G'day Gormo, Nice one mate. 👌 As we spoke many years ago about the gutter/road side gravel for ballast use, always run a magnet over the top to pull out any metallic material that may cause harm to motors and such. A good way of pulling the organic matter out is to slowly tip the sieved rock ballast into a bowl of water. The organic matter will float to the surface. 😉 I have also read elsewhere that some model railway/railroad suppliers use the nut husks for ballast. This I think was one of the first sources of scaled down ballast ! Cheers, Gary. ps, nice shirt !

Nice one, Gormo, both ballasts laid down on the tracks look the part. Your methods for making your own products always amaze me when I see them.

Love the "rivet counters" sign, probably save a few bob after that video. Cheers Frank

Hi Gormo, I've used both methods and can agree they are both successful. I also have boxes of various grades of coal produced the same way!

Hi Gormo, another great tutorial, thanks for sharing your skills and for finding the time to share them with us. I do like the look of the walnut and almond shells and will def be giving it a go. Just one further sugestion when using the road base gravel is to run a magnet over the final ballast, I've done this in the past when using this method and was amazed at the small particles of metal that is in the crush. Not something that you want your locos to pick up. Cheers mate.......

I love walnuts and almonds, but it may take me a few years to eat enough to ballast a layout 😂. Excellent results from both methods and as others have said the brown colour of the nuts does match up with ballasting in places on the old gwr.

Thanks. Walnut shells are available as a tumbling medium (not sure if that’s more cost effective than eating the walnuts and saving the shells). Everybody calls them rulers, just like we say one dice instead of die.

¡Hola buenas tardes Gormo! Another, very useful, money-saving idea for those new modellers who, not wanting to feel worried about wasting expensive brand ballast when laying down the rail bed for the first time, can practice with a smaller batch first. As to the nut pun - don’t give up the day job just yet😂. All the best for thee coming year Gormo. Un saludo. Gary

Another great video from the engineering department. Jewellers use ground walnut shells as a polishing agent for gemstones, and it is possible to get hold of already ground shells which are sold for this purpose online (pricey, though.) I did see an article some time ago which suggested that the average size of a piece of track ballast in the UK is about an inch - which works out at about 1/3 of a millimetre at 4 mm scale. I'm tempted to give this a go, since the colour matches the brown ballast used on parts of the GWR, but would use a finer grit. Glad to see you're over the Covid.

Brilliant ideas. The advantage of the nut shells would be that if you think they look a bit coarse, then you can just grind them up a bit further - which would not be a good idea with the stone ballast!

Hi ya Gormo. Brilliant tutorial buddy. Just don't know where you get all your fantastic ideas from. Ballast looks really good. You can spend a lot of money buying the ready made from woodland scenics etc. Thanks again buddy, been following your channel for a long time and you never fail to impress. Stay safe and have a great new year 🍾🍾 DELPH JUNCTION (Pete)

Hi We have so many pot holes in the UK roads now we have an unlimited supply of gravel

[thank, you for you're great helpful video]👍

G,day Gormo, great video as always ill be definitely using that idea mate all the best uncle Franko ❤️ 👍

Nice little video Gormo. I liked the straw blow off of excess ballast. You cant beat a good blow off. All the best.

👍👍👍

Brilliant I'm pleased your still making films mate. Thank you for the inspiration all the best for 24' regards from Blighty

More fascinating insights👍😊 I always estimate that mainline ballast is about the size of a man's fist. Whilst things don't always scale well, it looks quite good if that rule is remembered. I've also - for O gauge - got a huge bag of chick-grit, virtually free, as it was largely complete but already opened. Ballast, as you imply, is different for different parts of a railway, even down to a sand type textures. As I always weather my ballast, painting isn't a problem. The other adage of using N scale ballast for OO and OO ballast for O, is also useful to remember when sizing etc.🤔👍 I'm considering experimenting with Copydex atop of cork/rubber track bed - reduces noise to merely wheel beats etc✌️🤞🤞

[looks, great]👍

Gormo. Excellent ideas. The finer particles would be great for smaller scales, 2mm etc. Pete.

I love the color. This is the color of ballast in N.Y.C. Just think from the size that would be more suitable for "O" scale. I have this gravel in my driveway. Gonna try to sift it down for N scale. Do not think I can get it that fine.

Your always so irresistibly practical and economical, with low costs but perhaps rich in time, i think that is a great exchange when you can,t stretch the money any further. i like your method of making gravel especially using the nut shells which as look by far the most convincing of the two. Its another gem towards making a highly detailed model railway Thank you so much.......

I believe that proprietary ballast is made from walnut shells then coloured. I use the gravel method and very pleased with results. One comment though you use a rule not ruler. A Ruler is the head of state of a country. Enjoy your videos .

This is certifiable genuis!

Well done, Gormo. The nut ballast looked very good.

Well done Gormo , I'll be trying both the grit and the nut thing anything to sa ve a few bob

Hey there i stopped watching your videos as i am sure you said you were going to stop making videos or something like that ? Anyway i have watched this one and it is excellent! I still have my cheap grinder when you did that excellent video on how to make bushes etc out of old sponges and acrylic paints.Being a tight wad i save all my old ballast if i am doing something to my track,grind that right down and it makes excellent dirt or soil for gardens.Thanks for the tips and now i know you are still about i will look out for you more.

good vid thanks lee