03-28-00
Last weekend gave us some pretty good weather here and allowed me to
continue with my first layout.
I
started by working on my tunnel portals and retaining walls. The first
thing I discovered is that you can not put a lot of pressure on these
structures when they do not have a solid backing. I had glued and nailed
3/4" x 3/4" stakes onto the back of each section for anchoring into
the ground. While I could pound lightly on the stakes with a hammer
without damaging them, it did loosen some of the boards. So what I did
was place the structure where it was to go and press the spikes into the
ground enough to mark the spot. Then I took temporary stake and pounded
it into the ground in those marked spots. So when I 
pulled
the temporary stake out, it left nice holes for my structure to fit in.
This made placement much easier as some of the ground was fairly hard.
They look pretty good now that they are in place and I am anxious to see the
trains running through there.
The actual layout is a constantly changing thing. The more I move
dirt around the more ideas pop into my head.
Next thing was to get my river beds dug out so that I could see where I
wanted to put bridges, buildings and some rail sidings. I wanted the
river beds to kind of break up the layout from being one big flat area, it
gives heavy rains a place to go and it's a good excuse to have bridges.
I had already started this idea by picking a spot where the water would
exit the layout. You can see this in the second picture where there is a
landscaping stone missing. I got out some landscaping paint that I had
purchased, environment friendly stuff that sprays upside down. I then
painted the basic outline of the river beds onto the ground. Using a mad
axe, a spade and a shovel I started digging. The river bed starts out
wide at the exit end and slowly gets small and shallower as it moves
away. The river splits once in the middle and then the right branch
splits again to give me 3 creeks. The depth ranged from 3 to 6 inches
going from the outside towards the exit. I then lined the bottom of the
trenches with weed block, both to help with weeds and to keep the sand in
place. I then pored an inch or 2 of sand in the river and placed river
stone randomly with small cropping of sever stones. It turned out great
and if it holds up to the weather I will be really please.
The last work for the day was to try my had at building a little bit of the
rail bed. I am going to use brick pavers sand for the base but my local
yard supply store is not open yet. Brick pavers sand packs really well
and is a mix of gray colored sand and some crushed stone. (No, it's not
slag. Don't get slag!) I can buy it cheap there by the yard or 1/2
yard. I did have a little left from a previous project so I started on a
little 3 foot section by the tunnel. I dug down about 4 to 5 inches and
about 5 inches wide. I then lined the trench with the weed block for the
weeds and to hold the pavers sand from mixing with the soil. On the
river beds I just placed the weed block in the bottom. For the rail beds
I cut it wide enough to line the sides and lap over the top a little.
The sand will cover all of this up in the end. So I filled it with the
sand and packed it down. I pounded stakes into the ground along the rail
bed about 4 feet apart. Then I took my 4 foot level, placed it at the
mouth of the tunnel (the highest point on the layout) and marked the level
spot on the first stake. I then made another mark about 1 1/2"
below that. This second, lower mark, will be the grade of the sand at
that point. This gives me about a 3% grade as you approach the
tunnel. That should be my steepest grade on the layout.
So, everything is looking good. The yard supply place is supposed to
be open this Saturday but they are predicting rain. That means it could
be sunny! In Michigan you never know. The other big problem at
this point is getting more track. Making the layout doesn't take much
money but track is another story!
Take care and keep steaming,
Johnny F.
