I just finished this cribbing. It's made out of cedar fence boards ripped on my trusty table saw. The posts were driven into the ground a little over 6" and the dead mans were also driven in the same 6". I did water proof the timbers by soaking them in Behrs in a paint pan. I did not use glue so that I could take it apart if I needed to. Yes it is retaining some dirt.
Rex
I've had cedar (untreated) cribbing on my railroad for 7 years right in the dirt and no rot yet, at least the wood isn't rotting. The nails I used are starting to rust out and break but the wood is still fine.
DaveRo
In the above photo you can see three of the four retaining walls for Rosebud Falls City Park, supporting the rails for the trolley up to the top of the falls. The "date/time stamp" in the original file is Sept 2005. The "timbers" are a mix of redwood and cedar, all treated with copper-based rot prevention. (Very close to the chemicals used in "pre-treated" lumber. CAUTION insure proper ventilation and protective wear.) All "timbers" are re-cut fence boards 5/8"x5"x6’ cut to 7/16 inch square. If you look very closely you will see what looks like a small square block. This is the end of a timber that "reaches 6 inches inside" the embankment and acts as a "dead-man anchor" to keep the wall from falling over. I did some vegetation changes this past spring and had to dig down inside the "dead-man anchor" and saw that these buried "timbers" were still over 80% intact. We are talking about wood that has been buried in dirt for 5+ years, that has an automatic watering system that delivers 3 minutes of water every day. That makes for a very bad environment, buried in wet dirt with tree roots and other plant roots growing around the wood.
I used Tight Bond II and a one-inch brad gun to construct the walls. After the glue had dried, I liberally applied the copper preservative. I did not seal or paint the wood as I wanted it to quickly "self weather". The green color from the copper preservative wore off on the exposed sides in about four months of sun exposure, the buried side is still green.
Tom Trigg
Welcome to the forum! There is an article about cribbing in the December 09 of Garden Railways. Hope you enjoy your time here! - Peter
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That should work But since they will be in dirt I would theat them with a sealent and use water proof glue with the pin nailer.
Dave
The head is gray, hands don't work , back is weak, legs give out, eyes are gone, money go's and my wife still love's Me.
I live in Alabama. Yes I could rip the cedar into smaller cross sections but am wondering if it would be a structually sound to actually hold back dirt and not used just for cosmetics. I plan on using a pin nailer to secure them together and to the deadmen that will stick back into the hill.
1. Wellcome to the forum
2. Where do you live?? This helps with reply's.
3. cedar work's well in the garden Treated or UN-treated. As you surf this site you will see lots of cedar.
4. Your 7/8's stock scales out to 21 inch's can you cut it down?
5. My track sit's on concret 3.5x7.5 block's $.25 each ( $4.00 for 10 foot ) then back-filled to near the top. I plan on adding Ballsat next Spring.
Anyone have experience with using cedar for cribbing? How long will it last? Would it be better in the long run to use HDPE? Also, what dimensions should the posts be for G-Scale realism or acceptability? I have some 7/8 cedar that I want to rip up and use to hold acutal dirt for the roadbed in place. I know that is out of scale but does it really matter that much when trying to use it for actual structural strength of the road bed?
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