I currently have a large layout using track laid on top of fill and am having alot of weed/shifting issues. I was wondering what everyone’s opinions are concerning concrete roadbed and how it stands up over time. Any comments would be appreciated.
Check out this site
http://home.mchsi.com/~b.eric/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html
Welcome aboard
Bill
md_railroader
What kind of sub roadbed are you using? Or do you have your track just lying on top of imported dirt? What kind of ballast are you using. Some of us use a 2"~4" deep trench filled with crushed rock, with crushed rock 1/4" minus as ballast. Others use 4 inch deep concrete, others use garden retaining wall ‘stones’, some use ‘plastic’ lumber, sill others use lumber elevated right of ways. Each method has its own set of pros and cons, it is mostly what each one of us likes to do.
In my case some of my GRR (around the Koi pond) has a crushed stone filled trench. When the GRR takes of through the wife’s roses, it just sets on top of the bark mulch.
I have been experiencing a massive weed problem this yard, far worse than any previous year (even in the front yard.) I have started pulling up track and relaying it with garden cloth on top of the crushed gravel. So now the track sits on this garden cloth with ballast.
Spend a few hours reading the previous posts on this forum and you will see the many ways of doing the task
For the flat area of my layout I used a concrete roadbed and it works great.
I just trenched and used some ripped down plastic edging to make the forms. I float the track on ballast above the concrete.
Joysboy, thanks for the vote of confidence!!! I think this is a first for me, what I have done being used as an answer to a question [:)] ok, now that I am off my ego trip -LOL [;)] I’ll get to the question at hand…
MD, I did concrete for many reasons, but I cannot tell you about time (as I poured only this year). By deffinition concrete will not grow weeds or allow much shifting which is one of the reasons I used it (but the weeds will grow up next to the track and lay over the rails…) But check out Marty Cozad’s layout, he has been using it for years… ( type his name and concrete in the search engine and you will get mult results…), I cant find the link I was looking for that won me over to concrete…
I can tell you this method is time intesive, and I am only part way done building, but I dont plan to switch methods as I am satisfied with the results so far. I can only tell you that the masonite forms I started with were great to get smooth curves but took ALOT more time than the 3/8" plywood forms (and the plywood forms are reusable) to get level. Once I switched to plywood the process went a lot quicker. Also having access to a cement mixer is nice is you plan to do it in a large batches ( I poured what I have done in two batches, the mixer made the pours much quicker). My progress update with all my notes (which completes what is on my site is):
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=59881
FYI if you go to my site everyting is in the photo section,
good luck what ever route you may choose…