Hi: I was wondering if anyone had a general rule of thumb as to the amount of ballast needed per foot or yard or whatever of mainline track. I am getting ready to reorder some ballast, and don't want to over order as usual. It has been a few years since I last ballasted my old layout and I just don't remember how much I used. Thoughts? Thanks in advance, Bill
I would think about 100 linear feet per bag. I did 1100 feet and can't recall buying ten bags. Now, there were some situations where I used more, but that was because I was too lazy to fill in with other methods.
It depends on the bag size too. I used the small bags (18cubic inches) and it took just over 2 to ballast my 60 some feet of track.
Guys: Your input is much appreciated. I somehow seem to remember that the ballast went further than I expected and I ended up with a surplus. As I had to move a great distance, a lot of non essentials were dumped. Of course, now I need to relay a lot of track and just didn't want to make the same mistake twice - in buying too much ballast. Mark, in your response you estimated bags by their volume, my supplier sells their ballast in bags of around 11 ounces, any correlation there? Pete, any idea as to the weight of those bags? Thanks, Bill
