A ballast leveling apparatus mounted on a mobile ballast cleaning machine comprises a pair of endless ballast leveling chains, a vertical pivot in each ballast bed shoulder and supporting a respective chain for pivoting in a plane underneath the track, a rotary drive for driving each ballast leveling chain and a power drive linking each chain to the machine frame for vertically adjusting the chain. In the automatic ballast leveling method using this apparatus, ballast is removed from a surface layer of uneven ballast distribution to a predetermined, controlled depth and simultaneously conveyed to two paths from the center of the ballast bed towards the shoulders while filling any depressions in the ballast bed in the paths of the conveyed ballast with the conveyed ballast to level the ballast bed.