yes they would, how about block paveres, laid in the balstast ...they float in the gravel, but are heavey enough to act as ancors..
New railway in planning
- Thread starter mike
- Start date
mine occasionally goes over and is screwed into 1 foot lengths of decking floating in the gravel, probably not needed but it works well. decking is pressure treated and the gravel drains. and i suspect if they rotted to nothing it would make no difference anyway!
Im with the just let it sit on the ballast gang, just as the real version does but if you need to secure for security that would pose a different reason to screw it down!!!
kimbrit said:
I'm with Kim, but I do use a membrane - not so much for the weeds (which often grow on top of the membrane anyway), but I get real problems with worm casts coming up through the ballast if I just lay it on the soil.
Track doesn't need to be fastened down though.
My track is just laid floating in 5 mm sharp shingle, and has never been fixed down during its 10 years in the garden.
I use all LGB except for a couple of ART level crossing straights....
I use all LGB except for a couple of ART level crossing straights....
When I had my outdoor layout I just layed it on the ballast, depending on the track used you need to consider how the track in held together, USA and Aristos tiny little set screws work well to hold the track together, for LGB I used the plastic tie joiners and they worked surprisingly well, where USA/Aristo and LGB are connected and at ALL turnouts I used Hillmann or Split-jaw Railclamps. Just be sure to use a dab of conductive grease in the joiners. I had this where the temps went from as low as 30 F in winter to 110 F in summer, just ran a cleaner block over it and it always worked fine. Good luck.
I would leave the track floating but it does need a good rail joiner of some sort. The extra cost of the rail joiners is easily offset by the time you save (and the cost) of fixing the track down. When i first started I drilled everything into a very sold concrete base, it never moved but It was very hard work. having just moved I am about to start again and I will not be using concrete!
Standard gravel will not be a particulary effective track base as it does not lock together. I have used bags of granet chippings, 5ml to dust which is ideal (though not always easy to get hold of), though horticultural git looks much the same (I saw some in Wyvale in 25kg bags recently) and chicken git is said to do as well. I think self locking grit of some type is vital as standard gravel will not hold the sleepers in place and moves easily getting in the works at points.
When you have laid it, bang it down firmly (I have one of those metal squares on a long pole that they use on the roads on ashfelt) and then lay the track, put down a bit more ballast and give it a good soaking with a hose to settle it in place
AC
Standard gravel will not be a particulary effective track base as it does not lock together. I have used bags of granet chippings, 5ml to dust which is ideal (though not always easy to get hold of), though horticultural git looks much the same (I saw some in Wyvale in 25kg bags recently) and chicken git is said to do as well. I think self locking grit of some type is vital as standard gravel will not hold the sleepers in place and moves easily getting in the works at points.
When you have laid it, bang it down firmly (I have one of those metal squares on a long pole that they use on the roads on ashfelt) and then lay the track, put down a bit more ballast and give it a good soaking with a hose to settle it in place
AC
38thfoot said:
Do you mean security from the point of view of the track being stolen? If so, I would suggest that a potential thief would soon rip the wooden battens out of the ballast, especially if they were stealing the track for it's scrap value rather than to re-use it.
I can't think of any way that track would be 100% secure from a determined thief, but screwing it firmly to a complete wooden trackbed might be the most secure?
trammayo said:
I have LGB track laid on a bed of potting grit about 4" deep with weed membrane below. Used standard rail joiners and LGB track clips between sections. No pinning or concreting - just careful ballasting to top of sleepers. It's been down for two years now and survived some really bad weather including a recent flood from the brook at the end of the garden which must have been under about 8-12" during the night. Apart from wiping off a layer of muddy water from the rail tops and removing flotsum and jetsum, we had trains running (track power) within about 20 minutes.
I'm also grateful that we decided to stick to concrete buildings as these all remained in situ, although loads of other items floated down the garden and out the other end!
Alas, workshop, sheds, garage and parts of the house did not fare so well, but all back to normal now after several days of hard, depressing labour. Fortunately, no structural damage or serious financial losses so will still be able to go ahead with the Black Squirrel's extension next Spring.
38thfoot said:
Most likely theft is for scrap so the bandits wouldnt be to bothered if all the brass pulled of the plastic sleepers.
The H&MGR has been done for well over 4 years, almost 5, laid loose in ballast with no problems to date. 
I'm looking at various options with regard to laying track, and I like the sound of laying it "floating" in gravel, like the real thing.
Do people get any problems with foxes or other such wildlife that like to excavate in the garden? We have quite a few foxes that frequent our garden, and I am a bit worried that if I don't fix it down properly the foxes will re-arrange all the ballast. They seem to dig most other stuff up that we put in the garden! They seem to like stealing gloves too, but that's a bit off topic.
Cheers,
Bill
Do people get any problems with foxes or other such wildlife that like to excavate in the garden? We have quite a few foxes that frequent our garden, and I am a bit worried that if I don't fix it down properly the foxes will re-arrange all the ballast. They seem to dig most other stuff up that we put in the garden! They seem to like stealing gloves too, but that's a bit off topic.
Cheers,
Bill
Only have squirrels and hedgehogs here, and they don't seem to cause any trouble with the permanent way....Cre8or said:
Cre8or said:
Yup! I have a Vixen that frequently frequents my premises. She is a pain, diigging up, in particular my herb garden, but so far has left the track area alone (my track is fixed). There are also a few squiggles but they just seem to pass through and so far haven't disturbed anything but the security light detector. Doesn't seem to bother them as I suppose there are so many around these days that they've learned to ignore them.
Black Squirrel Railway (not unsurprisingly!) has squirrels and also pheasants (not to mention dozens of bl**dy pigeons), plus our own two and neighbours' cats, but apart from the occasional deposits on the track and the nut-holes, no real problem. Wouldn't want to be without the wildlife. It's quite funny to see the squirrels and pheasants walking the line and they don't seem to do any real harm even when they do scratch in the ballast.