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Gary,
One factor that has not come into play yet is the year of your layout. Although the picture from "today" shows the ballast spilled onto the walkway, what would it have looked like in your era? Were they (management) pickier than today? Had more $$$ available? Used a different method? A MOW book from your era may shed some light...
I also like the idea of the proto-photos on the facia. There was a layout article in MR some years ago, and the owner had copied the MR articles that he had built from and displayed them on the facia near his models. We also have a guy at the modular club who has a little shelf with a history and photos of the Brantford tractor factory that he is building on his modules.
Andrew
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Lots of good arguments on both sides.......eenie meenie...oh spill it! ( i voted yes )
But, err on the side of "less is more". They are, after all walkways, not ballast retainers. 
We always learn far more from our own mistakes, than we will ever learn from another's advice.
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Thanks, Pete ... that's what I was trying to say when, in my punchy, exhausted state from staying up for 36 hours, trying to fix what looked like someone had splashed whitewash on the front of my building but with no success, I helplessly (and hopelessly) broke into impromtu song!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western
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Great replies and thoughts so far, I do appreciate it. Any other thoughts, I am open to suggestion!
Three Foot Rule In Effect At All Times
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If you are worried about folks not familar with the bridge, do what I see some people do on their moduals when they build a protypical model. Attatch a picture of the prototype to the fascia board. This way they can compare the two, and see what an excellent modeller you are.
As I stated before, No sense in crying over spilled ballast...Spill it over!
Torrington, Ct.
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I just don't think it's correct at all, sure it's a photo of a prototype but for how long was it? I wouldn't doubt a superintendent would be happy to see a safety/hazard violation of a cluttered walking area
Now if you had a crew out there ready to work on it, it would look nicer. But that's just my opinion
Tom
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I agree that modeling is a balance of doing what looks good vs what is actually more accurate. I think this balancing act occurs in other areas on one's layout. For example, my wife once said to me that unballasted track looks better than blasted track!
I'll vote for spilling the ballast .... But maybe you could only slightly spill it as a compromise?! 
Rob
Rob
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P5se Camelback Wrote:Real life is not always neat and clean ... especially these days!
Spill the wine, chase that girl ... or sumthin' like that!
Let the ballast fall where it may!
I hope there aren't any " over-fed, long-haired leaping gnomes" under the bridge!
As the song goes......."..Spill the wine and take that pearl.." - The Animals
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Ralph Wrote:I vote for not spilled. It simply looks better.
Wait... WHAT?!? What railroad do you model again? Oh, that's right, Penn Central didn't have ballast, just mud and weeds. 
MasonJar Wrote:Gary,
One factor that has not come into play yet is the year of your layout. Although the picture from "today" shows the ballast spilled onto the walkway, what would it have looked like in your era? Were they (management) pickier than today? Had more $$$ available? Used a different method? A MOW book from your era may shed some light...Andrew
Great point. The PRR had such a well maintained plant in the 1900's it looked like they had permanent landscapers on duty 24-7. I have seen photos of freight yards and other PRR facilities during that era that looked nicer than high dollar golf courses. Of course, by the 60's maintenance was being deferred and there was as much weeds between the rails as ballast. The B&O had great pride in their physical plant as well, but the B&O I worked for (CSX) wouldn't pick up that spilled ballast until a trainman tripped and fell off the bridge or some ballast fell off the bridge onto someone's car.
-Dave
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scubadude Wrote: ... I hope there aren't any " over-fed, long-haired leaping gnomes" under the bridge!
As the song goes......."..Spill the wine and take that pearl.." - The Animals
That was the Sixties and as the saying goes ... "If you remember the Sixties, you weren't there!" I could hear Eric Burdon's voice, but the words were fuzzy ... but colorful ... Wow! Groovy!
... and my hair was very short back then - I believe you had to call me Corporal Marsland at that time.
But not to actually hijack this thread ... I'm still in favor of a little spill ... not a lot ... just a little ... just enough so as not to present the viewer with the kind of clean, scrubbed, idealistic, non-weathered, nothing out of place, neatly-manicured, toy-like Plasticville model railroads that were found in basements in the Sixties! (Nice tie-in, eh?) Think about it, if the walkway wasn't there, no one would notice the spill-over on the ground below the bridge.
biL
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My railroad, the Almeda Terminal and Gulf, is a 1970's shortline that is superficially backed by Santa Fe, mostly for motive power. I am envisioning that the maintenance would be less than perfect, and the entire layout will essentially be dirty gritty greasy industrial scenes - trash and junk and grime and mess everywhere, poorly maintained right of ways, weeds and bushs in the ditches, all that sort of stuff. So some ballast on the bridge walkways would not be out of place.
Looks like the poll is running two to one in favor of spilling, so it looks like that is where we are heading. I appreciate the great comments and support, and the voting. Like I said, I just can't decide how I want it, so all the input was a valuable thing in pushing me to make a decision.
And a huge thanks to BIG BLUE and everyone who took time to reply on this matter. 
Three Foot Rule In Effect At All Times
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I say have some spilled ballast but not quite as much as you have in your pics, some where in between.
My other car is a locomotive, ARHS restoration crew
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E=paw, I am sitting here right now playing with the ballast, trying to achieve a "proper" look. I am also thinking that spilled, but not quite as much as the proto-photo, is the thing to do.
Three Foot Rule In Effect At All Times
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Spilled it is - this photo is from the bridge thread at <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3341&p=56509#p56509">viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3341&p=56509#p56509</a><!-- l -->
Thank you to everyone who voted and gave their two cents. It helped me make the decision of what to do, and sometimes that is the hardest part!
![[Image: image.php?album_id=165&image_id=2939]](http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/gallery/image.php?album_id=165&image_id=2939)
Three Foot Rule In Effect At All Times
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... and that looks just about right ...
... NICE!!!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
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