Chris Vernell said:I do every day?
Well, you won't see any unicorns ...
Here is Otis lending a hand
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/johnm/_forumfiles/Otis-working-on-RR.jpg)
soil relocation in progress
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/johnm/_forumfiles/west-to-east.jpg)
and why? this was pointing at about an 8% grade
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/johnm/_forumfiles/east-end.jpg)
Tell Otis he did a good job!
Send Otis my way. I’ve got one of those 8% grades here I could have removed. 
Dave Marconi said:You mean Otis with his skid steer ;)
Send Otis my way. I've got one of those 8% grades here I could have removed. :)
David Russell said:Aaahh ... that might explain a lot ... or not ...Chris Vernell said:I do every day?
Well, you won't see any unicorns ...
Took a survey of the back .40 this afternoon. The ground is starting to dry out at last, so it’s getting OK to walk on without grinding the grass into sludge. The plants around the railway are still very winter-draggled, but there are signs of life among the irises, so I have hopes that the rst will recover soon enough. Now if we start getting weekends when it isn’t raining …
Basically one end of the backyard dropped three feet and the other end raised up about a foot. This should help out quite a bit during significant rain events. Over Christmas the local RAWS weather station recorded over 19 inches. Just like Jon and his tree, one 90 degree turn needs to avoid a pine tree, which unfortunately is going to knock me from a 20 foot diameter turn to maybe 18-19 feet on that side.
Well this weekend was spent surveying and laying out some bricks for a short retaining wall, which is a key component to making this work. Otis didn’t do too bad with the Bobcat.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/johnm/_forumfiles/the-wall.jpg)
On the other end of the yard, we took a break and and stacked rocks along the west end of the line. The granite has a nice golden color.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/johnm/_forumfiles/stackin-rocks.jpg)
way to go, John
This weekend, we finally finished a short retaining wall and laid out some PVC to get a general idea of the loop. Unfortunately one of the 180 degree turns I had to reduce the diameter by two feet. I was fretting over the grades heading eastbound from the yard, but realized that was the “reverse loop” of the wye and having outbound trains go westbound I could keep the grade well below two percent.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/johnm/_forumfiles/looking-east.jpg)
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/johnm/_forumfiles/looking-north.jpg)
Look’s good, John.
Maybe I’m getting old, but that retaining wall doesn’t look too short to me
Ralph
I wish I could have kept my grades at 2 percent, I think mine are 4.8 percent, even if our area doesn’t look it!
A good project done. And I agree with Ralph, that wall doesn’t look short!
Starting to lay out a curve…which of course has to be situated on a grade! I had to cut back on the diameter on this 180 degree, which is a bummer.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/johnm/_forumfiles/south-curve-under-construction.jpg)
So what is in the “que” for this weekend? My buildings are feeling homeless…Solar lighting systems need charging, etc…And Vader can’t wait to make a power run. BTW: front wheel sets are out of gauge wide. That is what I think we were seeing when it was going around the corners and looked like the front was lifting. Will get around to that the next time I pull him out of his casket. What is optimum flange width in mm? Will do both trucks while I am at it.
Yep, time for a test run this weekend!
Well we hope to set the grade on the downbound track near the stairs this weekend. (that’s why the ladder in the photo above is only half completed.) I also need to run down the road a bit and fill the back of the truck up with some decomposed granite and start laying out the grade on the rest of the PVC to see where I am at.
This week i started to scoop some dirt around on that slope in the background to lay out a branchline that will run up to the top of retaining wall…gives me a place to put that old four foot trestle I’ve been trying to find a home for.
Probably be a good place for some sort of a small mine for those short ore cars. I was goofing around with that stabila level and I figure I can do it right at 10 percent, which will be a good little workout for a short train.
Regarding the gauge on the wheel set…hmmn where would I look? Try here -> http://www.elmassian.com/trains-mainmenu-27/track-mainmenu-93/track-and-wheel-standards-mainmenu-95
Made a little progress over the weekend, got the ladder support on the curve assembled and the rough grade done. Need at least another load of decomposed granite and maybe 4-5 wheel barrels of rocks to finish off the curve.
I will snap a photo tomorrow.
Work continues on the big curve. Even though this does not look like much, but this curve has three pickup truck loads of decomposed granite and a truckload of rocks. Once we compact it a bit, we will set the finish grade and possibly toss some track down on it.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/johnm/_forumfiles/big-curve-fathers-day.jpg)
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/johnm/_forumfiles/big-curve-fathers-day-2.jpg)
Looking good so far.