Roadbed

[Anonymous]

The 'soil' around my house is very heavy black clay. In the summer it cracks something terrible. How have others dealt with this issue? I was thinking of free floating with balast but Im worried if it cracks Ill loose the ballast. Not to mention it would be hard to run trains then... My thoughts were to dig a trench and put in the turkey/chicken grit, but put some pressure treated wood under the track and then more ballast. My thoughts are if it cracks at least the track would remain stable and I could reballast later. All input appreciated!

[tangerine-jack]

Sounds like a good plan to me. The grit can move with the soil, and the track can move with the grit. I also have shrink/swell type of soil and this is the only method I found that works apart from building a deck and putting your track on that.[;)]


[oX)]

[vsmith]

Welcomn to the forum TxPitmaster

Sounds like you have two conditions to plan for, dry summer, and wet winter. If its clay its going to expand when it gets wet and shrink when it dries out, the trench is a good solution but I would use a weed barrier fabric to line the bottom and sides of the trench with, and something solid to line the sides with. This is mostly to help prevent migration of the ballast stones into the surrounding soil when it gets moist and turns back to a muddy clay. When wet it will mix into your ballast without some sort of barrier and soon you ballast will begin to dissappear.The side lining should be solid like wood or tile to help prevent pressure of the expanding and contracting clay from pushing your track around tto much. Other that the lining, a trench with floating trackwork works well, its better where you are to let the track float so that tempurature expansion and contraction of the brass rails will allow the track some movement to adjust accordingly

[Capt Bob Johnson]

If you can get it, try your local block manufacturer and see if you can get some of the aggregate they use in making concrete blocks. A couple of people in this area are using that rather than the 3/8 inch stuff mixed with dust that we had been using. So far they really like it!

I would agree that the weedstop fabric would do well in keeping your ballast from migrating, the man gave you good advise there!

Have you thought about using a retaining wall and raising your layout? That way, you could provide good drainage underneath, import better soil on top, and not worry about so much clay. Saves some of the bending over and crawling around too!

[cabbage]

I too had heavy clay soil -this was my solution...

There are two stretchers under the plank forming a TT shape.
I never bothered with a surface ballast -just wood preserver!!!

regards

ralph

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your suggestions! Im going to do some experimenting this weekend and try out a few if the weather cooperates!

[Anonymous]

Try digging a trench as suggested and lining the walls and bottom with a firm slurry of fines and portland cement at a ratio of 5 : 1, then before it is dry if youlike fill the trench with fines. Howver you would only do limited lengths like this so that you can allow for drainage, I put in a "well" every so often filled with aggregate to act as a drain. It works in the tropics so maybe it will work where you are. We have had 120 mm (6") rain in the last three days and it has held up all right.


Rgds Ian