Large Scale Central

Leaves !

General Discussion
#1

Sung to the tune of “It’s Cryin Time Again” by Buck Owens

Oh it’s crying time again, you’re gonna leaf me

I can see those leaves a fallin’ as we speak

I can tell by the way you hold your rake

That it won’t be long before my hands begin to bleed

Now they say that rakin’ makes the tracks go cleaner

And that details get caught up in them there tines

Well the money pot gets ever more leaner

As I rake and keep a rakin all the time

Now you say you’ve found a way to make it better

I have heard the promise many times before

Some parts and cash and time with which to fetter

Cryin’ time will be here like before

#2

I use a vacuum, as a blower blows all my ballast away. A vacuum is not as strong a wind. And I’ve got a small yard and five trees in my backyard, and neighbors with trees that grow over my fences. And while some are considered "evergreen,’ in fact they are ALL “everdrop.”

#3

How about that ! All year long all trees seem to be dropping something or other. Leaves, needles, seeds, branches, bird droppings, cones, stringy things, bugs, etc…

#4

Dan, yea. I didn’t know how messy the tree in my backyard was, until I built a railroad around it.

#5

As mentioned in another thread, due to the volume of leaves a huge Maple drops on my RR I have no choice but to use a back-pack blower to clear it. And yes, it does scatter the ballast all over my yard. I did my first of several clean-ups yesterday. I should have taken a picture of the pile that came from the RR - Filled seven bags!

I don’t bag by hand anymore. I have a bagger on my garden tractor. The mower mulches and the bagger bags it up. I just have to ride around the yard a dozen times or more and change out the bags. My back yard is too big to bag them up, so I remove the bagger and just keep mulching, blowing the result into the rear hedge row. I need to finish that today if it dries up.

#6

I use a blower but not on high and I do not move much ballast. Yep got a maple in the back close to the RR nso blow the leaves then get the rider out with bagger suck up leave pile in back by creek and and burn. Later RJD

#7

The nice thing about having a Maple is that all of the leaves drop at once, more or less. Pin Oaks keep the little bast**ds on all winter, dropping them a little at a time. Then just when you’re about to open up your railway in Spring, whatever didn’t drop all winter decides that now would be a good time to do so. Okay, you’re cleaned up. Not so fast. The new growth is coming in. I can deal with it you say. A few weeks go by and the stringy seed things start to drop, ugh ! Good, got them cleaned up. Ah ha ! Now some of the new growth that is not worthy of growing any further drops. More cleaning. Good, what could possibly fall now ? Aside from all of the things I mentioned in an earlier post, this blackish dust like stuff continually falls all summer. Not too bad, but it can track into the house. Let’s see, it’s August. Nothing but the dust and bird droppings is falling. Better hurry and get some train running in ‘cause the acorns are a comin’. They can really derail a nice day, literally ! Ah, it’s Autumn. Such a beautiful time of year. I think I’ll go play in traffic.

#8

The other good thing about a vac is that it chews up the leaves so ALL of them fit into the 40 gallon bin the County wants us to use for greens. Actually I have two of them, because I need one for the front yard and the fruit trees!

#9

I’m in the waiting mode for my yearly mass dumping of leaves on the Pike. I have a fruiting Mullberry that is my big shade for the patio and pike.

This monster saves all up until it feels like it’s dump time, and then in only three days it’s all on the ground.

This is from last year, three days earler, I ran trains and then… Dump!!

Deep and heavy. But all at once, and done…

#10

We have some Alders, fortunately nowhere near the railroad, that start sheading their leaves in august, and finish sometime in late February. Then there are the ubiquitous Ponderosa Pine, that shed their needles anytime, with the slightest puff of wind. Ain’t it grand?

#11

Even the 1:1 guys have problems with leaves now and then. Here in Southeast Pa. SEPTA reports slipping and delays, when the rails are not only wet but covered with leaves.

#12

I was suprised the leaves were not too bad on the new layout. I figured with more trees around it would be worst. I have everything from maples, oaks, hickory beach, Sassafras, white and gray birch and a few others Im not of. I just use a smaller leaf blower. The stone dust I use seems to hold p to the blower well. I also blow the leaves in my backyard that way the wind doesn’t blow them back on.

#13

I have a battery leaf blower, does okay, but not strong enough to do much damage to the ballast. Luckily , most of the trees near the railroad have died, so less of a problem. There is always a chain saw! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-innocent.gif)

#14

Dan Padova said:

Even the 1:1 guys have problems with leaves now and then. Here in Southeast Pa. SEPTA reports slipping and delays, when the rails are not only wet but covered with leaves.

Metro North out of NYC has a special rail cleaning train that they run during leaf season. In the past they have had trains stall due to slippage on the grades in CT. This is a close up of the business end of one of their rail scrubbers…

#15

Well if you use crushed limestone as your ballast, like I do, it forms a hard crust after it gets wet and dries out. That crust doesn’t seam to be affected by my leaf blower.

#16

I vacuum up my leaves. i have a 20 gal. vac and a small enough layout it doesn’t take much time. When the vac is full I just dump it in the compost pile.