Jack,

I've not tried dying the ballast, but have you tried mixing the black and grey together.  I use a buff and brown blend that I like and looks simular to the ballast in my area, which was actually river rock that was smooth.

Rick

If you mix The black and brown or the black with anything it tends to look like salt and pepper. As far as Ritz Dye I tried to darken light gray ballast with a brown Ritz Dye and it came out orange even after three tries.

Woodland Scenics isn't the only manufacture of ballast there is another Ballast manufacture By the name of Scenic EXPRESS that uses natural stone instead of the hard rubber Woodland Scenics uses.

You can find Scenic Express on line at:

  http://www.scenicexpress.com

Or you can go to the Ballast page:

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/products.asp?dept=1107

Their Natural Stone Proto scale Quality Ballast comes in 1 quart shaker bottles,1/2 gallon gripper jugs and 25 pound Mega sacks. It come in a number of grays and blacks and looks more realistic.

I encourage you to use something besides Woodland Scenics brand ballast.  Since it's not natural stone, it's very difficult to use as opposed to real stone based products.  I've gotten OK results from it in the past, but doing a nice job gluing it is a challenge since the lightweight material likes to float away. 

Scenic Express sells a dark gray that may be exactly what you need, and it's a quality product that won't float on you.

Prototype ballast starts out a uniform color, where I am it’s a light grey like the woodlands scenic ballast, over time it gets darker and browner due to brake block dust and rust and oils etc dripping from passing trains in all weathers.

I’m using woodland scenic ballast because it’s the most easily available where I am. I laid some test tracks with ballast and experimented painting the rails with my airbrush. The results for me were conclusive as the rails look awesome and the over spray made the ballast look better. Further experiments painting the ballast had excellent results, of course I went too far on the test tracks but at least now I know what can be achieved.
So the answer for me is a light dusting or weathering with my air brush, I would imagine similar results being obtainable with paint washes etc; personally I’m more comfortable with an airbrush.

Check out Highball Products ballast. It comes in a dark grey as well as other colors and is available from Walther's.

http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?quick=Highball&start=30

I've used a number of their products in the past and have been very pleased with the results.

Tom Patterson

Jack as I said above in my first post Scenic Express is the easiest to get and is a Sponsor of MRH. They operate a very well secure and trusted site. I have bought almost all of my scenery supplies from them and everything they make and sell is made of the highest quality materials.

In order to give MRH the credit for your visit try the following link :

http://www.model-trains-universe.com/cheker/cheker.php?idmk=345

Every time I have ordered from them I have received my order within 4 days and very well packed and knowing my credit card information is secure in the purchase is a big plus too. (15 separate orders so far with premium service every time)

Also in the past 50+ years of model Railroading their ballast surpassed every other ballast I have used throughout the years and I have been extremely satisfied with it and its ease of use and consistent colors from batch to batch. Best part is it doesn't want to float on the the glue like many of the other manufactures ballast product do.

Cheers and Happy Modeling to you.

Dan,

You are correct in that you do get a "salt & pepper" appearance when mixing colors of ballast.  It works in my case as that's what the ballast looked like in St Matthews, Ky in the 60's.  I remember it well because I hefted and threw many a piece of ballast in my day!

Rick