Large Scale Central

Track/Ballast channel

Track and Trestles
#1

Not too happy with my results digging a channel and lining it with landscape cloth, and having run out of the bender board I was using to make channels, I noticed a 100 foot roll of 3-inch drainage hose. Well, this method may not work in areas with frost heave, but I found that it was very easy to slit it in half with a box cutter and screw it down to my benchwork to contain soil on the outside and hold ballast on the inside. It takes a natural curved set, and curves gently, much like the track should. It’s working well for the bench area, and will go into regular soil next. I need to poke a few drainage holes so it does not collect water, but I am liking this new method. Thoughts?

#2

Yes, instead of drilling the drainage holes why not use drainage pipe? The type that farmers use in the soggy fields.

#3

Our club layout uses this exact method though we use the same drainage pipe used in sump pump systems (6"?). Called “drain-tile” it already has slits for drainage. When buried in the soil and filled with ballast only the very edges protrude above the surface. The track then free-floats in the ballast. It has given use flawless operation for years. Had my current layout not already have been placed on 6" of crushed granite I would have done the same.

Any edges that “show” actually look like metal retaining barriers used in 1:1 applications to control erosion.

#4

Sounds like a good idea. I would just add my recommendations of using “drainage Tile” so you dont have to cut drain holes. Usually Drainage tile comes with a nylon sock around it. Just take the sock off and use like you did the above pipe.

#5

Yeah, I would have used pre-slitted hose, but this is what I had. Would have been easy enough to run it over the table saw with a very low blade, If I had thought of it first. But I didn’t, so I will have to hit it with an awl or something. Possibly better, as it will put the holes at the dead bottom of the channel for best drainage.

I am not surprised to learn that others are already doing this. Once my eye fell on the coil there, it was a natural!

#6

That is a neat idea but even in frost free zones I would worry about it lifting and it would be a real chore to get it back down. Maybe you could drive spikes into the ground and atach the pipe to it?
I once thought about using plastic gutters for the straight sections of track. They come in 10’ lengths but then what to do for the curves? your idea could be used.
I like it.

#7

I am sure that some sort of spike would work fine. The first run is screwed down to the benchwork, so no worries there. For free-range dirt, I suppose, you could take some care to lay sand under the pipe, which might help, and you could put a hole in the bottom of the pipe and drive some sort of stake through it to spike it down. Maybe even some sort of screw.

I imagine that the problem is that if there is lifting, tacking it down every few feet will still result in a problem. Possibly a worse one since then it would be uneven. So, perhaps the better approach is NOT to spike it down, and either hope it does not lift (my plan) or layer a sub-bed of sand under the pipe to reduce the lifting risk.