I took this shot to answer a number of questions I've been getting about ballast size. Yes, I like my ballast a bit on the coarse side, just a personal preference. I took my base ballast and sorted it into three sizes: too big for anything but rip rap, mainline, and fines for the yards and sidings. Here in West Yard it's mostly fines, but you can see some rip rap in the extreme foreground, and also lots of plain ol' dirt.