Hi some of you may have seen a previous post of mine regarding water pooling inside my layout. Although the water didn’t reach my track I’ve decided to raise the track by around 4 Inches at one end which would also solve the problem of having a slight slope to the other end of the track. I’m thinking a course of bricks laid on their side would do the job although the track would overhang each side. Has anyone done this? Thanks
Base advice
- Thread starter Kev Green
- Start date
korm kormsen
Registered
as long, as only the ties/sleepers "hang over", but the rails are above the bricks, you should be good,
JimmyB
Now retired - trains and fishing
I have used the lightweight building blocks my blog has details:
tumble-down-falls.blogspot.com
Railway Build Phase One
Phase 1 for me was to get a railway laid that I could eventually run a real steam locomotive on, my initial space was a little limite...
tumble-down-falls.blogspot.com
If you already have the bricks why not lay them flat paddle down? I would suggest a modest base at the bottom though just an inch or two of concrete would be better than nothing. You could easily use Postcrete just putting the bricks on it dry to level them up. Natuaral dampness will make the postcrete go off, maye a small temporary shuttering with some old timber that can be removed once the postcrete has gone off, generally 10 minutes or so. If you are worried about the postcrete sticking to the wood some plastic a cut up bin-liner will do would stop that.
Gerard
Registered
I suggest you use two layers of 5 cm thick and 1 m long concrete slabs without reinforcement steel, they are very cheap available.
But first build a sturdy base of a course sand layer of about .3 wide and 2 m. deep. The course sand will drain the rain water.
Do not use concrete or cement between the slabs, they are heavy and will stick very well together by their friction by weight. Any cement prevents later easy corrections.
Also do not mix cement (powder) or alike in de sand that forms the bottom layer, since that prohibits any possible local level corrections in the future using a hand shovel tilting and pushing sand under the strips..
When necessary you can fix the rails to the top slabs using drilled 5-6mm holes and 5-6mm plugs while keeping the rail on the slab.
But may be better using my simple and flexible horizontal position keeping system made from thin copper strips.
Each strip has two small rounded strip elements soldered on top of the strip at the position of the inside end of the rail beam.
Both ends of the strip are 90 deg bended over at the end of the slab and pushed down into the soil or between the slab and the bricks..
The strip prevents the horizontal movement of the rails.
See picture below: at the left a loose strip ready for applying under the rails and at the right the strip mounted below the rails with both ends pushed down between the concrete slab and the bricks.
This system has prooven to be working very well when the rails is frequently touched by garden equipment and/or people walking around!
Each
But first build a sturdy base of a course sand layer of about .3 wide and 2 m. deep. The course sand will drain the rain water.
Do not use concrete or cement between the slabs, they are heavy and will stick very well together by their friction by weight. Any cement prevents later easy corrections.
Also do not mix cement (powder) or alike in de sand that forms the bottom layer, since that prohibits any possible local level corrections in the future using a hand shovel tilting and pushing sand under the strips..
When necessary you can fix the rails to the top slabs using drilled 5-6mm holes and 5-6mm plugs while keeping the rail on the slab.
But may be better using my simple and flexible horizontal position keeping system made from thin copper strips.
Each strip has two small rounded strip elements soldered on top of the strip at the position of the inside end of the rail beam.
Both ends of the strip are 90 deg bended over at the end of the slab and pushed down into the soil or between the slab and the bricks..
The strip prevents the horizontal movement of the rails.
See picture below: at the left a loose strip ready for applying under the rails and at the right the strip mounted below the rails with both ends pushed down between the concrete slab and the bricks.
This system has prooven to be working very well when the rails is frequently touched by garden equipment and/or people walking around!
Each