to vary by scale.

In HO, one level teaspoon of ballast will do about 1 inch of track. You can test in the other scales to get a similar approximation, my guess (without testing it) would be a level teaspoon of ballast will do two inches of track in N, or half an inch of track in O. This is approximate, and also will vary depending on how much ballast shoulder you do, or if you’re doing sparsely ballasted track such as a lumbering branch or a backwoods yard.

*Need less? We offer smaller packages of HO scale track ballast: 35 Ounce Package