In the Fall of 2006 I decided to build a garden railway in my backyard. Being a novice I needed help. I visited this and other forums, subscribed to Garden Railways Magazine and joined a garden rail club. The first step of course was to prepare a site which involved taking out some bushes, building a low retaining wall and leveling the surface. This was done in the Fall of 2006.
Looking good! You’ve got the foundation for a great future railroad. Keep on going…and for darn sure post pictures…
In the spring of 2007 I was ready to begin the track laying. An article in the February 2006 Garden Railways Magazine, “The saga of the Virginia & DACS Railroad” gave me a number of ideas. I modified their track plan to fit my space, took their storage tunnel idea and adopted their method of track laying (or at least my understanding of the method.) TRACK PLAN
STORAGE TUNNEL
Thanks for the encouragement Warren. I’ll post a few more photos today and more later. At first I was going to have a water feature on the mountain over my storage tunnel but I was too anxious to get started on track so that will have to wait for a future date. I decided a dry wash with a bridge would suffice for this year. BUILDING THE MOUNTAIN
From the forums, magazine articles and talking to club members I learned that there is no agreement on the best track or on the method of laying it down. I chose Aristocraft Brass because it is suppossed to be a better conductor than stainless and possibly a little better than LGB. As I mentioned the article on the Virginia & DACS Railroad showed a method of using paving edgers to hold ballast. This is the method I adopted. The advantage was less trenching and a secure way to hold the ballast. The disadvantage was that the edgers are fairly expensive. I purchased two different kinds from Home Depot and Lowes. Obtaining proper ballast was a problem because 3/8" bluestone is widely available but I felt it too large. After some searching I found a gravel yard that carries 1/4" bluestone which seemed just right. BALLAST HELD BY EDGERS
TRACKS ENYER TUNNEL
The track plan was for an outer loop and an inner figure 8 both of which would go through the tunnel. There would also be an alternate route up over the dry wash and back down. Originally this would have come off the inner loop and back to it. I changed this so that the outer loop runs behind the bushes at the rear of the yard, has the mountain alternate track cut off, over the dry wash and join the inner loop. (Does any of that make sense?) I built a temporary trestle so I could check the down curve and the gradient. I did not intend to lay any track on the temporary structure. I tried to keep the grades to 2% but in the end the upgrade averages about 3% (all straight) and the downgrade 2% on curve and 2 1/2 on straight. The smallest radius on the layout is 4 1/2 feet with most curves 5’, 6’ and 7’. There are also a number of sections of 10’ radius. All track joints are secured with Hillman rail clamps. TEMPORARY TRESTLE
You’ve certainly put in a lot of work so far. If you proceed as you have you’re going to have a first class operation there the equal of anyone’s. Nice work!
By now the final track layout was decided on and I decided to complete the outer loop before any other work as I was anxious to get power on the track and test it out. After completing the outer loop I went back over the tracks to fine tune the leveling by adding ballast where necessary. LEVEL AND FILL BALLAST
\ REAR OF OUTER LOOP WHERE ALTERNATE ROUTE STARTS
START OF UPGRADE SHOWING PAVING EDGERS
OUTER LOOP FINALLY COMPLETE
MORE TO BE ADDED LATER
Lookin good! Looks like great progress.
John,
Looks like you made great progress. It certainly looks like quality enjoyment today and in the future. Please keep us posted.
Wow! Looks like someone getting it right the FIRST time!!!
John, I agree with everyone else… It looks great!
There is one suggestion I would make. When you do the inside loop place some cloth weed block between the ground and ballast. I’m afraid you may have to mow the right of way on the outside loop. You may be thinking of using round-up to control weeds. Just be careful around the tree and the back bushes. It would be easy to kill those. 
Bart Salmons said:What he said and then some.
Wow! Looks like someone getting it right the FIRST time!!!!
Very impressive, John!
If we are talking the same Manhasset, you are on Long Island, in Nassau County east of NYC, not all that far from the city line. I grew up in east Queens, in an area where the soil had a high clay content and was very elastic. From your photos, it looks like you are in the same situation: soil with a much higher clay content than the sandy soils found closer to the South Shore.
True?
John your doing a great job!
Where are pics of the first running train!!
It also looks like you got the hang of walls !
Again keep up the good work / pics.
John, great job, looks like the start of a great railroad, keep the pictures coming.
making me anxious to get back to work on mine…now to convince the wife I need a Train-Li bender!
cale
Great Job BTW!
If I can talk my wife into me buying a three-truck Shay and getting the rc/battery installed I’ll tell you the secret!
Easier to ask forgiveness that permission…besides watching the Shay chug around the line is comforting when yer sleeping on the couch!
But that would take a LOT OF FORGIVING! You mean I could drink a couple cups of coffee while it goes around?