Aloha,
FYI I have taken the advice of all those who gave so freely and finally put pickax to sod this weekend, trenching out the bed for the half hollow tile retaining walls for the garden. The pile of concrete blocks had proved insufficient to get me going. The 1/16 scale trench line through my backyard, however, is a motivator! A few notes based on my earlier inquiries and experiences to date:
Glad to here the progress report.
HINT: Just before you start to fill the bed do a couple of quick "fixes." 1. Put down a couple layers of cardboard boxes as ground cover. Will STOP any grass growing up into the layout. Garden fabric will do the same but cardboard is cheaper. 2. Use garden fabric up the inside of the wall to prevent your fill material from seeping through the "leak gaps". If you have any old 'plastic' cloth sandbags, they will work as well.
Tom Trigg
Thanks, Tom. I wouldn't have thought of either trick! Right now, it looks like we'll be on schedule to fill in late June or early July. I'll post some photos as we hit various milestones.
Status update:
Because i had not even thought about leveling, I am pushing my estimated fill date back to late July or early August. Progress is nonetheless continuing!
Sounds like you are making progress and learning at the same time. Glad to hear of you success with CINCHOUSE. In my case SWMBO issued approval at each level of planning and construction. She only allowed me total freedom on one of her requests. "I want to be able to send a train somewhere and it not come back for a while." That meant a branch line leaving the pond area across the back fence to the other side of the yard where it wound its way among her fruit trees.
Latest update... My leveling job seems to have succeeded. I just need to see if we can figure out a date to lay the foundation and build the bed. If the date slips too far, we'll hire someone for this phase. I was going to upload a photo, but it seems I have to put in a hyperlink...I'll figure this out yet!
We visited the Hawaiian Railway Society to get some 1:1 motivation. One of the volunteers had had a garden railroad and reconfirmed suggestions from earlier in this post - keep the family involved! In this case:
By all means, keep the family excited and involved. Especially CINCHOUSE!
As for photographs, there are a great many free cloud storage sites to put your photo and link them here. My two favorites are Photobucket and Google Drive. For videos, most use YouTube. All provide a link to photo (video) that is easily pasted into your text.
Latest update...
The form is a bit less straight than I hoped it would be, reflecting my lack of skill and the excite if dubiously useful help from my work crew, but the foundation is laid. The perimeter is just over 100 ft. I have some professional obligations that will prevent the retaining walls from going up in the next couple weeks, but progress is progress. Still, I am backing down from my goal to have a mainline ballasted in by Christmas. At this point, I just want it filled with the sectional track down and tinkering for final arrangement in progress..oh, and train(s) running!
In the meantime, the concrete has brought family and friends on board, as the whole thing is more than a dirty gash in the yard. We will stage the retaining wall progress to allow us time to determine if it should be one or two blocks high. CINCHOUSE, in the meantime, is developing her plant wish list, so all is well!
Here is a photo of where we stand at this point: [View:https://drive.google.com/?usp=web_ww_after_dl#folders/0B4R0NqTe3DtiZWVUY1g2b2lRRkk:600:0]. Our cattle dog is inspecting the work!
Glad to hear progress is being made.
Double check your photo link. I'm thinking you just copied the web address, instead of using the "share" link. Your link takes me directly to my Google Drive.
Hint: the "share photo link" is not so good of an idea, at least as I've found. I've created an entire directory and shared that with family and friends. Works well. Have a look at "Photobucket" from there you can paste the photo into the page here so that no one need travel outside to look at your photos.
Thanks again, Tom. I'll try "Photobucket." It sounds like a happy compromise between privacy and utility. For experiment's sake, I've tried pasting the "shared link" in Google Drive below:
edit?usp=sharing
As you can see (?) the lines are not quite straight as an arrow, but this'll do. I am calling it "character." Once we get the walls built and filled, the intention is to make the part closest to the viewer the start point for the garden. The furthest point will likely be grassed back in after the tracks are laid, leaving it as free-lay area for the kids while I experiment elsewhere.
I'll post the next update as the retaining wall goes up
I keep all the private stuff on OneDrive, used to have it on Google drive until my daughter wanted me to join google plus so she could talk to me. Then G+ started self posting the pix. did NOT care for that. I put only the pix I want to publicly share or insert into a post on Photobucket. Photobucket is free if you don't mind some advertising when you are on that page.
It may be a bit too late to ask this question. Not looking like you left enough room between the wall and fence to get the lawn mower in there. Or are my eyeballs not as calibrated as they used to be?
Nope. Lawn mower space fell victim to other design constraints: the avocado tree and a conservative estimate of what it'll take to have the tracks and passing siding. The weedwacker will have to do the job back there!
Quick update...A pause in some professional obligations and my father-in-law's availability coincided. The retaining wall is up! I'll post the photos later as I start to source the fill.
At this stage:
OK, trying PhotoBucket with the latest picture showing the completed retaining wall. O note this is linked to FaceBook, so have fun viewing my Civil War reenactments if this failed!
As a back-up, I am trying Google Drive again. edit?usp=sharing
Per my post elsewhere, I am ready to fill. I am looking for free stuff, but, in the interest of time and to ensure a good foundation, I may contract this portion.
OK, Photobucket 5, Me 0.
Belated Happy Thanksgiving!
Just a quick update, we did decide to get professional help to get the garden filled and tamped. We just needed to get the project "over the hump." In the meantime, we are going to be getting all the trains out for Christmas, which will allow for a full inventory of track and stage everything for track planning post-Holidays and ballasting.
Pictures via one website or another will follow as progress occurs!
Eric
FYI, the work crew showed up today and reinforced the retaining wall. Glad I hired someone with a bit more experience! Fill should arrive this week, and then the crew will use a tamper to pack it down.
On the fun side, we will be breaking out all the trains and track for their annual run around the Christmas tree and off into the yard this weekend! No more boxes for them this year!
Merry Christmas!
Thanks again for the forbearance as I use this as a blog to keep me honest and progressing.
The trains came out of their boxes for their annual run around the Christmas tree and out into the yard. With my brother's track having sat in storage for 20+ years, it took some real elbow grease to get things running, but the crew (hopefully pictured) was game. In the meantime, my neighbor started filling the garden, so, while the rolling stock will go back into boxes, this is temporary!
In the meantime, my father-in-law builte a short trestle. Not sure, how we will incorporate it, but we will!
As a hunorous aside, I found "ballast" and "roadbed" have no practical meaning in a state with no railroads. My neighbor sources beautiful scale gravel, and layed it down forward and aft, port to starboard across the entire garden. Oh, well, it will allow for the flexibility I wanted, even if it means each plant will get its own planter box countersunk into what will be 5-6 inches of gravel.
Since I figured out this picture thing, here is an idea of the track I have to work with:
I am sure as heck looking forward to not having to constantly deal with the track shifting and derailing things every 10-20 minutes!
Some final thoughts....If I had known how this project was going to speak to my immediate and extended family, I would've started years ago. Seeing my youngest gandy dancer in the almost filled garden with his Tonka Trucks "building a railroad" alone made this experience to date worthwhile!
Looking good.
The bed is filled! We'll let the rains help things settle and hold a "Gandy Dancing and Grill" party to lay down the track later this month or early next month. In the meantime, I will research the best way to build a mountain and tunnel to visually split the "dog bone."
I am pleased to report that as of 17 January, 1330 (Hawai'i Standard Time), about year from the planned ground breaking, the Triple O came to life as an ex-DR Bahn 0-4-0T pulled an international somrgasboard of gondolas, a hopper, and a battered caboose around the mainline.With the addition of a bog plant to the pond and the hasty repositioning of some jade plants, the inspection train even had a nominal garden to run through as it tooled along an otherwise barren landscape of small rocks.
The mainline is in place. An interior loop sits on top of the gravel, as I don't want to set it until we put in some landscape features, and I am hemming and hawing about where to put sidings. We are able to run two trains at once, which is more than the family could want! We will probably start transplanting some herbs and permanently planting the jade plants this week or next. In the meantime, we are just enjoying rotating the trains through the garden (such as it is) and discussing the possibilities.
Thanks for the advice scattered over the course of the year, as I know you all guided me around some "mission kill" mistakes. More questions to follow as this rolls into the next phase!
We are a long way from being the feature railroad of GR, but, by gum, we have garden railroad!
Cheers all around. Glad you got the first train running. The real fun now begins, and I'm not talking about the fun of running the trains. No, the real fun comes when the Railroad C.O.O. (that's you) is confronted by a land management battle between CINCHOUSE and The Land Minions. Take care and enjoy.
HA! The discussion about what to put in the garden began about 20 minutes before I saw this post! It was a good laugh!
I just wanted to share a few photos of where we are...
This is the basic layout. The inner dogbone is just floating on the gravel, as I need to be able to shift it a bit as we start to landscape:
Below is the first train. Most of the rolling stock are from about 1976. The little tank engine last ran in 1980, when her motor burnt out. As the oldest loco, she still took place of pride on the first train. A tram engine provides the real pulling power: Finally, I just like this one. The control system is 1980-s vintage. DCC is a LOOOOOOONG way off!: We have made a couple nursery runs, and it is suprising how far $20 can go! In the meantime, small fish went into the pond for mosquito control, and, as anticipated, little plastic animals and lego buildings have started to pop up. We are still planning to landscape the nearside first, leaving the backside as a "play area." Ultimately, our yard will go back there when the crew is ready for train operations, rather than just operating trains. Aloha, Eric
Below is the first train. Most of the rolling stock are from about 1976. The little tank engine last ran in 1980, when her motor burnt out. As the oldest loco, she still took place of pride on the first train. A tram engine provides the real pulling power:
Finally, I just like this one. The control system is 1980-s vintage. DCC is a LOOOOOOONG way off!: We have made a couple nursery runs, and it is suprising how far $20 can go! In the meantime, small fish went into the pond for mosquito control, and, as anticipated, little plastic animals and lego buildings have started to pop up. We are still planning to landscape the nearside first, leaving the backside as a "play area." Ultimately, our yard will go back there when the crew is ready for train operations, rather than just operating trains. Aloha, Eric
Finally, I just like this one. The control system is 1980-s vintage. DCC is a LOOOOOOONG way off!:
We have made a couple nursery runs, and it is suprising how far $20 can go! In the meantime, small fish went into the pond for mosquito control, and, as anticipated, little plastic animals and lego buildings have started to pop up. We are still planning to landscape the nearside first, leaving the backside as a "play area." Ultimately, our yard will go back there when the crew is ready for train operations, rather than just operating trains. Aloha, Eric
We have made a couple nursery runs, and it is suprising how far $20 can go! In the meantime, small fish went into the pond for mosquito control, and, as anticipated, little plastic animals and lego buildings have started to pop up. We are still planning to landscape the nearside first, leaving the backside as a "play area." Ultimately, our yard will go back there when the crew is ready for train operations, rather than just operating trains.
Very quick update. The camera died, so no photos!
Oh, and the Triple O successfully delivered adult beverages from the lanai to the grill! Design success!
Looking good my friend. So glad you have made this an entire family project. I have seen several layouts that have scenes of Star Wars and Cinderella done by the younger generation. Allowing the kids to add their bit just makes the whole thing so much better.
Thanks! I appreciate the encouragement...It keeps me honest!
Below are a few shots of where we stand as of now.
This is the section closest to the house. The pond is stocked. Most of the plants are herbs that can take the bright sun. The potted plants serve as a visual break until the mountain is complete.
This is the tunnel complex that will divide the garden. Behind I've stowed our raw material for landscaping. The eventual track plan will include some sidings and, eventually, will be our urban section. For now, it mainly serves to send the trains back to us and to deliver beverages to my grill area! Finall, our tram engine the "Fiery Elias" in action! She is a family favorite and gets lots of run time. Up close, I think the shot reminds me of the potential of this project over time. The mountain is next, and we are going to tinker with some ideas tomorrow. Thanks to all for letting me use this as means to document progress! Aloha, Eric
This is the tunnel complex that will divide the garden. Behind I've stowed our raw material for landscaping. The eventual track plan will include some sidings and, eventually, will be our urban section. For now, it mainly serves to send the trains back to us and to deliver beverages to my grill area!
Finall, our tram engine the "Fiery Elias" in action! She is a family favorite and gets lots of run time. Up close, I think the shot reminds me of the potential of this project over time. The mountain is next, and we are going to tinker with some ideas tomorrow. Thanks to all for letting me use this as means to document progress! Aloha, Eric
Finall, our tram engine the "Fiery Elias" in action! She is a family favorite and gets lots of run time. Up close, I think the shot reminds me of the potential of this project over time.
The mountain is next, and we are going to tinker with some ideas tomorrow. Thanks to all for letting me use this as means to document progress! Aloha, Eric
The mountain is next, and we are going to tinker with some ideas tomorrow.
Thanks to all for letting me use this as means to document progress!
A little progress this weekend working on the tunnel interior (See my post entitled "Working with Foam (Or go to Plan B?)"). I'll post the results of that first foray into foam craftsmanship there, with a final picture here. I hope to have the tunnel capped by the end of this week.
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