Everything You Wanted to Know about Railroad Ballast

Railroad Ballast 101. Find out all about ballast, what it is, what it
does and where we get it at. Ballast is very important for the integrity
of track structure. No one around here sells washed ballast. We
have talked about in the past setting up a hydrant and washing out
own rock. However there is a stream right beside our ballast pile and
the DEP might not approve of us washing all that limestone dust into
the creek specially with all the fish that is in that stream. There is no
place for the washed dust to go and to build some kind of treatment
holding facility would be way too expensive for the benefits that would
be derived.

Check out my other You Tube channel with more cool railroad and
rail fanning videos along with other adventures Dave has:

Disclaimer: I am an employee of Iron Senergy at Cumberland
Mine. My job is railroad track maintenance. I am very fortunate to
have this job and everyone at the mine is very fortunate to have
Iron Senergy as it's current owner. Our past owners had every
intention of shutting this mine down, but Iron Senergy took
over and have kept this mine alive.

Please understand: I am NOT in any way an official or unofficial
spokes person for Iron Senergy or Cumberland Mine. Any viewpoints,
opinions or anything that I show in the videos, or write in the video
descriptions or any answer to any comment, should NEVER be
misconstrued or interpreted as being in any way shape or form,
any kind of official or unofficial statement from Iron Senergy,
Iron Cumberland, Cumberland Mine, any of the mine's management,
any of the contractors that may be shown in any video, nor of
any of my fellow co-workers.

Any viewpoints or opinions I may make in the videos, in the
descriptions, or in any answer to a comment is strictly that of my
own and NOT an official or unofficial statement or viewpoint that
Iron Synergy or any one at Iron Senergy or Cumberland Mine
necessarily has or makes.

Again, we are very fortunate to have Iron Senergy as our current
owners. Please, when making a comment be respectful of Iron Senergy,
Cumberland Mine, my fellow coworkers and also any contractors
that may be shown. Thank You, Dave

#railroadballast#ballast#ballastrailroad

[ccrx]

Check out my other You Tube channel with more cool railroad and
rail fanning videos along with other adventures Dave has:

[farLander]

A 23 minute long video about BALLAST?!?! Count me IN!

[johnmbaer]

You are clearly an asset for your company. You are a walking encyclopedia of all things railroad and you aren’t shy sharing that encyclopedia. If I’m having a difficult day your intro is guaranteed to put a smile on my face and put my day in perspective. Thank you for the knowledge you impart, I now know I know nothing about railroad but enjoy learning. This episode on ballast absolutely rocked (pun intended).

[billgerhauser]

Dave, it’s a pleasure to watch and listen to someone who enjoys their work as much as you do and to watch someone who wants to entertain and inform viewers as you do. It’s a pleasure to watch you channel

[milwaukeeroadjim]

When i was a kid, I walked the Chicago Great Western ROW. Their ballast was some type of slag. It looked like gray rocks with little circular pockets cut out of them. I also remember coal cinders used at sidings. I guess they used anything that was cheap.

[chrisduprey]

We haul a lot of quartzite ballast from Rock Springs, WI that has a beautiful pink and purple color to it The quarry used to be owned by the Chicago and Northwestern many years ago and they called it "Pink Lady" ballast. It looks so nice I would use it for landscaping.

[mikemissel]

As a firefighter we always trained with the railroads and learned about the blast and how to use it to our advantage. Ballast is hard to shovel by hand and imagine how they did it in the old days.

[RANGERD]

Dave I love your videos! I've always been a fan of railroads, always been a mechanic, never had a chance to ride but would love to! You are a wealth of information and your laugh makes me smile! Have a great day!

[lewistodd]

Great class on ballast Dave. I always enjoy when you show us the different things that make a railroad operate. Have a great day.

[beverlymichael]

Always the teacher. I know you are so happy that the owners will get what you need.

[mackfisher]

Wow never realized the differences in railroad ballast, just look like white stone to me.
That's why you're a professional Dave

[Sugarmountaincondo]

I remember way back in the late 1970's when I was an active model railroader, I read an article about how it cost a Class-1 Railroad $1-Million a mile to build a new main line including everything from grading to signaling and everything in between. I imagine it's 2-3 times that now.

[raymondsprengelmeyer]

Thank you for the class on ballast Dave, it was very interesting. I was starting to think I knew something about railroading, but realized I don't know much at all! It is really a complex profession!

[chrisquinlan]

Dave, great presentation on ballast for the folks .We had a random problem with the lining on a Electromatic Tamper back in the day.The tamper used a modulated red electric light beam for lining and it was leaving poor track alignment after tamping .Of course electrical wiring was chased etc etc just couldnt find this intermittent fault.Then someone thinking outside of the box worked out it happened when the wind was blowing straight across the track and dust was drifting across the light beam when the tamping heads cycled .Normally this is not much of a issue but the lightbulb moment was when it was worked out that the ballast had come from a mine site that had high Iron Pyrite content, the ground up shiny Pyrite particles in the dust were diffusing the beam all over the place ! Thats RAIL ROADING! Cheers mate .

[donaldfaris]

Dave I was told years ago that the 3 important rules of railroad ballast was Drainage, Drainage, and Drainage thanks for the awesome information great job brother keep them rolling!

[tommyzcat]

PA limestone fields in particular have the 2 types of limestone. It's pretty cool when you can find the boundary veins where they meet - calcite and other cool crystal formations can often be found.

[StormySkyRailProductions]

Fantastic video about railroad ballast. Enjoyed watching dave and have a great upcoming Tuesday.(Steve)

[wtfbuddy]

Nice video and explanation Dave, just got back from a small trip, walked in and turned on the computer and there was your video, up here they used slag from the nickel mines and way up North it is Granitic from the Canadian shield - some of the oldest, hardest rock on earth. Cheers and take care.

[cedarcam]

I found this very interesting Dave. I remember you mentioned before about the old company not paying the ballast bill, a shame they are still not supplying you with the better ballast. We used to use cinders on lighter track and blast furnace slag on heavier track. the line that closed behind my house had a mixture of both and we got loads of it in wheelbarrows to put our shed and paving slabs on. Networkrail use washed granite 1 1/2 to 2 inch it conforms to a British Standard for railway ballast BS EN 13450-1 Aggregates for railway ballast. When privatised Jarvis who got a lot of the contract for maintenance and did not like paying for anything bought cheap stone because to them stone was stone if it looked the same, the stuff they got absorbed moisture and caused loads of track circuit failures, that would not matter on your line but is one reason we use granite.

[PlanetMojo]

All of the tracks in our area (Wisconsin) have a purple/pink quartz ballast . We actually got a load on one of our dry lots. Incredibly hard stuff! We have limestone on our roads in our area, and it disintegrates pretty quickly.