Leveling Track

[brains]

My RR is on slightly uneven land.  In order to keep the grades down I will need to raise the track in certain spots, although not a lot.  It would range from 1/2" to at the most 5".  Should I just dig the area out and lay a brick and then fill remainder with crushed limestome? For now in the development stages  I have just added rocks on either side and elevated the track on Pressure treated pieces of lumber and covered with crushed limestone for now but do not know how long this will last.  I am pretty happy with the layout now and with any additions i would need to make some minor modifications, I plan to add at least 4 switches and a couple loops.  Is this an OK method or should I just start over?  I have built one small bridge with a trestle on either side and brought the grade up with bigger rocks.  I thought about a ladder system, trestles etc, but since most of the areas are 1/2 to 5" trestles seem like overkill.

Thanks,

ed 

[Greg Elmassian]

I'm not a fan of the lumber method at all, and have seen the majority of people abandon it.

So, my advice would be from that perspective... raise it with a brick and then free-float in ballast to the proper height.

But if pressure treated lumber is your method, why abandon it?

Regards, Greg

[ttrigg]

I would echo Greg. Build a block retaining wall and back fill, then free float the rails. When backfilling be sure to leave a "ravine" or two, so you will need a couple of short bridges. When back filling also build a large hill, so you will need to run the tracks through a "cut" in the hill side. Both lend to eye appeal of the total layout.

[captain perry]

My first two railways used pressure treated lumber as a road bed resting in the soil or upon rocks.  I found long peices of lumber would bow due to being moist on the bottom and dry on the top.  My first railway used carfully cut peices which matched the sectional track more or less in size and shape.  they worked quite well.  I could adjust the grade of the track by pushing soil under them to raise them or scraping it out.  Keeping realistic ballast on the right ofway was difficult and not very effective especially where the track was raised above the ground (most places on my lines)

I have switched to floating the track on gravel as described above.  It works well if the gravel is well drained so that the frost doesnt get to it too badly here in snow country.  I use larger crushed stone for  building up the road bed then dress it with crusher fines for a more scale appearance. 

We would not have limestone but rather granite or basalt crushed stone on most ofthe lines in New England...the Maine Narrow gauge lines used bank run gravel...nothing special or expensive.  Depending on what is available use the cheapest stuff...I would not reccomend round pebbles or fine sand which will not stay put very well.  crushed rock tends to have angles that hold it in place...a mix of sizes works better still.  Some of the limestone may actually bond slightly an be really stable...I wouldnt know.

 

--Eric

[brains]

Well I had some time this afternoon and started to work on leveling the track.  I live in a really rocky area of NE Ohio and have a ton of big rocks.  I went out and grabbed a bunch and created a higher wall in the back and lower in the front with boulders on either side of the track and grabbed a bunch of the smaller rocks, bricks and cement block pieces and layed them under the track.  After the track was as close to level as it could be I layed down a base of crusher run and brushed it in.  We got a little rain tonight and that should settle the stone down, we'll see it tomorrow. 

I was thinking of sprinkleing some concrete powder in with the crushed stone, would that work or not?  Would it be harder to change the layout later?

Thanks again for all of your help,

Ed

[dwbeckett]

brains

I was thinking of sprinkleing some concrete powder in with the crushed stone, would that work or not?  Would it be harder to change the layout later?

Not a good choice, unless you want to chisel your track apart to move it.

Dave

[IRB Souther Engineer]

Sounds cool. When you're done, how about posting some pictures?