Who can advise about retaining walls? Make or buy?

[mlehman]

Cripple creek makes great rubber rock faces.

That would be Cripplebush Valley Models RubberRocks: http://www.cripplebush.net/

They’re great for making liftouts, too.

This one is around 6’ long and is easy and light to lift. The armature was made of extruded foam. The Rubber Rocks were hot-glued onto it. Then Sculptamold was used to smooth and blend the edges and ends.

The scene today.

[jfb]

Hello. I have bought two Tunnel portals, but want retaining walls coming away from at least one. I have seen some online to buy, but also forms to cast my own. There is also videos about making your own. What is your feeling about it? I did not read all of the posts thouroughly but my idea is because it works is drop ceiling tiles glued toghether. i did this with old ceiling tiles and it works excellent and the cost is almost zip. I then went to home depot for a half gallon of returned paint and it was 4 bucks and the time consumed was around a half hr including the ride there. Time saving is also a a part of this hobby.

[jfb]

drop ceiling tiles glued together plus returned paint. total cost and time 5 bucks and under a half hr.

[wickman]

This is turning into a very informative topic. It would be nice if some ideas could be included for bridge abutments as well, wood and concrete , cement blocks etc . pictures would be a super bonus.

[wp8thsub]

I build concrete bridge abutments from styrene sheet.

There isn’t much to them, really. Just flat sheet assembled to fit the bridge, with the overall size and shape estimated from prototype photos of similar bridges.

This one has additional retaining walls adjacent to the abutments, built from wood bridge ties or 1/8" square basswood.

Abutments and wing walls around this bridge were assembled from more stripwood. I think I used 4X12s, plus some bridge ties for the vertical bracing.

The abutment on the right side of this trestle is cribbing, again using wood bridge ties. More cribbing supports another track farther up the slope, and next to that is a stone wall that i carved into plaster with a utility knife.

[wickman]

Nice work Rob.

[yankee_flyer]

Wow.

I really love all the options to a similar problem.

Here are a couple of my contribution.

The rock wall. I bought a section and made a rubber mold and cast several sections. I cut off the post on one side and joined them together.

The concrete bridge supports are wood blocks carved for looks. The concrete forms show and cracks are inevitable.

All good work Guys

Lee

[jfb]

cut some styrafoam to shape and cover it tightly with plaster gauze and put the color in the water for the plaster gauze and it will also save time for coloring it.

[farrellaa]

Here is a part of the ‘stone’ wall in my harbor, made from some pink insulation foam. I made the stone joints with just paint and some light scored lines with a dull point plus other ‘pressings’ to give a little texture to the individual stones. All the paint is done with cheap acrylic paints.

-Bob