Large Scale Central

Bluestone Southern's Power Plant area

Track and Trestles
#1

One of the main goals of moving Memphis, was to create an area for the power plant to give the unit coal train a destination… One of the first main concerns was to move dirt to create the area… Fortunately, my neighbor had dug out a pond in his front yard, and had plenty of dirt (Clay) that was available…

This first required moving the dirt… Running a tractor bucket full at a time would have taken all summer, hence the idea to load the 18 ft car hauling trailer with dirt and move it to the area in which the power plant would reside…

The trailer would hold approximately 13-15 buckets of dirt on each trip… The picture above shows it about 3/4’s loaded…

Trailer was moved into the area, then offloaded…

Working from both sides, about a bucket and a half was left on trailer during the day trips… At the end of the weekend hauling dirt, the trailer was aligned so I could drive up on it and scrape the trailer bed clean, as shown in the below picture.

Once all the dirt had been moved, track was laid out so the roadbed area could be marked and trenched out…

Below picture shows the area with the roadbed installed… The inside loop will be the offload loop for the unit coal train at the power plant…

The outside loop will be a turnaround loop for Memphis trains, such as Amtrak and Thru freight trains…

a little closer look…

Track was all laid and ballasted, and used during the Sept 2017 Operations session… On Sat, a 25 car unit coal train delivered their loads to the power plant and returned… On Sunday, Amtrak made the run and used the return loop…

#2

Wow! That looks good! Are there any walls to be built in this area in the future? That really adds to the ops with both trains!

#3

Andy Clarke said:

This first required moving the dirt… Running a tractor bucket full at a time would have taken all summer, hence the idea to load the 18 ft car hauling trailer with dirt and move it to the area in which the power plant would reside…

Isn’t THAT why you run a train? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

#4

Ric Golding said:

Wow! That looks good! Are there any walls to be built in this area in the future? That really adds to the ops with both trains!

Ric, no more walls… Will work the slope, cover it with landscaping fabric and rock… The steepest of walls will then be covered eventually by planting a few Blue Rug Junipers on the wall, to cover over the rock, much like the drainage area on the east end of the driveway island…

#5

Bruce Chandler said:

Andy Clarke said:

This first required moving the dirt… Running a tractor bucket full at a time would have taken all summer, hence the idea to load the 18 ft car hauling trailer with dirt and move it to the area in which the power plant would reside…

Isn’t THAT why you run a train? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

It was a train (of sorts)… Truck was the locomotive and the trailer was the freight car… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)Tail lights was the ““FRED””…

#6

Very nice Andy. I was just wondering; did you get an OK from Elvis before you moved Memphis?

#7

Jon Radder said:

Very nice Andy. I was just wondering; did you get an OK from Elvis before you moved Memphis?

Jon, if you watched the movie ““Men in Black””, you should remember that Elvis went back to his home planet…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)

#8

I did. Forgot (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-frown.gif)MIB was a great series. II runs a lot on the tube.

#9

is landscape fabric and weed barrier the same thing? was looking at my Lowes and all they had was weed barrier, I wnat to use it to keep the dirt inside the retaining walls of my RR when built

#10

Wow! That looks impressive!!!

#11

Pete Lassen said:

is landscape fabric and weed barrier the same thing? was looking at my Lowes and all they had was weed barrier, I wnat to use it to keep the dirt inside the retaining walls of my RR when built

In my experience, no. Weed barrier is a flexible plastic or vinyl that will keep the weeds mostly at bay, by that I mean it will stop the majority of weed growth, but any seeds that end up in your mulch that is laid over the top of the barrier will still need to be dealt with.

Landscape fabric is more of a breathable mesh that will keep some weeds at bay, but it’s designed to be used on a loose hilly surface to keep dirt in place until your decorative plantings take root. Weeds should be dealt with as they pop up.

#12

Pete, the stuff we use is called ““Weed Barrier””, made by Sta-Green… Not sure exactly what material it’s made from, but the manufacturer calls it a ““fabric””… I like it because it lets the water penetrate thru it… We have used this behind all our retaining walls… Behind most walls, I have a 4 inch drainage pipe surrounded by 1 inch limestone rock, so water doesn’t build up behind the retaining walls and freeze, pushing the wall out… We wrap the pipe and rock behind the wall with this fabric, to allow water flow, but keep the dirt out… We usually get ours at Lowe’s also…

#13

In places where I’ve used landscape fabric, I have problems with weeds, probably because the fabric has degraded to the point where it is ineffective. I’ve had numerous weeds grow right through it.

Where I used Visqueen, a plastic wrap for the building industry, I’ve had no problems.

#14

Steve, the majority of places I use the Landscape fabric is not to control weeds, but keep dirt/clay from turning to mud and flowing… I used to line the roadbed with it, however weeds grew up in the roadbed anyway so it was a waste of time and material… Jane sprays for all weeds, now…

I also use rock as landscaping material over using mulch… Usually when it rains, it pours and mulch just floats away… Rocks tend to stay in place… The fabric just helps insure the rocks don’t settle into the dirt/mud and disappear…

#15

Andy, I used Visqueen under the roadbed, and I have little problem with weeds in the track.

I like the idea of using rock over mulch. What size rock?

#16

Steve, I use it under 1 inch rock or smaller… But, there are areas where I use it with larger rock… Under my bridges, for example, I use inch and 1/2 sized rock as a base… Sometimes, I’ll top that with the 1 inch… Just did under the bridges for Memphis, and used that material and 1 & 1/2 inch rock… I use bigger rock depending on how much water might flow over/thru it… It’s all a calculated guess… (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)

#17

I suppose I should have asked these with the original question… Smooth, or crushed rock, and how deep are the rocks?

#18

Nice work Andy! You sure don’t let any moss grow. I notice all of the newer construction , here and some other threads I’ve seen, seems to be elevated. Is this intentional?, or just how it worked out with the space and design?

#19

Andy Clarke said:

It’s all a calculated guess… (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)

When did you learn how to calculate anything other than how much gravy should be on a Haystack ?

#20

" Rooster " said:

Andy Clarke said:

It’s all a calculated guess… (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)

When did you learn how to calculate anything other than how much gravy should be on a Haystack ?

Perhaps that was his study model (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)