Forgot to mention another advantage of the clay cat litter/ground nut shell ballast method. When these materials are attached with matte medium, it muffles the unwanted track sounds so that one can hear the sounds of the locomotive. Track noise is magnified when using white glue and “real rock” ballast.
Just my bias. Roger Nulton Tacoma, WA From: Michael & Linda Marmer Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 3:41 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Rock Ballast Article (was I'm "s"old!) Roger, I can understand, as I too, am living on limited income since 1999. Took a 66% cut in pay. If what you are doing works for you, then great. Your pictures look great. I think cat litter is universal in the use of ballast in the world of trains, as I see this allot on the TCA list. Not sure how old you are but the IRA will come back, ours have done nicely the last 2 years. I am not a financial planner, but don’t panic as you are buying IRA stocks at discounted prices, right now. Mike From: Roger Nulton Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 11:50 PM To: mailto:S-Scale%40yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Rock Ballast Article (was I'm "s"old!) Hey Mike. As a former proponent of cheap cat litter on this list, and now an admitted user of Woodland Scenics products, I take no offense from your remarks <g>. My days of buying brass are long past, due to the performance of my IRA! And now that I’m building a large layout, I try to cut costs wherever I can. But cost is not the main reason that I use these materials: WS medium gray blend ballast is the closest match that I have found to the Monon’s main line, and cat litter replicates broken limestone from the southern Indiana stone quarries better than any other product. What’s more, both materials take water based paint and stain quite well: more realistically than real stone. See: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/photos/album/135944245/pic/700718699/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc To each his own. Roger Nulton From: Michael & Linda Marmer Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2011 4:37 PM To: mailto:S-Scale%40yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: {S-Scale List} Rock Ballast Article (was I'm "s"old!) Hi Ed, I am not saying that Smith & Sons is not a good ballast, as my comments where not directed at that company. I do not know their product, never heard of them until today. My comment was mainly gear to the comments I hear all the time, “I use this because of the cost” and that is not directed at Roger in anyway. I just hear that all the time. People may have reasons on why they choose a lower cost product, but when I see or hear of one spending 1000s on track, engines, buildings, rolling stock, I do not understand that route. I [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
