Garden Railway Forum

I have no idea about Irish ballast, but you are right yours does look a bit bright. However, I think you'll find that once the windblown soil gets in there and the moss starts growing it will tone down nicely. If you want moss to grow, try sprinkling natural yoghurt over it. It looks a bit odd to start with but does grow moss well once it gets going.

My understanding is that real ballast is made of crushed rock with rough edges to allow it to interlock together. Polished stone is not suitable for this purpose and so looks out of place, apart from the colour and reflective surface.
You have a wonderful collection of natural stone so why not choose a suitable colour and spend some time crushing it to the correct size. I had to resort to that option myself, but it pays off in the end.
A steel tube (post rammer) and heavy steel rod is all that's needed, and it lets off lots of frustration!

Are there any pet stores you can visit? I've found them useful for materials in various scales. For this, maybe fish tank gravel? Chicken grit is usually nicely angular but can be a bit dubious on the colour front and maybe too small.

Or garden centres, especially items like horticultural/alpine grit?

Thank you all on the ideas of ballast, it has been very helpful. I did search fish tank gravel (very expensive) and chicken grit, which seems to be in this area entirely made of shells only.

Crushing it is beyond me, I am not that healthy to be able to do so much but it is a great suggestion and would of been my solution.

I was able to source some 10mm limestone from B&Q, but only one store in Ireland had it... 2 and a half hours away from me.

So I made the round trip!

8 bags of 25KG each loaded in to my car and I laid two bags the very same day to test it.

The lawn edging was also from B&Q and I would recommend it to anybody, it's very easy to work with and makes such a difference to give it a more finished look.

My finger also slipped on the buy button of an LGB 26818, which I ordered from Germany direct as I'm in Ireland and I can get things from the EU easier than I can from the UK.

That darker ballast certainly looks better in my eyes. - Great work