New Railway

[Anonymous]

Cool article,  I was in the local paper today. Her's the article. charlie

 

 

[jhsimpson62]

Should anyone want to see the article which appeared in the local newspaper yesterday go to:  http://www.helping-friends.us/sj/senecanews082906_a.htm and http://www.helping-friends.us/sj/senecanews082906_b.htm  you can see it was a slow news day.

[jhsimpson62]

Thanks Paul, I'll check it out. Right know I'm going to finish all the road beds, then I'l do the ballasting and build and install the trustles. Jack

[Camaro1967]

JH,

Go to a local cement block plant, and ask them if they will sell you the gravel that they make cement blocks out of.  That is what I am using now. It has some dust, and some real nice sized rough gravel. I use it to build grades, then sift it to get the fines out, and make a good ballast.  The fines make great roads.

Paul

[jhsimpson62]

Before heading to the train lot for the mornings session, I thought a quick up-date might be iln order. Another 80' or so of track bed has be dug and stones tamped in place. No ballast laid yet as I'm still debating what to use. My road bed is laid with larger stones than planned (leftovers from walkways which was larger than wanted but worked out fine) I have screened some and used it as ballast, but after a really hard rain I'm not happy with the way it washed out. I think "chicken grit" is next to be tried. Mean while I still have some larger stone to lay some more track bed. Sometime next week they will be seeding a new lawn so access to the train lot will have to wait till it germinates. Jack

[jhsimpson62]

Matt, Actually digging is the easy part. Its the tamping the roadbed and packing the ballast in thats the hard part. Getting harder on the knees all the time, but we will keep at it.

[Takasaki Matt]

I don't envy you doing all that digging.

Keep us posted on developments please.

 

[jhsimpson62]

Have made some more progress. Dug out about 80 feet of roadbed and filled it with tamped crushed stones. Put track back in place. Although not shown in these new pictures, have laid the ballast in about 25 foot. After some rain showers over night it seems to be holding. now about another 200 ft to go, then on to the trustles. New pictures are located here:

http://www.helping-friends.us/sj/smilin_jack001.htm

[jhsimpson62]

Matt, Yes it took a while to get used to the red dirt. Worse is dragging it all over the house. One day we'll have some ground cover. Not planning on modeling the Pennsy, but do have a Pennsy 4-8-0 and some passengers cars. Expect I'll get rid of the markings and use what ever name I come up with for my rr. Want to get another Shay or a Climax ( maybe both, thats what I ran in PA)

[Anonymous]

Nice start! I'll bet the red dirt day in and day out has been an adjustment in it's self! If you model the PRR than you'll have to import some brown stuff 

[Anonymous]

Davenower

                   Your story wasnt to good.

                   I mean it would cost  whicth is 

[jhsimpson62]

Thanks for the tip on horticultural grit. Never heard of it, but will look for it. Jack

[Anonymous]

horticultural grit is a good sustitute - a bit bigger but avaliable from garden centres

[jhsimpson62]

James, Thanks for the information on "chicken grit". I have heard it mentioned before, but never went looking for it or seen it used. Today should be a good day to see if I can find some (It was raining pretty hard when I woke up this morning, so its too muddy to start digging in the track. I'm in a pretty rural area so I should be able to find what I'm looking for. Enjoyed your web page. Nice work and thanks again for sharing. Jack

[skeenapac]

Something that is available almost everywhere is "chicken grit", crushed granite used in chicken runs. It makes fairly decent ballast, and usually comes in 4 sizes. Try No. 2....... seriously.

[jhsimpson62]

Just a quick up-date on the progress of the railroad. Still no name, have to work on that. Completed the walkways. Also finished laying the track for two sidings. Next comes diging in and ballasting the track. Up north I used "washer fines" with great success. Here in SC this becomes Sand with very few stone chips.  Will this work? If not what else could be used? Once I get some tack ballasted I'll post some more pictures.  JHS

[jhsimpson62]

After deciding to move south, one of the criteria was sufficient backyard for a nice size garden railroad. It took a while, but even the real estate agent finially got the hint we were serious when we said we wanted to see the yard before going in the house. I'm sure it will serve its purpose -- Keeping me busy in my retirement.

[Anonymous]

I wish I had that much land - you are lucky !

[jhsimpson62]

Sometimes I think I bit more off than I should have. In Pa I had 22 x 28 plot. Down here its 80 x 70 x 36 x 88'. On the bright side - that much less to mow grass on. Crusher finds for the walkways and ballast to arrive tomorrow. That will keep me busy for a while

[vsmith]

Wow, thats a lot of room! I had to squeeze the turnip for land for my layout.

[jhsimpson62]

Have figured out posting pictures (I think). Here are a few and will try to impove in the future.

[jhsimpson62]

Having relocated to S. Carolina, I am in the process of building another Garden Railway. Hopefully in the next couple of days, I will have figured out how to post pictures to show my progress. I had started a layout in Pa. Had the track work finished but was in need of plants when we decided to move south. So far we have cleared the lot, built some dried stacked stone walls to help with the elevations changes and laid out the track and walk ways. The boss keeps bringing plants home to be dug in so actual track work is going slow. Once I actually wired it up and checked to make sure the engine would pull the grades. No real plan, I sort of just go with what feels right at the time. Will work on the pictures.