Shawn Viggiano said:
With the ladder method you still see what the track is laying on. I don’t want to see anything but track laying on top of dirt. Im also anal that way
Not necessarily. This section on my RR is all on ladder. Completely hidden behind rocks and in the ballast…
Our ground conditions on the desert really lend themselves to just floating the track on the sand, gravel and ballast.
It was 111 here yesterday. I’ll have to check the track this afternoon and see how much it floats. In this weather track temps get to near 150 degrees so it’s bound to float.
I have good luck with floating track. I feel the ladder method is one extra step and more money that is not necessary.
Jon that’s a great shot.
I have to agree with Shawn. My track has been floating for 5yrs and no problems yet.
Regards Ron
Mine “floats” a little too much. Every heavy rain washes it out. Sharp/angular ballast too!
Still, I like the look!
I’m not trying to sell the ladder method. If floating works for you then go for it. I just wanted you to see that the ladder does not have to be visible,
My layout has many roadbed methods in use, all with their pros and cons…
Raised on 1x4 PT Lumber - Track attached to lumber with screws. In place for over 5 years. Some warping needed to be corrected but still working. Very low maintenance.
Trench & Fill - Base is processed stone (1/2" to dust), thin layer of stone dust on top, Float track and ballast with more stone dust. Generally has worked well for me where I can get the trench deep enough. Track does tend to rise up over time as new ballast is added. Ever\y other year I end up pulling the track and cutting the ballast down.
Concrete Roadbed - Track floats on concrete with ballast on top. Very stable. Also in place for over 5 years with no major issues. Ballast does tend to work itself under the track raising it up similar to the Trench & Fill method. Difference is that the maintenance of that issue is super easy - lift the track, sweep up the ballast, put down track and ballast. At my switches I use no ballast in the point area. Stray ballast can be washed away with a strong stream from the hose.
Buried 1x4 PT Lumber - Track attached with screws. Much more stable that the raised PT lumber. In place for about 4 years inside Deep Cut. Most was removed when the cut was covered and a tunnel installed. Still in use inside the tunnel section, but now has air space under it - floating on corrugated pipe.
PVC Ladder - Track screwed to ladder. My new standard. Coal dump Curve and Walk Landing are both on PVC Ladder. No issues at all with ballast pushing up track. I do get some frost heave of buried uprights, but they push back easily in early spring. Least maintenance of any method I have tried.
Jon, how about listing them in order of cost, and order of effort too?
I forgot what climate are you in and were is the nominal “frost line”?
Greg
Great list Jon That should be put into the articles or something. Would be great for the new guys.
Mark cant you add some wooden or stone walls were you get washed out? I had a few spots like that but by adding some scale wood retaining walls the washouts stopped and it gave the layout a little extra detail.
Greg, Jon is like my area with temperature and weather extremes. Frost depth on average is around 40 inches or so. It can vary from year to year. We get everything from hurricanes to blizzards. Temp can go from below 0 in winter to over 100 in summer. We also deal with very rocky soil.
Shawn Viggiano said:
Great list Jon That should be put into the articles or something. Would be great for the new guys.
Greg, Jon is like my area with temperature and weather extremes. Frost depth on average is around 40 inches or so. It can vary from year to year. We get everything from hurricanes to blizzards. Temp can go from below 0 in winter to over 100 in summer. We also deal with very rocky soil.
Thanks Shawn. I regurgitate it every few years :]
Greg - Shawn has it exactly right on the climate & conditions. As far as costs; I really don’t keep track. I can’t afford any of this so I don’t want to know what I’m spending. As far as labor intensity goes…
Most labor intensive - Concrete. Close second trench & fill, Third is probably PT roadbed and least is the ladder as the PVC components are store bought and used uncut. Separator blocks are done production style on a chop saw. I cut up a couple of 8 ft 2x2 PT sticks and I have enough blocks for a lot of track.
To get an idea of how long it takes to assemble ladder; about 5 of us built Bob McCown’s layout in a little over a day. We spent most of the second day tweaking and leveling. He has since changed and rebuilt a good portion of it on his own.
Shawn Viggiano said:
Snip…Mark cant you add some wooden or stone walls were you get washed out? I had a few spots like that but by adding some scale wood retaining walls the washouts stopped and it gave the layout a little extra detail.
Shawn,
Sadly I get washed out everywhere. I’ve been thinking of bordering my track with plastic paver edging, kind of a retaining wall that follows the entire track. My layout is on 4-6 inches of compacted crushed granite…Digging it up to install a ladder system will be a nightmare, but I am considering that too!
We get heavy rain here. Six inches at once is not uncommon.
Matter of fact, it’s happened 3 times in the last week alone.
I float my track. I originally had open ditches on the GRR to handle drainage.
But I had problems with the drain pipes, some as large as 4 inches, clogging.
So, I filled the ditches with gravel and covered over the tops. No more clogged pipes and the GRR drains just fine.
The main line on one side has always been a “French drain”, so to speak. The trench for the ballast is a foot deep and a foot wide.
I have around 12 tons of gravel in the GRR. 6 inches of rain and minutes after it stops I can walk anywhere on the layout.
Ralph
Who is Rodney or R&K? Is there a site ?
Rodney’s site is off-line at the moment (http://www.randkrailroadproducts.com/) Not exactly sure what the problem is. He’s a one man shop. Life apparently got in the way.
Oh boy. His site just came up on the top of the page as a banner ad. It also was down. I hope all is well.
There is a problem with the correct address.
I have this one saved and it works good. I think his front page is messed up.
I guess what I was trying to say without speculating or relying on my foggy memory is that apparently Randy has taken his product info off-line. Most likely because he can’t fulfill orders at the moment. Just because you have a link to the order pages doesn’t mean your order will be filled.
I would tend to believe the message on the home page is intentional, not an error.
R and K Railroad Products.com
is currently unavailable - we are sorry for any inconvenience.
