Looks good and solid Neil. In my experience it is impossible to over build the basic structure.
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Thanks Rick. I took a lot of the post & frame spacing from your Shasta Pacific article. Adjusted a bit for local conditions. Thanks for putting that together so well. 
Cheers
Neil
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I agree with Rick, great job Neil.
For my layout, I also went for "permanent,’ with concrete roadbed and hundreds (literally) of sacks of concrete for the mountains.
I feel it oddly comforting to know that I’ve built a layout that I’ll never be able to remove in this lifetime.
And I’m glad to see you’re heading toward a very permanent layout as well.
Cheers!
Cliff
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Thanks Cliff.
I’ve actually thought about concrete roadbed on the timber platform. Precast, drop in kinda thing… No warps, no twists.
Our mission is to confound the archaeologists in another 10,000 years… 
Cheers
N
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Last bit of the benchwork is pinched straight from Ricks Shasta Pacific article (Thanks again). I filled in the gaps in the framing with 100 x 50, with the 100 mm side horizontal. The gaps between any framing was no more than 225 mm – 9”. Then a layer of 12 mm galv mesh, some wind break cloth because I had some, then a layer of geotech cloth – the stuff that goes at the bottom of road base shingle. Again, because I had some. 
The idea is to fill in with soil and this way it drains but will hold the fines for (some) water retention. Roadbed is going to be some kinds of ladder on top of this.
I forgot to take in progress pics, so here’s one from underneath.
Now I can start to muck around with track at last. 
Still playing with the yard arrangement– not sure how many or where I should put the crossovers. Here’s a pencil sketch of the last pic – any comments or thoughts appreciated.
Cheers
N
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Looking good Neil, glad you were able to use something from my build posts.
This post brings me up to current time.
Not a lot more got done over summer, a few home projects got in the way. I’ve managed to stand up another ½ dozen main posts, and last weekend got the new spot for the train shed dug out.
It looks like it works out to roughly a 20’ dia curve on the upper track.
There’s been consistent rain in the last few weeks, enough to make the lower level so wet that even the ride on mower can barely get through. I think the police call it ‘sustained loss of traction’?? 
So that’s pretty much stops lower level work till we dry out next summer. The wood store got moved last weekend too, clearing the way for the upper loop framing.
Can’t really start that till the container is moved – the Hiab outriggers will likely need to be somewhere in that spot for the lift. Guess that’s a next summer job now as well.
Going to try and get another ½ dozen main posts in this weekend, that’ll let me stay up on the dry to work on the upper framing over winter.
Cheers
N
A little more progress. Got another 5 main posts, and half a dozen small ones in the other weekend with some help from club members.
That clears the way to build some roadbed and set up the yard entrance. I did some sketching, if I allow a 2m transition from the flat yard to mainline 1% downgrade I can put the entrance turnout on the downgrade. Winter task is to build a curved turnout for that bit, once the roadbed is done.
I also started looking at the upper loop & mine trackwork. I want to set up scenes in different parts of the railroad and this seemed a good place.
Here’s the first cut.
I’ve got the mainline going up at 1%, and the mine lead down at 1%, that creates a height difference of 70 mm as the track finally heads out of sight through a tunnel. The other end of the loop disappears behind a rock bluff just past the yard.
Here it is painted out on the ground. Best part is the mine looks like it’s going to be outside the lift area for the container so I’m figuring I can build that next.
Slowing down a lot now, very little daylight after work so build time is only on weekends outside chores…
Cheers
N
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Framing went up yesterday as far as the yard entrance turnout. Rain forecast later so no point setting up the saws outside today.
I ended up dropping the bench height so I can play with ground levels a bit.
Cheers
N
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That’s looking really solid Neil, I think you are going to love the results of your efforts.
If I had to do my layout over again, that is exactly what I would do.
First bit of roadbed down this weekend. Base stock was 150mm x 40mm ground treated pine. As I expected the knots gave some trouble but I salvaged about 12 m of roadbed out of each 6 m length of timber.
Since they were straight, I assembled them indoors in 3m sections. All joints are glued and screwed.
Then joined them together on the yard bench. I got lazy and just shifted the track to the side rather than take it completely off. I had the most trouble with breaking side strips moving it around at his point. Not going to that again!
I did a rough lead into the main line curve just to see how it sat. This bit isn’t glued yet.
Given how this came together, or rather didn’t, I’m contemplating a 5 strip spline for the open benchwork.
I can see a lot of clamps in my future…
Cheers
N
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Looking good Neil.
A couple of comments.
I assume you are going to cover the top of the bench work with soil or gravel, if so I found if you keep the bench side rails as high or higher than the top of the ties it will keep the ballast from drifting away from the track.
On the open benchwork I used no ladder roadbed just the bench work to support the track. 2 X 4 cross members about 12 inches on center. The whole structure became sort of a ladder roadbed.
Thanks Rick.
I’m kinda wondering if I’ve shot myself in the foot by dropping the benchwork by so much, it’s stopping exactly what you suggest…
It seemed a good idea at the time, but I might have bought a whole lot more work for myself. 
I just wish I could get cedar instead of crappy (but cheap) radiata pine.
Cheers
N
Edit - Oh, and yep on the front fascia. It might end up as full height rock panels yet. Just another one of my half baked fire, ready, aim ideas.
Maybe on the curves if you can make saw cuts about 1/4 to1/2 way through the strips to help bend them without snapping, cut on the inside to relieve the stress of bending .
Or soak them with water to help them bend
That’s a really good idea Pete, hadn’t thought of that.
This next section is a trial for the rest of the layout - I’ll try that way for one of the tracks, and a spline for the other.
I’ve said it a few times, but (meaning I’ll keep banging on about it 
), the pine comes from the sawmill fresh from steam pressure treatment. If left alone it turns into a serious pretzel within a few days - there’s always a reject pile at the timber yard that no one will touch, we all go for the straight bits a few layers down.
If I can get it in place while still wet and screw it down there’s a reasonable chance it’ll hold shape.
Kiln dry straight wood is stupid expensive.
Cheers
N
That sux it is so expensive for you, and probably like here the amount of rejects is huge compared to decent flat boards
Side note, a lumber yard I used to deliver to for their outside storage had giant clamps on the units you could pull from , every day they clamped the wood down to help keep it from twisting.
Had some time this weekend, so I started on the mainline loop roadbed. One as a spline, the other following Pete’s suggestion above.
I laid the grade for the outside track by eye using a piece of conduit to give a smooth curve.
Roadbed supports were two uprights and a cross piece. I set the height using a riser and a level. Figuring that bit really hurt my head, the spacing was different between each support, and I had a grade transition from 0 to 1% for a 2m section near the beginning.
The new roadbed is 25 mm thick (read cheaper) vs 40 mm in the yard. I made an L block where it changes.
I started with the spline first, mainly because I had some 100mm stock on hand which was a bit too narrow for the solid roadbed. Target width is 120mm, the ties are 105 mm so there’s a little bit of room for ballast outside the track. 5 x 12 mm stringers, 4 x 15 mm spacers.
Lots of snapped stringers, till I got the hang of where best to locate the knots (inside of the curve!), and not to try and move them in a near gale. Plenty of screws, glue and levelling involved.
Cut roadbed was a lot faster (thanks Pete!). Knots still gave some trouble as the timber didn’t want to bend evenly. I used a 5m length, which was too long to handle once the relief cuts were in. No trouble installing it, but had to force it to bend a few times and the timber cracked – not sure if that’ll cause problems or not.
Let’s see how this performs over winter.
Cheers
N
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Excellent spline work !!!
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