Bob forgot to metion another mistake : he let me come over!!
Yea, but you built me some solid benchwork and trimmed some trees, so I guess it was a wash. 
Believing what was printed in the LGB catalogue.
I consider myself a newby in this scale since I’ve only been in it for about 3 years. I can tell you that I’m worried about one grade on my layout. It is 4% and i think that is too steep. I could have raised my trestle a little taller and lessened the grade. Now it is too late so I will live with it. Lesson learned.
Rich Niemeyer said:
Road bed. For several years, I used strips of exterior foam for road base, which did work well. Kept the track level well. But after a few years, if the foam was not carefully covered with ballast to protect from sun damage, it would fall apart in crumbles Now I’m using strips of concrete counter backer (Lowe’s and HD), cut with an old saw blade (DON’T use a new blade or it will become an old one rapidly!). Stuff works well, holds ballast, is strong and stable. I’ve used it under switches For some time with good results to. I cut the strips 4 1/2" wide and as long as the boards are…usually 3-4’. I’m redoing everything this spring that I haven’t already put down. Also fixing grades like everyone else has too as well. Winter here has been mild, so hoping I can get out early and get everything put back together.
Rich, I’ve looked at that stuff thinking it must have uses for backyard railroads, but what they sell up here is porous, so I expect the pores would fill with water, then the freeze-thaw cycle would break it up pretty quickly. I have seen it used for buldings, but the builder sealed it with a coat of mortar. I wonder if the stuff you’re using is solid rather than filled with holes, or if you can just get away with it - I see you are living in New Mexico.
It’d be great if more LSC members would please disclose their locations as you and I have done. After all, In this hobby, differences in climate are everthing!
So, do tell what’s up with that roadbed of yours, Rich. Thanks!
Biggest error: as a beginner I built a roundy-roundy at ground level. Maybe my error was listening to more experienced garden railroaders! (Not here at LSC.)
I quickly learned that I had no use for roundy-roundy-type operations, nor for standing trackside and seeing only the roofs of cars sitting or running in circles down near my ankles. I also have little use for weeding my track.
Next error: Thinking that if I moved tons of dirt and rocks I could get the railroad up high enough. Nonsense. for three or four summers I wore myself completely out and only got it up to just below knee height. Nowhere near high enough. And when I checked in with myself I realized that I wasn’t having fun yet.
In addition, even the slightest alteration or improvement to my track layout meant that I had to dig in and do a whole lot more spadework. Yuck! It’s amazing how much heavy lifting is required to put earth and rocks under even the shortest length of track. And like all of us, I realized I wasn’t getting any younger either!
Finally, after five years of this nonsense, I became aware that I had started this garden railroading folly because I wanted to play with my big beautiful new toys, and not because I wanted to spend my summers doing heavy landscaping. Duh…
So I guess you could say my actual biggest mistake was in being a really, painfully slow learner.
Finally I woke up to two facts:
First, answering the question, “What else can my trains do?” I had meanwhile created a couple of switching railroads which I took to shows, and also set up in our breezeway beside the house here. I now knew for certain that I wanted to operate in the backyard, with friends, in a much larger railroad-like way. For me this meant building a sizeable point-to-point railroad.
Second, I knew that the garden itself was of very little importance as long as I could a) have friends out there and a place to entertain them, b) have my railroad at operating height.
I’m 6’2" tall, so, after experimenting a bit, the ideal track height for me turned out to be 39", which is your basic kitchen counter plus 3". Coincidentally, that’s exactly one metre. As Paul Race so often says, your mileage may vary. It’s what’s comfortable for you.
I built wooden benchwork to that height, designing it to be easily flexible.
I can make changes and adjustments, expansions and reductions to my benchwork quite painlessly, because it’s designed that way. And the pike is now point to point with several switching locations. Lessons learned.
Oh, I’ve made other, lesser, mistakes too, but these are the biggies, and I would try to talk anybody out of repeating them!
Like the great engineer Brunel, I’m a great believer in keeping my mainline track level, by the way. Of necessity I have two grades on the branch, one down and one back up, but only short trains run there.
Cheers all!
You have learned well from your mistakes, John…some never learn…!!
Gord and I, this morning, were just discussing car weight standards, and how some seem to think that adding weight will cure all their derailment problems…failing to even consider wheel gauge, or track gauge, before adding weight.
We have sort of come to the conclusion that for our needs, a 2# weight is a happy medium for average 40 foot cars…but that is with good stable roadbed, and track work.
Of course we don’t even consider 20 car freights, which are way too long for the average “Operating” outdoor model of a short line railroad, in large scale.
Learning through mistakes made, and sharing the education, is the best part of web pages like LSC.
Regrets? I’ve had a few, but, then again, too few to mention.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/Fj5wnWpECLs
But those that I did make…
No idea what I wanted to model, Narrow gauge or Standard gauge, so I bought both.
I bought rolling stock when I should have been buying switches, but switches aren’t sexy.
The important parts of the RR are elevated, but those damn chickens make a mess of the rest of the track. I keep waiting for the hawks to do their job…
I did the ground level thing, but since my yard slopes up, I can easily have the trains at almost eye level by sitting down. I am a train watcher, not so much of an operator, so my reverse loop to reverse loop over a single track mainline works for me. It also impresses those who have model trains, because it automatically changes the polarity on the mainline and stops a second train, if there is one, behind the tree.
My biggest mistakes were;
Using an S curve to thread the track through a rock wall. The short cars didn’t have any problem, but once the passenger service started using the longer passenger cars, it became a real issue.
Buying everything that caught my eye (when funds permitted). My original vision was to model a narrow gauge line that only had 9 locomotives throughout its entire existence. Now I have over 30 locomotives, and some of them are (gasp) diesels.
I eventually raised the railroad over an inch and put a camel back bridge over a lower spot of the rock wall, to eliminate the S curve. As for the expanding roster…well…
What I did do right, is I built small with plans for future expansions. Neither expansion plan has happened yet, and neither may happen. But I have a small railroad that I can easily maintain and operate.
my biggest mistake was building too big and complicated.
450ft. of track, nearly as much benchwork - that is a long wait and much work, before trains will be running.
The biggest error I’ve made is 4 1/2 percent grades. It’s hard on gears.
Another error was building a too-small tunnel that’s been rebuilt twice!
Oh, and i just remember another error. I used those rail joiners instead of rail clamps!
But I built a big layout with large curves which I like. I followed the advice to dig four inch trenches and fill with gravel. Float the track on no. 5 gravel. And float my track. This was correct decision for me! Maintenance is minimal due to the drought.
So after a 2 month hiatus this thread has been revived.
Well, I’m happy to report that I cannot think of a big or any error with my track.
First, I read every post on every forum I could find.
I visited layouts, emailed people and read more.
I determined I would use DCC, and after filtering out those who told me it was impossible, I determined it was brass or stainless. Made a loop of USAT, LGB and Aristo brass, and another of stainless.
Brass oxidized overnight… it was out. H&R stainless was great.
Price of stainless was high, but Aristo came out with stuff 1/2 the price of H&R… read more, understood the shortcomings of their ties, joiners, switches, gauge.
Went into it with my eyes open, again thanks to friends and forums.
I have no mistakes, although I did change a crossover from 10’ diameter to #6 so eliminated a nasty S curve and the streamliners and heavyweights were happy. I needed plenty more 10’ switches so no loss.
Greg
Biggest mistakes
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Using plastic garden edging to line the ballast. Worked great until the next spring. Turns out the frost did a great job of lifting the edging. After the second year we got rid of it all.
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Using stainless steel spikes in pressure treated ties for custom turnouts. Like the plastic edging the spikes rose in the spring. Still two turnouts to replace. Now we use plastic impregnated wood for the ties and we predrill the spikes and use super glue. They now stay firmly in place.
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Clearance – We were into 1:22.5 for many years but gradually transitioned into 1:20.32. The introduction of the K27 required quite a bit of rebuilding to achieve clearance.
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Brass track – yes we all know about how fast it tarnishes but that was not the real problem. We have Deer in the yard and while brass track will hold up to Elephants, a well planted Deer foot puts a kink in the rail. Within the next two years all if it will finally be history.
Stan
I live in northern California, Sacramento to be exact.
Track mistakes:
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Too small curves. Mine are five foot radius, which were fine when I ran smaller equipment. Now my passenger cars look kind of funny going around them.
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No grade changes. I lost the trains on the back of the railroad. So I just bought a bunch of blocks and raised the back about four inches. Now you can see some of the trains as they run behind the trees but above ground level.
Here’s what I’m proudest of. Code 250 aluminum track, track powered. Ballast of real granite held down with “rapid set.”
Here’s a picture:
- I let my brother build a deck bridge out of oak without adequate drainage.
Then came a storm
The oak deck bridge ended in the water after the support gave out.
Drain added, Daniel Peck bridge installed… no issues. We recently had a storm that dumped about 10 inches of rain…held up just fine.
Biggest mistake was probably using wood at or below grade.
I believe it may have been the lack of drainage.
Steve Featherkile video said it best for us with his Frankie S. Video doing it my way.
We have had many, many error over the years, but we had two real big errors with our R.R.
One was years ago after we installed our Auto Swing Bridge in the Koi Pond, and I was doing a adjustment test on the bridge. I tried to use jumper wires off of the track power to control it temp. off of Aristo R/C’s. TM’s.
I heard a big splash and yup… my NW-2 with sound " that sound was turned off. " went off the end off the tracks in to the pond behind me. Ended up in about 3 foot of water.
It took me quite a few hr’s. to take the Eng. apart and dry it out.
Other error is now and never thinking we would say it is, the Garden R.R. has grown so much over the yr’s that it’s getting to be a big job and a hassle to keep the tracks and wheels clean for one person. With the Pine Needle, Pitch and looking for your trains sometimes it’s can be a bummer.
Kind of wish we left it about half the size it is now… or had it indoors so all have to do is plug it in
and set back and watch them run.
Not making it high enough! Getting old and hard to get up and down. If I had to do over again I would
build on a table.
Don
Actually, I think my biggest mistake was thinking garden railroad, instead of outdoor model railroad.