Search Tips

Tips categories

Latest Tips

What is a scale model?
Posted in: Kit building
1st April 2021
A scale model is a smaller recreation or representation of a real-life object or thing, this could be anything from a...
Read more
How do I cut flexible track?
Posted in: Design and Planning, Tracks, Best practices
5th July 2019
Once upon a time I would have said a newly bladed junior hacksaw and some warding files, but these days I would have...
Read more
What is 1:148 scale?
Posted in: Model Railway
4th May 2020
1:148 scale refers to a model where the real-life prototype that the model is based on is 148 times bigger than the...
Read more
Can I use ground cork ballast rather than gravel ballast?
Posted in: Model Railway, Tracks
28th January 2020
Traditionally gravel ballast has been the forerunner for track beds in railway modelling and gives your layout an...
Read more
What is a Post Office sorting van?
Posted in: Rolling stock
28th March 2024
A Post Office sorting van refers to a type of specialised railway vehicle or wagon that was used by the British Post...
Read more

What coarseness ballast should I use for my OO scale railway?

Ballast comes in varying degrees in coarseness, fine medium and coarse.

For OO scale the most realistic would have to be medium. OO gauge is 1/76 scale so measure a few ballast stones and multiply the size by 76 to check whether it would be correct in real life.

Although there is nothing to say that you cannot use any of the others on your layout.

You could use coarse ballast in your quarry scene to represent ballast to be broken down and fine ballast on the quarry floor to represent fragments.

Use all three types of ballast to create wagon loads.

Posted in: Model Railway, Scenery

Click here to receive the tips weekly in your mailbox. You can unsubscribe at any time.