Most of the ballasting so far has been in the yards. But I have done a short section of the mainline. I'm modelling an old technique for ballasting the track used before the turn of the century called crowned ballast. instead of nestling nicely between the ties the ballast is heaped up in a pile down the centre between the two rails. Like a crown on a modern road, the crowned ballast was supposed to help water drain away efficiently. Apparently, it kept settling over time and the jury was out on whether or not it improved drainage. So the practice was eventually abandoned. Another interesting quirk of modelling railroads at the turn of the 19th century.
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The crowned ballast has settled between the rails in this photo of
locomotive 197 on the old South Park Line circa 1895 |
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The ballast on the track in the right has more of a crown to it.
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| Ballasted mainline as we are familiar with it. No ballast on top of the ties. |
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| The mainline with a crowned ballast running down the centre between rails. |
