Build Log, Babs River Railway

Pete_Lassen · March 25, 2018, 11:00pm

Well another pile o dirt successfully relocated to the back yard, my guess of 125 loads was absolutely spot on with no cheating to make it!!. Sadly I missed the estimate for finishing by abot 4 to 5 tons… Bummer!! Here is the crew shot, missing my wife that is the camera person, who helped out tremendously

left to right, front: grandkids Eli and Abbe,back: Son in law Chad, daughter Kim and the old dude that did some work.

Today I was out and hosed down the place to help pack it down a bit, got a idea and proceeded to “draw” the layour by dragging the shovel around .

This is from the south west corner looking north, I can actually can fit 5 tracks but shovel drawing is not precise. You can see the opening area still left to be filled, I am going to order about 7 tons so I have some to fill in some low spots

still looking north, the crossover and one industrail switching area, after I took this I remembered to draw a spur coming back toward the camera.

second industrial spur area

Looking to the east, the main line track will go behind the tree, the inner loop in front and the reverse loop inside all of it. The pole is a pool leaf net pole that has been turned into a curve radius/ diameter tool, marked with 5 and 6’r and 10’ and 12’ diameter to help draw and conceptualize where track can go.

Looking from the pool area to the west, the giant boulder will be moved to the right eventually for the mountains in the middle of the loops

looking at the "mountain " area, still to decide how everything will be built. Dirt or lath/cement type but there will be some tunnel and canyon action of some sort.

Any ideas or suggestions on track drawing please feel free to comment , laugh at, discuss, let me know where I am going wrong or what I am doing right.

7 more tons maybe this weekend. Until then work and muscle pain relief cream on order

edited because I spelled conceptualized properly, but missed the easy words

Rooster · March 25, 2018, 11:08pm

Nice !

WaverlySouthern · March 25, 2018, 11:32pm

You did good (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif). I like your layout tools. Won’t be long before you will have trains running.

David_Maynard1 · March 26, 2018, 12:40am

The mainline goes behind the tree

From this camera angle I question weather you really want to do that. It looks narrow, and it looks like you have a root where the track would go. And over the years, the tree will get larger around.

Pete_Lassen · March 26, 2018, 12:55am

there is over 1 foot clearance from the tree to the wall, so for the next few years I should have plenty of room, at least thats my thoughts now!. you are going to make me go out and measure again now. just measured, David and its almost14 inches at the side you see then gets wider behind the block that sticks out by about 2 inches, so should be good for a long time. Famous last words. I had thoughts of double tracks behind the tree at first, but cancelled that idea

Pete_Lassen · March 26, 2018, 1:01am

I plan on raising that area some more to clear that root, and making a bridge or trestle to span that area so its not ON the root

Thanks Dan, I have had that pole just laying around and thought the other day it would be great for that since its adjustable and light weight

Pete_Lassen · April 2, 2018, 5:24pm

Well I know the rule , pictures or it didn’t happen, but my iPhone refused me access to the pictures I had on here, so I will have to wait to download them from my camera. Saturday I got the final load of fill dirt, 6.76 tons. Side note, the company I used for my fill dirt has an on line calculator for your material, after calculating the square footage I got. Average amount of 39 tons of fill, after the first load of 20 tons I figured that maybe my counting squares on graph paper was quite a bit off, so I figured again with what was left to fill in and ordered 12 tons to finish it all off.And I came up about 5 tons short, so I ordered about 7 tons to have extra for hills and settling. Well they were really close as the total was 38.9 tons. Or about 422 wheelbarrow loads. So glad that is over, now to move it around and get the hills and dales I am wanting.

WaverlySouthern · April 2, 2018, 8:50pm

Dang Pete, I hate you moved over 6 tons of dirt for nothing. Now you have to move it back to the driveway and then back to the layout just to take pictures (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif).

Pete_Lassen · April 3, 2018, 4:33am

Oh man, I didn’t think of that!!! Actually got some pictures on my camera, just need to upload them and all that. Probably will not happen until the weekend… glad I do not have to move it all back for pictures, don’t know if I could make it look like the dump truck just left it.Dang it Dan why didn’t you mention that before???Just wait until I help you! By the way, progress report on pizza oven, and when we can expect a mail delivery of a nice big meat loaded pizza???

Pete_Lassen · April 8, 2018, 2:58am

So last weekend my wife was out of town, my grandkids and their parents were doing kid and family things and I was supposed to go to their home for Easter, so Saturday afternoon the final Dump truck arrived and deposited a really rocky 6.76 ton load of fill dirt

The beginning of the end, and I am all alone in moving this pile to the back. So like a big dummy I spend half of my day doing yard work so that I was worn out by the time the dirt showed up at about 3pm. So after a not as long as I planned session I still had a large pile to move on Sunday before Easter festivities.

Up and at 8am I am shoveling Last load of dirt in place, As I was filling in I was turning right going up the hill and in the wide spot piling the dirt up there, since mountains were planned there, and I did not want to fill in the opening before I was done and have to push wheelbarrow up a 2x6 .

When I had a small pile left I sent a text to all the grandkids, closest guess to how many wheelbarrows wins $10.00 After it was over the winner was declared, drumroll and grandpa or Poppa Pete depending on the grandkids was fair in the shoveling to make sure that I didnt do any different, but I ws beat, I had been at it for about 3.5 hrs

AND THE WINNER IS…

4 year old Caleb was youngest kid to guess (13) so he won $5.00

10 yr old Eli was highest guess(14) that was wrong so he won $5.00

13 yr old Abbe was closest Harry Potter Nerd to guess (14) and won $5.00

6yr old Sophia was closest guess without going over(6) winning $5.00

11yr old Devin with a guess of (11) gets closest, but over the total winning $5.00

Birthday girl Aide(21) and not hung over wins with a right on the button guess of 9 loads in the final pile winning $10.00 and everyones birthday wishes.

Who says I play favorites with the grandkids.?!! So last pile was placed then wall was closed in and fabric placed and pile was raked in to fill it all up

the blocks are all in place!!! almost 1 year from the purchase date of 4/20/2017 the basic framework of the whole layout is set and awaiting final grading.

so next on the list was take all the track and plop it down to see what will go where and how much is needed to get a basic layout down and ready to roll. Suprising me I have enough to get the main loop and a few sidings so that Railroad action can take place. Now to see why my right arm will not work properly and my shoulders ache. Could it be 38.9 tons of dirt moved in a month?? nah! must be something else. Time to start making some decisions that will cost more money, track related and operation related , plus there is the fun decision of battery or track power and trackside lighting etc etc etc… to be continued when I am healed up.

WaverlySouthern · April 8, 2018, 3:21am

I’m tired just thinking of all the dirt you moved, Pete. Glad you’re done with all the heavy lifting. You’ll have trains running in no time.

David_Maynard1 · April 8, 2018, 10:27am

If you are ever going to use any power on the railroad, now is the time to bury landscape wires along the right of way. Its a bear to go back and bury wires to light up a building, or signals, or power the track, after the track is in place and plants are growing.

My back hurts just reading about all the dirt you moved. Good luck with your arm and shoulder. I have a very good relationship with an ice pack and heating pad, they are my good friends.

Pete_Lassen · April 8, 2018, 2:03pm

David I remember reading something you put about burying power lines before track and I believe you had said prefferably under the track so it doesnt get chopped by errant shoveling and plan to do that. Its a good thing that I have been reading and asking a lot of questions, I think I will only make 100 big mistakes while building this instead of 1000.

Doing wifey chores today so probably nothing happening for a week or so. Stay tuned

David_Maynard1 · April 8, 2018, 6:12pm

Yup. And something I didn’t do, but wish I did. I should have buried a spare set of wires under the track, for unplanned future needs. I only have the track power wires and building light wires on most of my railroad.

John_Caughey · April 8, 2018, 6:20pm

Best over kill I saw was conduit between boxes every 20’. Pull wires to where needed.

WaverlySouthern · April 8, 2018, 11:34pm

Pete, Dave has a good point about the wires and not having enough for future needs. John provided the solution. Put in conduit and you kind of future proof yourself from an electrical standpoint. Make sure the conduit is of sufficient size. 1.5” will work but I vote for 6” (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif).