Large Scale Central

The Redmond & Rixey Shortline RR:

General Discussion
#1

Welcome to my home!!

Recently I remodeled my front garden. It was too big, and I cut it down to three smaller, more managable areas.

Of course inspiration hit, and garden #1 become a great place to create my Redmond & Rixey Shortline Railroad. A nice small area where I could put some smaller engines out to play and operate.

With the ongoing summer, and the R&R being in direct sunlight after 1:00pm, it was getting where it was a little too warm to sit out and operate the line and run trains. So again I went back to the drawing board, and I’ve come up with the first expansion to the R&R Shortline. I have tilled the ground where the next garden area will be built. The next phase will be building the garden border with rockwork, then planting either some contractor mix seed for the rest of the summer, or laying sod strips down to fill in the lawn area. After that, I’ll fill the new garden area with mulch, and after the mulch I’ll install the ballast crushed fines, packing the mulch on either side as I’ve done with the first sections of the R&R. Once that is done, I’ll start laying down the mains and passing siding, and start removing plants where the tracks will go, and re-establishing the plants in different areas of both the new garden, and garden #2 where the north loop of the expansion will go. I’ll keep a running log of advancements here as I progress. I would appreciate any questions, concerns, comments any of you might have.

michael

#2

Looks like a move into the shade will be just what the doctor ordered. Your home looks very nice Michael. Good luck with the expansion.

#3

Thank you Richard. Knowing your background and experience, if you have any suggestions from what you see, I’d sure love to hear them. Of course being in the front yard, I won’t be able to make any engine storage, but I’m playing with the idea of making a few small storage buildings for some rolling stock I could leave out, as long as they don’t draw too much attention during the non running hours.

michael

#4

Michael -

Great start. I’m sure you’ll get a great deal of enjoyment out of building and running your railroad.

My layout is mostly in the front yard. I tried to keep it low-key and not advertise it to the neighbors, but after spending three summers working in the front yard they eventually figured it out. I did overhear one elderly lady tell her friend that she thought the lines through the garden (my track) were irrigation pipes :o

I’m fortunate that the neighborhood kids are interested in looking, but not vandalizing. If your neighborhood is anything line mine, the existence of the track will draw curious children into your yard, even when you are not home. I came around the corner of my house one day last week and startled a couple of kids who had ventured deep into the yard to look at the track. After they tried to cover their intentions by asking if my wife was home, I told them they were welcome to look, but asked they not walk in the gardens or on the track.

I don’t leave any rolling stock out when I’m not home, but I will leave a train or two, sometimes for a few hours, while I do something else inside or away from the front yard. So far being in the front yard has been OK for me. I expect one day there will be some accidental damage by someone kicking or stepping on something. This is a risk I’m willing to accept, and will hopefully take in stride when it happens.

JR

#5

Jon,

thanks for the thoughts and input. Do you have any pics of your front layout? I’d like to take a peek and see what you’ve done with your yard.

I really don’t think I’ll have any problem with the neighborhood. I know most of, if not all of the kids around, and their parents, so if problems ever did arise, I could handle them with a couple of quick conversations. I think putting a sitting area further into the shade of the pinoak will help immensely with the heat that we have in the afternoons in the front.

I’m also planning on building the front rock wall at least two and probably three courses high, which will also give some “cover” if you will to the track that will run in the garden. The small shortline we have now, it’s difficult to see from the street level, and other than seeing the buildings, you have to pay attention to it to realize what it really is.

I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be setting the stones along the garden border when I get home this evening.

michael

#6
Michael T said:
Thank you Richard. Knowing your background and experience, if you have any suggestions from what you see, I'd sure love to hear them. Of course being in the front yard, I won't be able to make any engine storage, but I'm playing with the idea of making a few small storage buildings for some rolling stock I could leave out, as long as they don't draw too much attention during the non running hours.

michael


For outdoor storage for a front yard railroad I’d consider using the area along the side of the house. A single approach track could possibly be shielded from view by careful plantings to form a kind of hedge to hide the storage structure from a casual viewer.

For other structures, since their number will probably be small it might be practical to remove them when you’re not going to be home. Simple foundations set level in the ground with pins(wood dowels) protruding that inset into holes in the bottoms of the buildings would position them easily, hold them in place and give them a planted inground look often lacking when people merely set them on the ground. The foundations could be PT 2x4’s set in the ground edgewise. They would be durable and easily repaired in the event any were damaged. The dowels probably wouldn’t have to be glued in place and could themselves be removed over winter or such.

Just a couple of possibilities for your consideration. :smiley:

#7

Michael, I thought I’d chime in here and show you a couple of things we’ve done. About a third of our railroad is in the front yard and many times people have been to our house and never even noticed the railroad exists. I went out and took some pictures from the street just to give you an idea of what things look like from there. For prespective, this is small town America and our driveway is 75 feet long.

#8

Michael T said:
Jon, thanks for the thoughts and input. Do you have any pics of your front layout? I’d like to take a peek and see what you’ve done with your yard. [i]

OK, here are a few that I’ve posted… This is the side and back yard turning toward the front

This one is looking back at the house from near the street. Sorry it is so small. For a full size (1024x768) click here

A different angle of the front garden with a 1024/x768 image here

This is “Deep Cut” my attractive nuisance only steps from the street.

A (dated) tour of the entire railroad is posted here: NSS Photo Tour I don’t seem to have any shots on-line of the front yard from any distance away. I have not done as good a job as Ric in disguising the track along the side yard from Deep Cut to the back yard. JR

#9

Ric,

Thanks for the pictures, your home and landscale looks wonderful. I’ve thought about using the pre-cast stones, but I (for whatever reason) like the look of natural stone. I guess it’s not as “clean” as the others, but for now I’ll use it until I change my mind.

Jon,

Thanks to you as well for the pictures. After seeing them, I remembered I had seen them at the other site. Good looking layouts you guys have, and great use of hardscape and plant materials.

That sure gives me some more things to look at and consider, and use while making the final preps to getting this expansion complete. I do have plans of running trackage around the side of the house into the back yard, but that is a long, LONG ways away. Lot of things to contend with when that happens, but I’m not worried about that right now. My biggest goals are getting this fourth garden area built and getting the expansion done and wired in and trains running again.

thanks again guys for your thoughts and pics.

michael

#10

Michael, You’ve seen the driveway, but next to the driveway is the ivy and the trackage is in the brick walk.

Here is the new siding at “Old State Light”. It is called “Lighthouse Supply”.

Pardon the shadows, it was early. Here is the pin oak tree and you can see two layers of track in the stone border around it.

The top one is the front powered loop and the lower one is the branch line to “Cat Dump” that is the track you saw running along the edge of the driveway. Closer to the house is the wye at “Consolidated”. The lowest track is the switch back to the “Cat Dump Branch”. The line on the right under the bush is part of the front powered loop and the leg of the wye closest to the house is the lead into “KV Water” and the “Excelsior Bottling Plant”. You can see buildings that are left out all the time. We use Aristo-Craft crossing shanties as tourist railroad flag stops and ticket counters. But Jan has a couple of large jigstone buildings, like “KV Office” and you can see the new “KVOffice Supply Siding” behind it.

Now two railroad freight cars are kept stored inside at “Excelsior Bottling Plant No. 2”, which also holds the garden hose and faucette. I mean after all it is “KV Water”. :wink:

But of course, the big draw for tourist on the Kaskaskia Valley Railway is right down these tracks that are going off the bottom of this picture to the right.

That would be the trackage for the passenger tourist trains at “Old State Light”

Once again, I apologize for the shadows, but I do think they help to hide all this trackage that is right in front of you in this picture.

#11

Ric,

Seeing both sets of pictures, that is really amazing. I’m assuming that your railroad, at least in the front, is a point to point layout?

Would you entertain visitors if there is enough notice? lol.

#12

Michael,

The railroad is basically point to point. You can see some old pictures of the backyard on our website. Yeah, I know, I need to update and complete that.

www.kvrwy.com

Would we entertain visitors? Any excuse to run a train. Moments notice or planned session, it really doesn’t matter. The “Canadian Invasion” is happening on the 20th of September. This will be an afternoon/evening Ops Session" in honor of our Canadian Friends staying in Carlyle and joining up with us on our way to Marty Cozad’s on the 22nd in Nebraska City, Nebraska. We have our formal “Ops Session” on the first weekend of November and the last weekend of April, but give a holler and we’ll set things up.

#13

Well Ric,

Maybe after you’re back from that and things settle a bit, we can figure something out. So Kevin (my best friend) and I were out in the front looking around, planning, thinking aloud.

The question came up. Wiring a Wye…is that about the same as a reverse loop? Also, having a reverse loop on the end of a Wye? We mapped out a quick layout plan on the ground, and will have a Wye, and a reverse loop. If I can make the drawings up in paint, I’ll post it, possibly you and others could offer some tips and tricks.

I’ll be running track power to start. One of these days I’ll put a battery car together, but for now I’ll be planning on track power to run the layout.

So Kevin and I were talking about the possibilities, and we’ve added three new vertical gardens, a wye, a reverse loop, added onto the main continuous loop, that will give us point to point operations as well as continuous operation. We’ll also end up having three stations, and five-seven industry sites…at least that’s what is going to be proposed. Once we start building the garden borders, we’ll have a much better idea as to what we’ll have room for, and what we’ll need to put in a file until later expansions.

michael

#14

Michael,

We all have to have goals. Mine has always been to cut less grass, while still satisfying “the Yardmaster”. I do very little trimming and cut all of the yard with a riding lawnmower. Its a simple goal, but satisfying, and gives me more time to run trains.

I personally would not set boundaries. Try setting goals and let the railroad follow your thoughts and desires. If you setup boundaries, you are already limiting yourself. Decide what you want out of this and then build toward this. Also, don’t be afraid to change and/or abandon solutions. Remember, my goal has always been to enjoy trains and not cut so much grass. What you saw in the pictures is going on eleven years of work and enjoyment. Besides, I’m just a youngster compared to Dave, Fred and others. It’s the journey that is the enjoyment, not the completion of the project. Small goals, but always goals.

#15

Good morning, I’m late, so I’ll expound more later, but I wanted to post a first “rough draft” of our plan for the expansion.

I’ll edit and explain more later.

#16

Michael T said:
Good morning, I’m late, so I’ll expound more later, but I wanted to post a first “rough draft” of our plan for the expansion.

So here’s the current thought. We’re going to lengthen the loop a bit, put in a 12ft passing siding. There will be two spurs inside the loop run for dropping/picking up cars. We’ll extend a single line for now directly in front of the garden wall, to the end of the house. There we will develop a wye, sending one line towards a new circular double tier planter that will be mortared in stone. The track will circle around on the lower tier and reverse back towards the wye. In the other direction, for now the tracks will end at the side of the house, which will be used as another industrial stop/spur. A small freight/passenger station will occupy the inside of the wye. A larger passenger station with coaling, sand, and water access will set inside the passing siding for the main station stop. Another (third) small station will be built and places at the southeast corner of the layout, from the picture the bottom left area. In front of the tracks leading to the wye, another double or triple tiered stone mortared planter will be constructed. The length of the garden area will be bordered by another stone mortared retaining wall, probably no more than 8-12" tall. So that’s where we are right now. Have to start collecting some materials, and start getting the stone retaining walls started.

#17

Michael,

That looks like a great plan. Because you are going to have a reverse loop and a wye, you’ll have the ability for trains to run both directions. Trains go someplace and then they come back from that place. I noticed all of your industrial sidings are right hand turnouts. How about one left hand turnout just to frustrate things a little bit? Always good to keep the grey matter working by making it figure out how to get the car but in the siding without trapping the engine. :wink: That’s not devious, its just reality. Not everything is always a right hand turn.

#18
Ric Golding said:
Michael,

I noticed all of your industrial sidings are right hand turnouts. How about one left hand turnout just to frustrate things a little bit? Always good to keep the grey matter working by making it figure out how to get the car but in the siding without trapping the engine. :wink: That’s not devious, its just reality. Not everything is always a right hand turn.


That’s funny you mentioned that Ric. The turnout on the bottom of the picture was a LH turnout, and I changed it. That was before the wye and reverse loop came into the design. Making that a LH again, as you said would interest things a little bit.

So, how far do I get into this before I start asking all the elementary questions about battery powered trains? I’m clueless where that is concerned, but I have an interest in it.

The only thing that keeps me from taking the loop out altogether and making it an almost true point to point, is having the Holiday Lights. When the lights turn on, I want the train to run most of the nights that the lights are on, without me being overseer. But then again, having reverse loops on both ends would solve that wouldn’t it?

Argh…just when I think I have things figured out, another “curve” gets thrown into the mix. But that’s ok, it’s at least 1/2 the fun of the design and planning. I went and got one truck load of stones tonight from a new neighborhood that’s being built. I’ll get another load or two on Saturday and start putting the retaining wall and the raised planter gardens together. Once their in, I can start doing the final grading and start getting the mainline down.

#19

Michael,

I’d say slow down and enjoy the ride. You get the walls in and start putting fill in and all this will need to settle and stabilize. Get some track down to keep your interest going, but expect things to shift and settle. I also was originally planning a pure point to point and then a reverse loop to a reverse loop, but that quickly changed to a powered loop in the back and eventually another one in the front and the basement, because sometimes people just like to see a train run. Just like you said during the Holiday season or we also run trains (Thomas lately) when the Grandkids come over. So now you have to describe the railroad as a point to point with a powered loop in the backyard and the front yard. Its all good.

Battery Operations? Talk to Dave Goodson and many other more knowledgable people than me. I think it is great, but I’m just supporting my own thoughts there.

#20

Ric,

Thanks for the thoughts again. Now let me regress to something in my former post. I’m not 100% convinced or talked into battery power at this point. I’m doing some looking into it just because I don’t want to dismiss another form of operational power just because. My small loop currently is track powered, and I do plan on continuing the track power for this as well, even with the headaches associated with wyes and reversing loops…I’ll read up on those and find the best way to have them work for me.

Of course I’m not in a huge hurry. Having a better understanding of landscaping than I do of railroading, I’m more than prepared with what I’m facing with the new gardens and the prep work for them. Even though I’m planning both as being congruent with one another, I’m also looking at it from the perspective that if I ever move and sell the house, the buyers will still want a nice looking yard minus the railroad, and that is what I plan towards.

Now with all that said, would you think it would be wise to put a siding on the long straight past the loop, before it connects to the wye? That way if trains get on the “narrows” (I’ll call it that I think) one will be able to pull aside and allow the other passage? Just thought of that a bit ago.

michael