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Ideas on how to make a raised outdoor layout.

Presuming that you want mountainous terrain, Building As of pressure treated lumber, to support 1 x 4 risers for track supports using stringers then cover with screen wire and plaster the mountain range with Portland cement/mortar mix or fiber glass. Flat areas for yards could be multiple 5/4" deck planks. In effect you would be building the equivalent of an indoor layout with the gound being the table top and the As or even vertical posts driven into the ground serving the same purpose as track support structure indoors. The mountain scenery would go all of the way to the ground or if you have built a timber structure to give a retaining wall look, The timber wall could be 4 x4 posts capped with 2x 6 and exterior ply to represent the planks--lighter than using 6 x 6 timbers. The scenery would be tied to the top of the wall. If you used cement it could be treated with Thompson's Water Seal or other sealer after they are colored with concrete stain or paints.

Bill Uffelman
November 02, 1998

Don't forget to put in some plastic pipe for drainage. Water weighs about 8 1/2 lbs per gallon and if you build as high as you wish that can be a lot of weight, especially after a rain. Drill some holes in the pipe before you bury it so the water can seep in and flow out.
Also I would try to run most of my electrical wires in a piece of plastic pipe too. Five years from now you may need to dig up a big chunk of Garden to replace a wire. Putting it in a plastic pipe would let you pull it as an electrician does in a building. Just a thought.

Len Hornick
November 12, 1998

I've been collecting Plastic Buckets from restaurants (5 gal?) They use them for pickles etc. They're free!! I'm using silicone adhesive/caulk to glue a piece of pressure treated plywood to the bottom. Turn the bucket upside down and nail your track support to it .

I'm trying chicken wire and mortar or 1/2" plywood, or stucco lath corners (metal) then ferrocrete all over. This will give 20" of height wihout much shovel work.

Joe Veisz
November 03, 1998

One possibility would be to build a sort of "sand table", perhaps 3' wide with 2x4 joists and 2x8 headers. With the joists set flush with the bottoms of the 2x8's and covered with 1/2" plywood, there would be room for about 3-1/4" of sand (one yard of sand would cover 30 to 35 feet of table).

Setting the joists higher would reduce the amount of sand required. Of course, the wood would all have to be pressure treated or cedar/redwood. The sand would also have to be drained somehow, either by drilling many holes in the plywood and covering them with fly screen to keep the sand in, or better, by tilting the table slightly and installing drain tile in the low edge and using polyethylene sheet between the sand and the plywood.

Allowing 25 lbs./sq.ft. for damp sand and 35 lbs./sq.ft. for snow load, the 2x8's would need supporting posts every 10 feet. Ideally the posts would be on concrete columns to frost depth (expensive in my part of the world where frost can penetrate to 6 feet.) Less than ideal but possible would be adjustable posts supported by on-grade concrete blocks.

That would just be the start. Finishing could vary considerably - hollow concrete hills, sandy deserts or plants in pots using drip irrigation, even a shallow pond or stream. And of course buildings and a backdrop. A personal added bonus with a raised layout would be the possibility of connecting my portable layout to it on nice days. That possibility would encourage me to build the fixed part as a switching type layout which would include mainline operation when the portable was added.

Jim Banner
November 01, 1998

A local garden center had a demo layout built using a combination of timber, dirt backfill and cement on wire mountains with dirt pockets for plants. All of this was built on three sides of a prefab 8 x 10 or 12 garden shed. The timbers were stacked about 3' high with a dip down to 18" or so at the big "trestle on a curve" end. Track was supported by 2" foam held up by 2" pvc pipe. Backfill to the tops of timbers, Portland cement/mortar spread on wire to create mountains. Tracks pierce the shed to give inside storage and shop. The shed walls were covered with heavy plastic to give some protection from the dirt. The cement mountains and the shed dramatically cut down on the ammount of dirt needed to backfill the approximately 12' by 20' dogbone shaped "layout" and the shed workshop sure would come in handy.

Bill Uffelman
November 01, 1998