Jim's Whiskey and Easy Short Line

[Jalicunning (Jim Cunningham)]

I’ve finally gotten to a point in building that I want to show the line and how it got here.

My first run was started in 2015 with a classic Stainz lgb starter set. It was low to the ground, no more than 6" elevated. Some of the line was at ground level, with many elevation changes.

But then I wanted to rebuild the line so it would be more suited to live steam, with level grades and wider curves. So I took out most of the old line, leaving only a waterfall/pond/tunnel feature I built for the first one.

I first constructed the shelter where I could sit and control the line. I decided on a freelance three sided thing with a bench for two. The shelter is for the Shady Grove halt. The shelter also supported a giant shade sail that helped tremendously as I labored to stack stones under a sweltering summer sun.

I planned a little and measured a lot. Flags were placed and replaced to mark the extent of the fieldstone walls for the elevated beds.

I left a gap in the wall of each bed so I could wheelbarrow in the fill.l, then filled the gap with stones and shoveled in fill for the last bit.

For the central bed, I wanted a backdrop of mountain peaks, so I stood up some pointy large flagstones against a spine of railroad ties.

The walls were built and I started on the first and second water features that would both be in the main bed.

Then I built the third and final bed, and was finally ready to start on the track. The third bed attached to the pond/waterfall/tunnel feature, which got a new layer of stones around it to match the other beds.

More to be added later, I have to get ready for work. Gotta get that $ to support my RR habit😎

[Cliff_Jennings]

Your work looks great, Jim. The shelter is excellent, as well as all the rock work. You must have a good supplier!

I like your shade sail thing. Is that a commercial product?

Beautiful stuff!

[JRad (Jon Radder)]

Very cool, and literally a ton of of work, probably closer to 10 tons! Can’t wait to see the track plan. Excellent rock work.

[capecodtodd (Todd Haskins)]

That is a lot of fieldstone and a lot of stacking plus the filling. My back is sore looking at it but it’s going to be great when completed.

[Rooster]

When I saw this pic. I instantly thought of the Coral Castle and you could call it “Jims Place” instead of “Eds Place”.

Any thoughts on plants like creepers, succulents, etc…or are you thinking fill and let mother nature work it’s own. It’s a lot of work and it looks great!

[Jalicunning (Jim Cunningham)]

Many thanks! The shade sail was ordered from Home Depot, it is 18x24. Super unwieldy but much needed shade.

[Jalicunning (Jim Cunningham)]

I think it is more like 15 tons of stone, 5 tons of gravel, and 5 tons of fill😵‍💫 so I hope we never have to move😂.

[Jalicunning (Jim Cunningham)]

Thank you! The stone is mortared as well as being stacked. I tried pretty successfully to keep the mortar hidden from the face of the walls.

[Jalicunning (Jim Cunningham)]

I like that! That’s pretty much already what my wife calls it. I have some plants in but not much ground cover or succulents yet, still working on the green side. I do have lots of “indigenous” Asiatic jasmine and various ivies that have started to creep the walls already.

[Jalicunning (Jim Cunningham)]

So I read a lot about various roadbed types and decided I liked the ladder style type for the elevated part of the line. My local big box stores only carry trex or similar plastic woods. I was a little concerned about the makeup of this type, I wanted something super durable for our very hot, wet climate.

I found an Owens-Corning product called Wear-deck that seemed to fit the bill. It is rated for sub-marine construction. Easy to rip stringers on my table saw, but also quite dense. I bought 3 eighteen foot long 2x6 boards which was enough for about 130 feet of ladder.

The stringers are 1/2 inch wide, the blocks are 2.5 inches long, so the ladder is 3.5 inches wide. I built a construction template for the ladder assembly which helped tremendously. I wish I had taken more pictures during this part.

I used a laser level to lay out the final grade for the ladder, I think it is within about 1/4 inch of level all the way around. I made some longer posts of the wear deck, about 3 feet each, and drove them into the undisturbed ground below the beds to secure the ladder. No frost line here in SC so no worry about heave.

After a whole year with a very hot summer, no issues with expansion or buckling in the wear deck. I’m very pleased with this product and would recommend it for this purpose without reservation. I was extremely careful when ripping/cutting it, I wore a good respirator and other ppe due to the glass fibers.

[Rooster]

I was a little concerned about the Wear Deck because you ripped the boards. Over the years a few folks had tried ripping composite decking boards for a ladder only to have them suck up moisture and fall apart. I believe it was because they cut through the outer coating and did not reseal it in anyway sitting upright like that.
However the Wear Deck was new to me so I had to look up the the tech specs on it. I think you will be just fine. The specs are actually impressive, nice choice!

[Rooster]

BTW… I love the Cat dozer in most of the pics earning his pay!

[Eric_Mueller]

@Rooster

I love the Cat dozer in most of the pics earning his pay!

You “stole” my post!

Meanwhile, back on topic, Jim (@Jalicunning ) , I am a HUGE fan of the rockwork. It really helps to blend your beds into the landscape.

Thanks, too, for the Wear-deck tip. Though our track “floats,” there are sections that would benefit from a more stable footing. We have similar climates at least part of the year with similar issues of moisture and rot. I’ll keep this material in the “good to know” category against future need.

Eric

[Jalicunning (Jim Cunningham)]

On to track and such. I started out with sectional and remain in that camp. I’d like to get a rail bender at some point but I’m pretty happy listening to the click clack of the rail joints.

One of my objectives in rebuilding the line was to have a large loop of decently wide radius curves to run live steam. The upper loop of the line only has R3 radius track and switches, with R5 switches when room permits. My yard isn’t huge and I could only use about 1/2 the width, so this was as large as I could go with the space I had.

For the end of the loop furthest from the shelter, closest to the house I wanted a reverse loop within the larger loop so I could turn stuff around.

These are R1 sections. For the loop end closest to the shelter I made another roundy round, and there is a third complete loop on the ground. Most of the ground level track is R1.
Here is my hand drawn track plan.

The above plan is how things stand today. But I started with just the simple upper loop and kept adding sidings and switches here and there. The first part I worked on was the lower level but around the pond and through the tunnel. Some rock edging and gravel define the railbed but the track mostly floats.

I built a few trestles, using cedar fence planks. These were built in situ with preassembled bents.

Then I installed the trolley line, a point to point ground level line that hugs the beds. No good pics of that but a video hopefully next time. Thank y’all for looking.

[Cliff_Jennings]

Beautiful work, Jim! Super fun.

I’m glad to see ya got the Valhalla (or “Big Mauler”?) out to stretch her legs and break some stuff!

[Jalicunning (Jim Cunningham)]

Last Leviathan roars again! I keep wanting to make a post apocalyptic section of the layout. Still giving that some thought.

[Eric_Mueller]

@Jalicunning

! I keep wanting to make a post apocalyptic section of the layout.

Oh, please do! The world waits in anticipation!

[Jalicunning (Jim Cunningham)]

I’ll keep working on getting through my build log, but in the meantime, I put together a Regner tram kit and got it running decently over the weekend. No whistle or RC installed yet, but hopefully soon. These little Regner kits are a good time. I think I did this right where the video appears in the post and not as a link, but if I biffed it my bad.
Regner Tram on the WESL

tram-on-track

[Dave_Meashey (David Meashey)]

Jim;

Some of the Regners will pull surprisingly well for their size, since they are actually geared locomotives. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Thorin could pull.

Best, David Meashey

[PeterT]

@Jalicunning

I put together a Regner tram kit

I hope you got the extra flame buffer for the front, to prevent the spring on the cylinders for overheating and stretching.

I also added a heat deflector for the end of the flue.