Our backyard is on a slight slope which is going to require some serious backfilling in several areas to obtain level areas to lay track. We also get about 40"+ of rainfall per year and will have some drainage issues to contend with in the design of our garden rr.
Elevating the track slightly with HDPE looks like a nice alternative to solve several of the aforementioned problems easily and cheaply without using the traditional crusher fines, etc… everwhere on the layout.
Has anyone here had any experience with HDPE roadbed work? Any thoughts or comments are most welcome. Thank you in advance.
I can’t speak FOR or AGAINST HDPE Roadbeds but volumes have been spoken about the Product and Roadbeds. I am sure if you go to the SEARCH area above and DO a search you will find you answer.
Good Luck
Ron
I tried that before I posted my question and came up empty. I used ‘HDPE’ in the advanced search for this Forum from 10/2000 to present. FWIW, I only got 20 hits just using ‘roadbed’ only.
This is like the SPLINE sytstem OLD DAD uses. Both can use TREK plastiwood, do a search under topics by OLD DAD I’m sure you see some resemblences between the two systems.
I love crusher fines as they are called in this country, they are dirt cheap, cheaper than dirt actually, so why not consider them , they are big help in many ways as you go down the track.
This brings up a major difference in building garden railways between American and Aussie ideas, if you do what you are proposing, as does most American people in this pasttime do, you may be taking the “character” out of yout site. i would be so glad if i had a slope; so that i could build ramps, tunnels, bridges and cuttings to compensate for the problems.
The idea of drainage is much more serious than you think, we don’t get any rain here of a daytime but when the monsoons hit, it buckets downin the early hours and when that happens, good drainage is very important.
The idea of getting “pools” in your yard that you never had before your Garden Railway can be very serious and wipe out electronmics and stuff like that.
I would ask you to think carefully before you level out your beautiful slope.
I saw that article last spring, we disscussed it here briefly, and I decided to try it.
Finding the material was the hardest part. The suppliers where in Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois and here I am in western Colorado. They would ship but most had minimun orders, some a 1000 feet. Shipping was $300 to $400.
I finally found a guy in Denver (about 150 miles) who sells it for fence material. With 24 hours notice he would move it from a storage site and I could pick it up at his store.
About $21.00 for a ten foot piece. He had 8’s and 12’s too. I bought 50 feet to try it.
The first couple of sections were a little clumsey, but then I got the hang of it and building the frame and laying Aristo track was actually pretty smooth. I only did the 50 feet and have not run a train on it yet. The ground is starting to freeze now so it will be next spring before I do anymore. I plan on continuing with the HDPE, but will wait to see what condition it is in after a Colorado winter at 7000 feet elevation.
I got a few scraps of TREK from a friend who works at a lumber yard. Only a little cheaper and seemed to be a little brittle when trying to bend it.
denboske: Have you tried Home Depot? The HD store here in Sierra Vista, Arizona, has HDPE in the lumber section as 1 x 6, 4 x 4, and other sizes, up to 20 feet long.
I have used “cedar”, “redwood”, “sheet plastic sign panels” and “Trex” to build spline roadbed which is almost the same as the ladder system. You should prefer the ladder system, it has fewer parts to assemble. I rip my TREX splines (strips) at about a half inch thick and am able to bend it to a 24" radius without any cracking.
Cedar and redwood are to stiff and will break if you try to bend it any tighter than a 48" radius. Plastic sign panels are good but almost impossible to find outside the sign industry.
I have to agree with Ian, use your slope to your advantage, don’t level your yard. My yard also has a slope and all my track is on spline roadbed. At one end the track is only 6" off the ground and at the far end it’s almost 4’ in the air. Some parts of my track are over flower beds like the monorail through Disneyland. My track does not interfere with the flowers in any way.
Your track can be level but appear to go up grade because the ground is dropping away instead. This will give you a chance to use some bridges.
Drainage can also be maintained by keeping your slope in tact.
It’s indeed a comfort to read of your positive experiences with HDPE as I have none. I hadn’t thought to check with HD, but have located another local supplier although I haven’t had any contact with them yet. $20 for a 10’ piece is certainly pricey, but probably cheap considering the amount of labor saved. It’s also not permanent, something to consider from a home resale standpoint, I woud think.
What type of blade have you used on your table saws to cut HDPE? A standard rip? Is TREX about the same as HDPE, just a bit less flexible?
Actually, I plan on using crusher fines in a few areas (like yard sidings and ‘towns’), and FWIW, it’s not the expense. It’s the back breaking work of humping 15+ (?) cubic yards of the stuff from the street to our back yard… 135 cubic feet at maybe 1.5 cu ft. per wheelbarrow load, doesn’t sound like a real fun way to spend a weekend (or two). This is a hobby after all.
Trex is hard on saw blades. It can ruin a good carbide in just a few passes. We buy a bunch of cheap “throw-away” blades for a Trex cutting session.
Cross-cutting the spacers isn’t so bad, you can use your good blade in your miter saw, but ripping causes heat, and therefore the Trex starts to melt and clog your teeth. Also Trex is made from recycled milk jugs, etc, and has some impurities in it that damage a good carbide blade.
jb
I found that trex still warps if not secured about every twenty inchs. Plus all the trex I every used has some sort of crown and needs to be plained flat. I do have a power plan and this makes the job much easier. It’s 12" wide so I have no trouble running 6" wide material through it. Not to bad on the plainer blades if you take it down a little at a time.
I tried the closest homedepot. 30 miles away. Talked to about 8 different people and nobody knew what I was talking about or even seemed to care. 2 HD’s in Denver weren’t any help either. My local lumber yard tried to order some but couldn’t come up with anything except the expensive shipping and huge minimims mentioned earlier. The guy I found in Denver is fine.
I only tried the one piece of TREX and it was brittle. But it was a freight damaged piece I got for free. If it works for you thats great, cause I think it is a little cheaper. I’ll try another piece in the spring.
Thanks. You raise a good point. I’ve seen Trex at HD and it looks to be some pretty tough stuff. If it can truly dull a 10" carbide blade in ‘a few passes’, I’ll just skip it altogether as blades in this area are about $15 to get resharpened, plus the hassle. I haven’t heard that HDPE as being that rough on saw blades, or is it?
I use a hollow ground carbide blade and haven’t noticed any dulling or melting at all when cutting TREX… just my personal experience for what it’s worth.