I'm currently building a layout and about ready to balast the track.  The layout is based on a Oregon short line (Port of Tilamook bay / SP Tilamook Branch) and I have been thinking about having the ballast look wet from after a rain. 

I believe they used granite ballast, how much darker should it be if its wet? 

Any brands/colors to start with?

John 

I am building a concrete coaling tower for a guy that models UP in the era of Challengers and Big Boys.  Thanks to a previous thread, the concrete part is looking ok.  My question is what color to paint all the metal brackets, pulleys, braces, etc.  I don't think they would be all rusty and derelict but not new either.  Did UP have a standard paint scheme for such things?  I am leaning towards black as I think it was fairly cheap, after all it was Mr. Ford's color of choice.  I know UP also painted lots of stuff silver, bridges, water towers, etc.

And a few other things that needed to be done first, I'm finally working on the first buildings of my scrap/auto junkyard, I'm using an old Chooch casting for the auto part of the junk yard, will also add to that with some old Jordan stuff I have laying around, this Chooch casting also includes a small office.

The main building that will be on the property will be the Tucker Bros. Machine Shop, which is a metal Woodland Scenics kit I had picked up years ago with the idea of producing an O scale version of, since I still have this kit on hand, I figure, why not?

I need to make some pine trees and would like to make some furnace filter trees. The only loose furance filter material at Home Depot was a large sheet of what looked like a kind of blue sponge material. Is this the right stuff? I  watched  Joe Fugates second scenery DVD video which  showed the material already cut and teased apart, so I was not sure what it looked like "on the shelf". Likewise, most of the print articles I have on the subject dont show it in its unaltered state..

Thanks,

Chris