The scrap rubber could be used as an elastic material in the ballast layer in order to improve the service life and reduce the maintenance costs. The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of the ballast layer through several parameters such as vertical deformation, elastic modulus, and abrasion. The compressive test was used as a method in this study with scrap rubber by 10% of the total sample weight. Furthermore, there were three samples, unmodified ballast (sample 1), ballast with graded scrap rubber (sample 2), and ballast with uniformed size scrap rubber (sample 3). The results showed that the sample 1 was able to retain the highest load (413,46 kPa) for the same amount of vertical deformation (5 mm). Furthermore, sample 1 has the highest modulus of elasticity of 26,50 MPa. Besides, the smallest abrasion value was occurred in sample 2 by 36.2 grams (0.72%).