First year lessions

[Anonymous]

Now that its spring I have found out what did and what didn't hold up over the winter here in Chicago. First I learned that tile grout that I used for roads looked good and promising , however after the ground heaved several times over the course of the winter and cracked it real bad resulting in the near total replacement with a different material. This year I am trying a driveway patch material which is made of ashfalt . I am going over it several times with a sealer filler to eliminate the large pebble effect you get from this stuff . I'm hoping it will be more flexable and last longer . We'll see if I am right this time next year . Next I found out that I NEED a split jaw type of rail joiner at EVERY rail joint . I like using track power to run our railroad cuz I have several friends that like to come over and run and their stuff is all out of the box . I will convert one of my locos before winter to battery so I can run my plow . Never did get to see a train push snow cuz of dirty track .I'm real excited about all of the projects we have planed for this year . My wife and I have already planted aprox 60 dwarf alberta spruce trees so far and I talked her into letting me have more yard for thr railroad . I am planning a pond and a couple of spur tracks for interest . I'll post pic's soon of what we got so far . Hope some this trial and error experamentation helps someone out there . Mike D

[Anonymous]

blue aster
i have a GRR , for 4 1/2 years and just started to use split jaw clamps and i like them, the winter was not good to me this year. BEN[:(]

[bman36]

Hey Mike,
Asphalt based products hold up well when on a solid surface. Alone however you will most likely see shrinkage and cracks next Spring again. I am learning here too what will hold up to -40. My track faired well. I used cedar strips under the ties with small brass screws to keep my track together. Worked great. The chicken grit ballast hides it all nicely. Ice only forced a couple of joints apart. To fix I just loosen the screws, press together, and retighten the screws. Easy. Hopefully your climate is not as abusive on your line! Later eh...Brian.

[Anonymous]

I am pleased that I do not have these problems although we did get down to 15 last winter.

Rgds Ian

[Anonymous]

I have learned after last year's 4 hurricanes that during the season that my lift out bridge was a bit tight . had a down right hard time lifting it out. but around December I noticed it was back to fitting good again. I have found that any time it gets damp out uh tight fit. so now when we get damp weather I just turn on the air conditioner and in a few hours its back to normal. this year I am going to ad lights to my R R near the door so I can tell when the power is on or off. I am always leaving the power on forgetting to turn it off here's my sign. never to old to learn from experience.

[ghelman]

I too don't have the cold weather issues that you have, but, sometimes our torrential down pours do cause problems. My RR is up next to the house and when it rains heavy I get a flood coming off the roof right on top of a section of the rail bed. I have tried several things with less than good results. I just kept re-ballasting. I am trying something new and it is working thus far. I have used sandmix concrete mix, mixed in with the ballast. I use this just where the flow of rain hits most.. I am also trying the sandmix to make a road, sort of like your asphalt idea. Has not worked to well, but, I think I laid it to thin. What is nice about sandmix is you can add coloring to it.
Have a good day!

[Marty Cozad]

Mike, its good to hear you are still into trains. I have heard of folks quiting after their first year, I almost did. Keep us posted.
Now you see why i talk about concrete all the time. Its still there.

[Chompers]

We tried a portland cement and ballast mix and it held up surprisingly well last year[^](except where it was too thin[sigh]). This year we're gonna dig deeper and try again. I hope that will take care of it for our Rochester NY winters where it gets 10 to 15 below.

Chompers

[Anonymous]

Hey all thanks for all your advice . Like the concrete idea . Marty I love watching trains way too much . What debth of concerte are we talking ? What kind of cement ? Love to give it a try . The one area that I did asphalt is so so . I don't like the large grain of it and I am still in the process of adding many coats of sealer / filler so the jury is still out on this method.

[Marty Cozad]

Mike
If you have GRYs issue Feb 2003 ,it has the artical. I know many folks who use it for all or just parts of their roadbed.
What works on one end of my RR may not work on the other end.

[Chompers]

it's not all concrete, but just a little to help hold it together. there's a nice hard road bet for the track to sit on.