Tom Trigg
Malibu Lights are landscaping lights, usually low-voltage through a transformer. Malibu lights wiring is two-conductor, stranded wire with a thick, black plastic insulation suitable for buried installation.
http://totalledmalibulighting.com/?gclid=CJzTyp-W3bsCFY5ufgodUBIAbQ
PVT - I am not real familiar with Hawaii, so here goes from the common sense perspective. An alternative method might be to use the 'ladder system' for sub road bed. My club used 2" PVC pipe for stanchions, and 1/2 x 1 1/2 or 2 bender boards. Like north Florida on the mainland, freezing is not an issue. I read between the lines that this layout will not be raised real high (say 12-18"). Using the ladder system will allow you to get up and running much faster and the beds and fill can come later.
Some additional reading and some great people for help can be found at the Large Scale Central forum, My Large Scale forum, Ask the Bachmann forum and the Aristo Craft forum. I will also plug my club web site www.ecgrc.com, where there are links to all the above mentioned fora and some good suppliers as well.
Happy Railroading!
Bob C.
You may not have frost, but how much rain do you get yearly? Rain can be every bit of a PITA as snow or frost heave. I haven't read what your planning to do to provide a base under the track. Where I live, SoCal Los Angeles, we get so little rain that we can simply float the track, laying it on top of a thick bed of crushed gravel, its great but if it rains alot, the ballast can and does get washed away, or with a geofabric barrier placed under, can migrate into the soil under and next to the track.
You mention a ladder system, which can be laid at ground lever and is a good choice to keep everything on the square, given your moisture (flooding) issues, I would suggest any ladder be made of Trex decking boards (Artificial wood) with PVC posts every 3 or so feet
One thing to keep in mind, Trex type wood while great at not rotting in the wet, can warp and does eventually sag under extreme heat, thats why I suggested keeping the posts much closer than what you usually see discussed. More than one elevated layout builder has reported sagging under extreme heat when the posts were about 6' apart.
Have fun with your trains
I gather that you are in Hawaii. Don't know for sure, but I would guess that your weather is at least as mild as ours here in Florida in the winter, and probably a little cooler in the summer? Not being a purist, and having a yard that under the grass is mostly sand, I just laid my track on the ground with roofing material under it to look like ballast. I have had very little problems with it over the past 10 years. One thing you might think about is laying out your track on the ground and running it that way for awhile. If you find that you don't want to make changes in the layout, and that you want a more secure base, you can always go with your ladder system then.
Also, I have found that I will NEVER be able to have detailed buildings, people, animals, etc to go with my railroad. Our dogs, the squirrels, etc. do a real number of small details. My wife has tried to make me a beautiful farmyard, a cemetary for our church, etc., and they last about 2 weeks before they are destroyed. Now I mostly stick to buildings, vehicles, and a few minor small details, which I make sure to glue down to a substrate before placing them outside.
Best of luck to you as you develop your railroad. Sounds like you are going to do a lot more extensive "pre-track" work than I did. I mostly laid my track on the ground and went with it from there. Fortunately (or unfortunately) my yard is very level.
Ed
That's a good idea, Tom. thanks!
PVT KanakaVSMITH, I had planned to just float the track on gravel. I had assumed that would be "good enough." Hunting about this site has made me wonder...Our rainy seasons is roughly November to March, though it drizzles nearly daily, and reported averages for my part of the island range from 20 inches to 60 inches! My area probably trends to the low side due to geography. Cost control is a serious consideration, so I guess I have to weigh a smaller, better anchored layout now or a larger one that gets all of the track out of boxes but may require more work to maintain or future work to provide a better anchor.
If your rainfall isn't that high then you should be just fine floating the track on the gravel base. Just give yourself a sufficient base under, I used 2" crushed gravel but it was way too thin and weeds were a constant issue as they would grow right thru the so called weed barriers, on a recent area I used put down a 5" thick path of crushed gravel, still get weeds but they come straight out. The weed barrier fabric works best to keep your gravel from migrating into the surrounding soil, so dont skip it.
As for anchoring the track down, you'd be surprised how well the track stays in place once its covered with a crushed rock ballast. I used both the little plastic LGB tie-clips on the LGB track and the set screws on Aristo/USA track. I used track clamps between the two brand, be sure to use conductive grease in the joiners, the stuff actually works if your using track power.
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