That is a good idea Chuck. This is a rather sunny spot so black is out since I bet it would get really hot in the Summer. I wanted to keep this table as level as possible so cars wouldn’t roll away and I have noticed that a bit of rain water has collected in a spot. I will have to look into the rolled roofing.
I’m toying with the idea of painting the name of the RR along the front edge of the bench.
That is the main problem with using plywood…water teds to pool over a wide expance like that. We build our benchwork for yards just like a deck, and use PT 2x lumber, leaving 1/4 inch gaps between courses…but we don’t use ballast…looks nice, but ballast gets into the switch points and causes trouble…we operate, and would rather have good trackage than pretty trackwork.
Yes…brace those legs…!!
Fred Mills said:
…we operate, and would rather have good trackage than pretty trackwork.
Exactly what I was thinking as I was washing off my concrete switch pads with a hose yesterday. It would look better ballasted right up to the points, but having the track alone directly on the solid road bed allows all of the pine needles, plant debris and dirt to be washed right out.
Another option to rolled roofing is ice guard. In Northeast Ohio we have to put it on the first three feet of roof edges and in the valleys under the shingles to protect against ice backup. The material has self adhesive backing is thinner than rolled roofing and still has a gravel like texture. The only drawback is that I believe it only comes in black. A standard roll is 3’x50’ and usually runs about $45.
Terry
Update.
Well checked on the rolled roofing at the local building store and they sell a roll 100 square for over $100!! I don’t need that much and don’t want to spend that much either. I already spent to much building this bench and then to add the track. This is a expensive hobby.
Luckily I already had the track.
I started laying out my track plan as seen in a few photos back and already made a change. I was dodging rain drops so if the weather should ever clear I’ll get a chance to test out more scenarios.
Flipping through a book “Locomotive Serving Terminals” I’m thinking I might go that route which would give me an opportunity to build a few interesting buildings like a sand house and coaling tower VS just building a yard for storage and switching cars around. Maybe I can do both?
Before track gets tacked down I might have to check out that ice shield.
After playing aorund a bit with the track plan I finalised it and cut the pieces to fit etc…
I think this layout makes the most use of the space and gives me lots of switching action to mess with. The main line comes in at the top left. All tracks end at the bottom of the photo. I’m thinking this yard will be more for servicing both diesal and steam engines than storage. I’m planning on building a 2 stall engine house for the tracks at the top on the right. I also need to build a means to coal, a sand house, a water stand pipe, don’t have room for a tank, and I already built a tank to fuel diesels. I’m gonna skip the clean out and ash pit areas.
Next step is to wire and isolate the individual tracks so I can park several trains here while others run the main.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/capecodtodd/_forumfiles/yarddesignfinal.jpg)
That’s all for now.
“Next step is to wire and isolate the individual tracks so I can park several trains here while others run the main”
Thats why I like battery power. I don’t have to isolate anything or play with wires. BTW nice looking yard design.
Thanks and believe me Chuck I was considering batteries when I was wrestling with setting up a WYE on my pike 2 years ago. Batteries would sure solve alot of problems, like dirty track woes and there is a bit more “reality” to a train that runs under its’s own power, but I have a nice collection of engines and the thought of converting all of them was daunting.
Dirty track actually recently saved my most expensive engine from a bad wreck. I was filming “the weed train” and the 2-6-6-2 was coming home in the last shot of the movie. The train came through the WYE and I was there to catch the 9 car train. As the caboose slid by I stopped the camera and quickly realised the track that the train just went onto was a dead end with a 3’ drop and yours truly had removed the bumper for the Winter. I reached for the STOP button on the controller but before I could hit it the engine stopped on a dirty dead spot of track. My favorite most expensive engine would have gone right off the edge if it had been battery powered. That was a close call.
Chalk one up for dirty track! Yeah 
Part of being allowed by the boss in building this new yard area was to make it possible for one of her climbing plants to continue its upward meandering. The track and benchwork came across this area and to keep the vines from entangling trains a bridge would need to be built. The quickest was a truss bridge based on a similar design elsewhere along the main. This one was built out of mahogany and I don’t know why when cedar would have worked since I painted it black to pretend it was steel and to match a girder bridge 6 feet away.
It was a quick no thrills basic build which I think came out rather nicely. Now the plant can grow over it and not affect the trains.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/capecodtodd/_forumfiles/NewBridge7113.jpg)
Nice!
