I’m pondering a raised garden layout. Not a simple platform like those used by live steam enthusiasts and not redwood benchwork, but an actual raised platform at least waist high, framed by bricks, blocks or rocks mortared together with fill inside and soil at the top. I don’t recall ever seeing anyone do this, except in GRR last year, a fellow in England or Wales modeling 16mm (he’s 86 years old).
The only thing holding me back at the moment is that I don’t know if we are going to live in the house for many many years, so I’d need to design it tastefully enough so the house sells (think raised flower bed).
As to dimensions, I’m thinking 30’ X 6’, could be curvy. Modeling 7/8n18 so curves could be kinky
Club member, Peter Drymalski, has a beautiful raised garden railway built on dry stack stone raised planters. It runs around the perimeter of his backyard. Lots of pics at - http://www.wvmgrs.org/ go to the menu at the left for Archives then scroll down to the 2007 meetings and click on the May meeting. Here is one -
It took him a few years to complete using something like 7 pallets (over 10 tons) of wall stone and that doesn’t even count all the soil to fill it.
Nice natural stone; mine would need to be higher, of course and rocks perhaps need to slope inward to avoid a blowout. I’ve seen New England (and upstate NY) stone fences, and might try that out. Some of those stone fences have been in place for centures.
I’m thinking maybe make a few raised beds with walkways in between and liftout sections of bridge connecting.
Here is a look at Bob Johnson’s raised layout. He is a frequent contributer to this forum, and probably will comment with more details when this picture appears.
Here are a couple more raised bed GRRs, from this years GTS San Diego show.
Smoke? Do you smell the smoke too? Yikes San Diego is alight again. One of the fires (Fallbrook/Rainbow) is about 10 miles up the river from where I live. For those of you not native to California, a “river” is defined as a linear depression in the ground that used to contain flowing water, but now is so clogged with small trees and large weeds that they burn at a rate of 3~12 mile per hour (depending on wind conditions.) I’ll check back in when I can, assuming we don’t get evacuated. And I just got the backyard ready for the Daughters wedding reception in two weeks.
Could I suggest something radical? You would like a raised railway -could I suggest that you produce a system on planks on posts and then back fill with rocks, soil and plants. This would give you your track to run on and watch -while you shovel!!!
This is the technique I am going to use to produce my dual width dual gauge track (16mm and Gauge 3) for around my garden.
Bob’s raied layout is an engineering marvel. Would esp. look nice with some ground cover and structures. Must have cost a pretty penny for all those stones. He’s lucky to have a lot of space. One can only dream.
Tom. How true about S. Calif rivers. Used to live in both SD and LA. The climate there is #1 in the world (except for this week). The layout looks exactly like the one I described in GRR and is oone I’d like to emulate. The one in the magazine had some low sedums near the track that made it esp attractive
Ralph, your ideas are the best. Give me something to chew over. And yes, I’m considering dual gauge as I’ve got 7/8 trains in both 32 and 45 mm.
Thanks, all and here’s a toast to those coooool raised layouts.
I only raised mine about a foot off the ground so my pictures wouldn’t help (also I just nailed landscape timbers together to form the outside framework). But after doing this I have one question for you, how close can you get a dumptruck to where you are planning to build. It takes an amazing amount of fill dirt and unless you have many strong backs to help a wheel barrow quickly becomes a royal pain. Since you are talking waist high also remember to plan for ramp(s) to get the top soil up to it’s final destination.
Hi, no way to get dump truck in; about 30% grade and narrow space with fencing; I lift weights and was gonna incorporate it into workout. I happen to love exercise so thta’ts no problem; I just don’t feel like hauling it all UP the hill if we have to move so I’m still thinking about it. If not here then difinitely at my final place of retirement
Dave, been busy with other projects and haven’t been keeping up with forums. Paul gave me a heads up!
My layout is 30" high at the outer or first level! 2008 block in it that my wife and I layed in 3.5 days. I ran electrical and water lines in conduit under where sidewalk was going to go so as to service the area of the layout. I had a rough track plan in mind, and had a contractor come in and pour a 3’ wide sidewalk in conformance with that plan so that I could use the inside edge of the concrete as the back edge of the wall! That method also took care of levelling things as there was an 18" drop from left front to right rear! The blocks are 4"hi X 12’ W X 9"D and weigh 35 lbs each. They are dry laid and the top course is glued down using an exterior grade construction adheasive. After I got the wall built, I removed (and numbered for replacement) the block from one end.
I had a guy with a bobcat who needed work on a flexible schedule (at a very attractive price per hour), so I had packing sand delivered in the yard and he moved it inside the walls. There were 30 - 12 Wheeler loads to fill it to the 30" level, and we didn’t put fill where I knew the pond was going! After it was full, I replaced the end wall blocks and pulled fill back down from a pile I had placed on top for that purpose!
I then had another 9 loads placed on top for the mountains using a gradall to dig it out of the trucks and place it on top! (Again, by getting the work done during the slack season when they were getting ready to lay crews off for the winter saved a ton of $$$$).
Entire space is about 55’ by 80’ and has about 16,000 gallon pond in it!
Sounds like a bundle of work for sure! The raised islands idea is something I mentioned that would allow access in and around the raised area without having to walk all the way around. The islands could be connected by removable or raised bridges or even duckunders (de ja vu indoors)
As I mentioned, I’m not fully committed to the raised idea until I ponder how long I’ll be living in the house as the raised element is more or less permanent. If I don’t do raised, I’m gonna try building a field railway sans ballast, of the type used in constucting roads, dams and so on; narrow gauge with critters and V-dumps. Not many people are aware of these temporary railways, as they often existed for just weeks or even days. They allow you to follow the terrain without having to do too many fills and cuts and heavy bridgework, if you like the rough hewn look
Raised layouts have several drawbacks. They too often resemble a virtual HO tabletop look. At 30" high, you have to have a means of servicing and moving about the landscaping. That is why it is best to keep trains running only at the outside edge. I too am a gardener and enjoy playing in the dirt. But not everyone is like us. If you choose to sell your home in the future, one of the first things you will have to remove is the raised layout. Solution…Make it half as high, have the trains run the outside edge, but in the center use taller buildings and even a small mountain range. Good luck on the project,Dennis
One other factor to add into your thinking, when I figured the amount of dirt I would need they told me I would need to add 6 or 7 percent to allow for setting. By the time I was done (we had some VERY hard rains during the process) I think the setting was closer to 10%. My little wheel barrow was very tired by the time I was done as I too have a very small gate that leads to the back yard.
My railway is a raised bed… which makes it easy to deal with the outside loop, but it’s still a railway on the ground on the insiude loop.[(-D]
It is very easy to deal with the rest of the yard. I used pave stone and castle rock from lowes and Home Depot. Buried the first stone at least 1/2 way and continued to level and bury the stones until I had to step back and set a full course below ground to provide a base. The second course (and all the rest) was set with glue and backfilled with dirt. It runs from 3 courses or blocks high in the front to 6+ in the back. Roughly 16" to 40" as a base height for the perimeter cap. It is 30’ deep at one end and almost 40’ at the other and 45’ wide
It’s very easy to do, but labor intensive, and each pave/castlestone weighs in at 22 pounds. I used over 500 (5 and 1/2 pallets at 128 per pallet), and they run in the neighborhood of $3 each now. If you can dry stack real stone you might have a significant cost savings, but when I started I really did not think I could do the job with real stone work. I am very satisfied with the look and the opportunity to structure my rail way the raised bed gives me. I also contains me to some extent, keeping me from running wild across the yard with various ideas…(provides a clear demarcation for the weed eater… and no problems in the yard for the mower)[:D]
There’s a family here in Sierra Vista with an elevated G-scale layout. Pictures of it are at http://members.cox.net/cacole2 Look at the Rose family layout.
My G-scale layout is also raised on both an elevated, filled-in section and on trestles and bridges.
Why go waist high you seem to be fit if you deside to sell house raised planter 2 feet high is enough any higher would put me off from buying it would be over powering and in years to come it will need maintenance, if you go hogher make dam sure you put drainage it if it will cost you dear later on
This year I took the plunge and raised my railway by about a 40cm. I laid four courses of bricks around the perimiter and ordered two small truck loads of normal earth.
The brickwork ties in with my house bricks and entrance wall/gateposts, which give it some continuity. The earth had to be barrowed in by myself with the aid of some willing (to make some yen) nephews. That took less than a day using two wheelbarrows.
The brick work I did in about five stints with cement blocks for the rear part that isn’t seen unless you go around the back. This saved money and time.
The planting is continuing. There are bare bits that will have structures, after I make them, and more miniature trees and shrubs will be added in time.
One bonus of not raising too high is that the surrounding shrubs are at a height thay they are visible and add to the background in photos.
Whatever you decide, it will be worth the effort. If you need to knock down the raised areas when you move it will be easier to recycle the bricks/blocks for your next railway and also easier to spread the earth around leaving a plain flat yard space for the future owner.
Best regards, Matthew Foster.
PS This is one of the reasons I haven’t been posting much this year, sorry guys.
Looks great. I bet if you took photos of all the steps that would definitely be a GRR magazine how-to. I think they’d for sure consider the idea. Are you doing any turnouts or simple loop?
Perhaps Christmas will provide me with the opportunity to invest in some points / turnouts. As yet, I still have just the circuit and unconnected length of siding. When I do put in turnouts I plan a short link to the brewery (also yet to be built) and a passing loop and siding / engine shed / steam-up area.
As to the article idea…I seem to remember a similar raised-walll article a few GR issues ago, though with the right spin it might be worth a try. I’ve enough photos to make an article so I will put something together and send it to Marc. I still owe him a piece on the whole railway. However, that has been delayed until next year due to the rebuild. Nevertheless, I will give it a go!
