Whatzit? & iron supply North of Detroit.

[sstreckfuss]

The "ballast" used on Metrolinks railroad bed is iron ore slag, or so I am told. I don't know why other than what I was told, "it is cheap". It does not look like what you have pictured although it may be related. It is actually a bad choice for electric train track ballast due to it being conductive and easily ground up into a fine dust. The dust literally coats every electrical componenet on the trains and is a major mess to deal with. Our ballast is a reddish brown color that is flaked and chipped into gravel size chunks, some of it is pourous like lava rock.