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How do I lay track?

I dig a trench about 4" by 4" and back fill it with 3" of sand. I wet the sand and pack it down pretty good. Then the ballast ( #5 roofing rock, its crushed granite and is very good size, and looks very prototypical.) Up to whatever the level of the track will be, I then wet this, and pack it down a bit and do the final leveling. then the track goes down. ( Llagas Creek code 215 branch line-narrow gauge aluminum track) after I have about 10' of track down I then shovel more ballast over the track, then brush the ballast down to tie-level with an old paint brush. The track then "floats" in the ballast. My track has been down for over three years now, been through an el-nino winter with no trouble.

Richard Anderson
June 24, 1998

Do yourself a HUGE favor and line the bottom and sides of your trench with weedcloth to save TONS of future work.

Todd Brody
June 9, 1998

Here's a suggestion that has worked now for five garden layouts: After laying out where the track is to go (try the white play sand idea -- see below post), lay out on the soil block wall topper blocks or bricks per whatever is cheaper. Leave a 5"+ gap between them. Use a long level on the bricks laid and push the end of the level to the next brick. IF the level slides flat on the brick, you have a level roadbed to this point. Need a grade? OK, note a 100" straight board, decide the grade (3" per 100"=3%) and drive a stake to the level point per 100" for the grade you want in between the already laid bricks. Place soil under the bricks to raise them to the lower edge of the board as it rests on the stakes at a steady incline. After placement, cover the bricks or topper blocks with about 1" of pea gravel concrete mix placing short 1" PVC pipe segments in alternating slots between the bricks for drainage. Kleenex placed as wadding in the pipe keeps the concrete out and the water later washes it out. The track can be dropped into the cement, wiggling it into the lower cavity of the ties, then lift it up off the concrete roadbed after about 15 min+ -- you now have an imprint that will hold the track and yet allow expansion and easy removal for repair. Once the concete has dried, you can walk on it, NO WEEDS will ever raise their ugly head. There are other advantages -- and they will be debated as not exclusive to using this concrete/brick roadbed idea. The final feature is to spray different brown paint on the concrete -- it is rough as it is and from 5' it looks great. YES! You can add #5 roof rock as you progress to add rock to the roadbed between the ties. When you lift the track so it does NOT permanently attach to the concrete, the roof rock laying on the ties will drop off.

Wendell Hanks
November 11, 1998