Laying Track

[RSB]

I am in the planning stage of laying my railway, I plan to use LGB track.
I have purchased various Garden Railway books, and looked at the various options, but how has everyone laid there track?

I plan to lay mine on the ground, what is the best / most practical way of doing so?

Best Regards

Rob

 

[mike]

depends on how good your knees are#!!

 

[dutchelm]

There are so many ways of laying track. All have advantages & disadvantages.
My preference is to dig a trench, line with a weed suppressant membrane, fill with fine gravel or grit & lay the track on top. Easy to do, easy to change but needs regular leveling.
The opposite extreme is to lay a concrete foundation & put the track on that. Hard work, hard to change but needs little maintenance (unless you get subsidence when you have major problems).
There are different ways between these extremes, non are wrong. It depends what suits you.

 

[dragon]

A lot of people use decking boards. Just remember to treat any sawn edges with preservative.

 

[owlpool]

I use boards covered with roofing felt, fitted to stakes to get the level/gradient
track screwed to boards
felt weatherproofs and looks a bit like ballast

 

[adeshers]

You've opened a can of worms there

My advice - keep reading this forum, you will learn all you need to know

 

[ge_rik]

A lot depends on whether you want to use sectional or flexible track. If you use flexible track you'll need a firm base (eg concrete, blocks or timber) to keep the track aligned. If you use sectional (ie ready-formed) track sections then you can lay track on loose ballast or on a firm base - your choice.

To complicate matters, you can get a track bender to preform your flexible track so it behaves like sectional track.

As mentioned earlier - there are as many ways of laying track as there are garden railway modellers.

Rik

 

[jameshilton]

If you do a search on here there is a lot of advice already
I'm in the same position but so far have learnt that the weedproof membrane is probably a hindrance in that the lower layer of ballast doesn't lock into the earth. I'll be digging a trench, laying coarse gravel with fines - then levelling and tamping, adding a finer layer and then track down. Ballast over when finished and give it all a good wetting.

Gleaned from here, books and the 16mm society guide.

 

[steve parberry]

Mine just sits on a bed of alpine grit on top of weed control fabric.

As other have said the decision is yours:thinking:

 

[stockers]

Pictures say it all really.
Concrete blocks settled into a bed of sharp sand amd decking boards for higher tracks.
I also used an 8 x 8 inch gate post and a length of 6 x 2 inch that was left over from building the house extension.

 

[bobg]

Try looking at this for some methods.

http://www.gscalecentral.net/m66719

As said already it's what suits you that is the correct way, just have a good look round first. There are one or two things I might change if I was to start again from scratch, but what I 've done suits me for now

 

[jacobsgrandad]

As everyone has said there are many ways. I have used decking boards, plywood shuttering, concrete, 4mm grit over weed membrane and flagstones dependant upon location and what I had available, all this using peco flexitrack. Just making the point that there is no one "correct" way

 

[ge_rik]

Here's a few pix of my approaches. But I'm not saying my methods are best - I just happened to have some spare breeze blocks kicking about when I laid the first length of track and the new extension needed to be about two feet above ground level so timber was the best option.

My railway is generally 6 inches to 2'6" above the level of the surrounding garden on raised beds or timber - but that's cos I'm getting old and decrepit and it saves bending too much. Here's how I constructed the raised beds:

Which I then clad in sandstone. This is actually a veg bed but the other beds used the same principle - I kidded the neighbour that I hadn't seen the missus since I'd completed this bed ..........

Rik

 

[nico]

http://nslrailroad.webs.com/nslrconstruction.htm :bigsmile::bigsmile:

 

[Westcott]

I salvaged this thread from the old G-Scale Mad Forum.
This uses a ladder roadbed made from upvc strips.
http://www.the-wests.com/Line_1.htm

 

[RSB]

Many thanks for all the replies so far, they have all been very helpful and informative.

So far I think I am likely to go with digging a trench, lay weedproof membrane and then fill with ballast / pee shingle.

The track I am going to use is LGB, would 10mm pea shingle be ok for ballast?

 

[dutchelm]

If you do a search on here there is a lot of advice already
I'm in the same position but so far have learnt that the weedproof membrane is probably a hindrance in that the lower layer of ballast doesn't lock into the earth. I'll be digging a trench, laying coarse gravel with fines - then levelling and tamping, adding a finer layer and then track down. Ballast over when finished and give it all a good wetting.

Gleaned from here, books and the 16mm society guide.

Be warned. The weedproof membrane not only stops the weeds coming up, it stops the ballast going down. Be it on your own head if you leave it out!

 

[stockers]

It will work but it is not the best. It is very round and therefore rolls away from where you want it. Its also a bit large. An alpine grit or potting grit from the garden centre is usually finer and more angular. You could start with peabeach and then cover with grit.
A bit like foundations - there are also many ways of ballasting.

 

[steve parberry]

It may look a little large and you will struggle to keep it still due the roundness of the stones, the idea of balast is that all the sharp edges lock into place and hold the track firm. If the real ballast become to round it is normally replaced as the track quality will deteriate much faster than with ballast with sharp interlocking corners...

But it is you railway so its up to you.

Have a look round you local garden centre to see what they have

 

[dutchelm]

Many thanks for all the replies so far, they have all been very helpful and informative.

So far I think I am likely to go with digging a trench, lay weedproof membrane and then fill with ballast / pee shingle.

The track I am going to use is LGB, would 10mm pea shingle be ok for ballast?

The biggest mistake on my line was to use pea gravel. It will not hold the track in place & is a liability as ballast. You need gravel or grit with corners to lock together & hold the track in place. The later sections of mine are laid in horticultural grit.