Our ballast is almost an orange brown rock in spots, I tend to agree with you. Another debate for me, what colour ballast I will end up doing.

 

You are right...the typical rail yard is a messy place. Weeds,
a variety of train car parts, rails, ties and what have you
strewn about. I laid my yard tracks without roadbed...sprinkled
black and gray ballast avoiding any form of neatness. You
can then 'rust' the rails allowing some of the thin 'paint'
to stain the ballast. Just be sure to keep the rail tops
clean to provide good electrical contact.

Don

 

The only place I’ve seen ballast in the same color is on the mainline. Any siding that’s not a passing siding is normally 70% dirt, some ballast from years ago, weeds and branches mixed together. I watch DJ’S TRAINS and he has a video showing a yard. He goes into details about it and has plenty of pictures.

 

Yards and engine facilities tend to use a different ballast. Since that ballast will be walked on it uses a finer ballast (even chat) so there is a better walking surface. Older facilities have more accumulated gunk. Eastern roads tended to ballast with cinders or slag because they could get it easily and it was cheap, a waste product of burning coal and making steel. In the west and south, there was less industry, so more rock had to be used. Along the Gulf coast they even used seashells in some places so the "ballast" was almost white. Ballast colors can vary all over the place, some places used a blue grey granite, others a pink granite. In west Texas they mined a brown rock and the SP was fond of copper slag in some places. If a yard is ballasted with slag or cinders its going to look dirty even if the ballast is brand new.

It also depends on the economic health of the railroads. Eastern railroads tended to be in poorer health, having gone through years of bankruptcies and ill health, while many of the western roads have been profitable for long stretches, meaning they had more consistent maintenance. They would renew ties and add new ballast more frequently.

It also depends where you are looking. If you are looking at an engine facilities, then yes it will be nastier because engines leak oil and grease and sand, all of which foul the ballast. SWitching leads will be fouled with sand. But 20 feet away another track might be near pristine ballast.

 

Facilities I was familiar with were very much like how Dave Husman described. Tracks were ballasted with cinders, mainly from the ash pit, stone was scarce.
There was a tendency to fill fuel tanks until they overflowed and that residual mixed with sand that spilled, oil leaks and other debris. the exception was the motor pit at Race Street in Philadelphia where the sand between tracks and between rails was so deep, walking to your Motor, was like a walk on the beach.