https://blog.model-train-help.com/2015/02/o_scale_buildings.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=o_scale_buildings Model railroads and model trains Sat, 28 Feb 2015 17:50:46 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://blog.model-train-help.com/2015/02/o_scale_buildings.html#comment-8661 Sat, 28 Feb 2015 17:50:46 +0000 http://blog.model-train-help.com/?p=3464#comment-8661 Regarding the tips about darkening the ballast around tunnel entrances and at crossings, here in the northwest area, BNSF & UP both use a lot of basalt for ballast since the whole eastern half of Washington state and eastern Oregon and almost all of Idaho has huge layers of the stuff. Thousands of years ago this entire area was basically one huge pool of molten lava from time to time and so we have an almost inexhaustible supply. This rock is very dark in color and needs very little touch up to show stains from oil, etc. One other thing I noticed was on the BNSF at least, when the tracks enter a tunnel, the crossties go back to wooden rather than concrete for the length of the tunnel and then back to concrete. Also, some turnouts have wood ties and the rest of the track is concrete ties. I assume this is to make maintenance easier since tunnels are a confined space and switches are always a high maintenance item in the real world.

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