Well I,am getting ready to lay track and have read most of the different ways to put down the rails. I kind of like the way Tangerine Jack does it. After seeing his pictures it seems a simple way to do it. Lay the track down ,temp.,paint spots next to them then dig a few inches down ,fill with crusher fines and lay tracks. Also I intend to lay jumper wires inside the trench. There is a question that I have for jack if you read this or anyone else that can answer. Do you seal (waterproof) the points where the wire comes up to connect to the track? If you do how do you accomplish it and also do you use regular UF wire and what size do you use. Also being a newcomer to garden rails I appriciate the picture of the bag of “chicken grit”. I didn,t have a clue what It looked like or who made it so I magnified the picture found the Company that made it and located a supplier in Gloucester Va. This is as close as I have been able to locate it. TOM
Tom,
You don’t have to seal the points where the wire connects to the tracks but I would use the electric paste that LGB sells for connecting joiners.
The best source for wire is go to a garden store and get the largest guage wire you can find for garden lighting systems. It is designed to be buried and is excellant for a low voltage application.
For the chicken grit, go to any feed store and they will know what you are talking about. Go for grower size (number 2 in some brands). Do check to make sure the chicken grit is granite. Some companies sell chicken grit made from oyster shells - not good.
You can get excellent multi stranded feeder wire by going to Lowes, Home Depot, or the equivilent and getting the low voltage outdoor lighting wire. The idea is that for this use, utilizing DC power, the more strands per given wire size, the better! 50 strand 14ga. would be better than 20 strand 14 ga., and 20 strand would be infinately better than single strand!
You are playing with low voltage stuff here!
Thanks for the info guys. I,am going to Lowes today. TOM
This could get interesting.
How deep do you freeze in winter?
Realizing Seattle is fairly mild, one of the locals had an issue one year.
He did that, on the ground, trenched, crusher fines, wires in the ballast.
So, it rains (never does that in Seattle, right?). That night, it froze.
That locked the wet ballast nicely.
Then, it really froze.
All that wet crusher fines in a trench…heaved.
Guess where the wires were?
Frozen in the fines.
Ripped every wire off track and switch machines.
TOC
Hey Tom! You can get the grit from Southern States. I see you live in NN- you are about 40 miles from me, email me and we can swap phone #s.
Capt Bob is right on the money with the wire. I got mine in a 500ft roll from Home Depot for about $10. I use a little dab of grease on the connections-it has worked for me for a number of years without problems.
We don’t have a freezing problem in this area, drainage is what we need to look at. The chicken grit bed works better than anything else I’ve tried so far. The water drains easily, grass cannot root in and is easy to pull out, and the rails can expand and contract without distorting. It just goes to show how different every garden RR is, each area has it’s own problems and solutions, what works in one place may be a disaster somewhere else.
[oX)]
Thats why I settled on the method Jack uses Cumudgeon. I am fortunate to have other people in the area with garden railroads that have basically solved the problems already ,although at times I feel we have the same problems you have(rain). Its raining today and seems to rain about every three days around here. I appreciate the input, and will heed your warning. The frost line around here is not very deep so I think I am ok. Thanks,I need all the help I can get and also thanks to Tangerine Jack. I,ll try to have some pictures of the track laying as it goes(I hope). TOM
Tom-just for info the frost line is 6 inches in Hampton Roads.
Thanks markn. I didn,t think it was very deep but its still deep enought to cause problems like curmudgeon described.(if we have a severe winter). All I can do if that happens is repair the wires. I still don,t want to secure the track to concrete or boards. I like the idea of floating them on the ballast like the railroads do, so they can expand and contract. TOM
That’s one of the things about an outdoor RR, sooner or later Mother Nature will have her way with it and you will be doing repairs. All we can do is choose a building method which minimizes damage potential.
I believe that in the Tidewater, VA area, because of our tricky weather, proximity to the ocean and bay, dead flat topography, and other factors, that floating ballast method is ideal. I’ve been in this area 25 years and NEVER, not once, seen anything remotely similiar to a frost heave, or seen a pond do anything more than lightly skin over with ice in the winter (which last from part of December to February) We do stay 3H in the summer (Hazy, Hot and Humid), so drainage and mold are the issues we work with.
Just my [2c]
[oX)]
I have tried many types of roadbed over thge past decade+.
The most time-consuming as far as maintenance is free-floating in a bed like that.
The track never stays put, expansion and contraction of the railroad shifts it all over, and the outer edges of the curves drop, derailments, etc.
I started using Pressure Treated, now at TREX, once we started doing a solid base, no more problems.
Even if the roadbed settles, even locals who have gone to it get moles (or gophers), nothing upsets the track.
TOC
I can’t believe it, but i agree with ol TOC. good solid roadbed is key.
Drainage in NE is important and so is posiable frost problems. I can’t do a trench method because the water goes in under the track , soaks the ground then freezes and lifts.
Wood , concrete or steel is strongest. But that can come later.
If you’d just pay attention and listen up, Cozad, you’d agree with me all the time!
TOC, [;)][}:)][:D][:D]
Yeah right! So would everyone and you’d run out of people to argue with![:p][:p][:p][:D][:D][:D]
There’s always Hans…
My line is on gravel. I dug out, put some hardcore in then raised the level with pea gravel to above the garden level, we have a very high water table. I ballast the track with granite chips and have very little maintenance to do except for re doing the ballast after the birds have done with it.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]
By hardcore Kimbrit do you mean “concrete”? Its getting very confusing here in virginia. I feel that if I attach the track to either wood or concrete it will still warp and twist according to the weather and I,ll have to repair anyway. It comes down to wether I need to repair a lot or just a small amount. Here in Virginia we don,t have much extreme weather changes and if we do its a gradual event .So what do I do? I still like digging, filling and leveling and hoping there is a min. amount of repairs. What say you,al?
My personal vote, from me alone and my own opinion and not to downgrade or minimize any other methods from anybody, is to go with the suggestion of the person that lives 40 miles from you with the same soil and weather conditions. You will have to do maintenance of some kind anyway, but trust me, wood will rot away with mold and warp (pressure treated or not), insects will eat it, concrete will crack, and I haven’t tried the gravel, but it will probably work the same as the grit. I adjust my track maybe once a year and it stays in place just fine.
The final choice is yours, of course. I am just stating what’s on my mind.[X-)]
[oX)]
I,am going to use the same method you are using to put the track down Jack. But its always interesting to hear other opinions and who knows, the novice that I am,I might just find a good combination that will enhance my progress in this new hobby. TOM
Here is a great idea, Tom. Stop by my house one day soon and see what I’ve done. Poke it with a stick, pour some water on it, run a train around, and decide if this is what you want to do. It is a big decision, and I’m sure you want to make the best one based on all options available. Come on by and try it out! If you don’t like what you see, or don’t have a warm fuzzy, then we can explore other methods.[swg]
[oX)]