When viewing a model railroad layout the eye tends to focus on the scenery, buildings, the trains and track. Making the trackwork look realistic is therefore critical to any layout, because it defines from where your line is coming to where it is going.

Apart from the track itself, ballast is the other major component of the trackwork and can take considerable work (and money) to achieve the ultimate effect.

Fortunately there are many very good ballasting products specifically produced for model railroaders, but these can prove reasonably expensive, considering the quality required to complete most model railroad layouts.

Masonry sand is an option worth considering for those working on a tight budget. The good thing about masonry sand is that it is available in a range of pigments with different degrees of coarseness. If the desired color is not available, the masonry sand could still be used as a base coat with regular ballast laid on top.

Masonry sand is generally sold to builders, so is likely to be available from a hardware store, or building supplies depot. The sand generally comes in minimum size bags of approximately twenty-five pounds. Although this sounds a large quantity, it will soon be used up when spreading it around track areas of an average sized model railroad layout.

One big difference between builders masonry sand and regular track ballast is the price. The masonry sand is considerably cheaper to buy.

A quick word of warning. Some masonry sands do contain iron which would be the same as soldering a wire between the rails. A strong magnet will detect any iron in the sand and could be worth using before buying the masonry sand.

Test the product in store using the magnet. Sand sticking to the magnet is a sure sign of iron content. If this happens do not buy the sand and instead test the magnet on another color.