Ballasting and spilled coal on our large scale indoor-outdoor Garden Railroad

We've been working on the railroad. This week adding ballast inside and outside. The "ballast" inside is on the coal loading ramp on the Chama coaling tower in 1:20.3 scale. Outside we are testing an idea Karyn came up with, using clay cat litter on the loose. We are testing a section to see how it holds up but so far, looks GREAT and easy to remove or add to. Next spring we will see how it did under all that Utah snow. NOW, inside we are mostly working on the huge model of the Chama coaling tower. In 1:20.3 the structure comes in at one meter tall! We showed the process of making the rusty tin roofing panels a few weeks ago.    • How to make Rusty Metal Roofing for your M...   Karyn constructed the concrete retaining walls and coal bin and I built the steel coal grates for the non-functioning loading ramp. And we are now ready to ballast the short track. Not really ballast, the track is covered with spilled coal, as is the area around the base of the building. I have constructed a wood base, and now we are detailing and scenicing with real coal Karyn "lifted" from the coal pile at the Durango shops on the Durango and Silverton narrow gauge railroad. Here again, we are testing a product called "yellow Dextrin", a type of cornstarch used in making glues. In the past, I have used it to ballast my old "N" scale model railroad. But the product I had been using was pulled off the market in about 1980. So I have been using the "old" system of misting water (with a tiny amount of dish soap added) to the ballasted track and then adding 4:1 dilute white glue from a dropper. This works great, however, a few weeks ago when we were making the dirt road grade crossing it proved to not be a great system for gluing fine powders like dirt and cinders.    • How to Build a Highly Realistic Model Rail...   And so I have been looking for that old product, which turned out to be yellow Dextrin. So we tested that with cinders from the Evanston Wyoming roundhouse, "squirrel dirt" fine dirt dug up by ground squirrels, Woodland Scenics ballast, and our chunks of coal. While not great on the chunks it worked GREAT with dirt and cinders. Except it dries glossy and will look better after a dull coat. Overall a great product to add to our "bag of tricks".