Here you can see that our track is laid with a ballast of crusher fines and portland cement. Although this made the track look very good, it was not practical for the weather here in Colorado. We have lengths of straight track that are over 200 feet. We can get 6 inches of expansion with heat in that section. This ballast would keep the track from expanding with the heat and make the ties buckle. We then had to replace some track the next year. The cement has since been removed tie by tie on over 1200 feet of track and a free floating bed installed.