Track laying materials... shopping tomorrow!

[CoggesRailway]

I hung up the suit and tie for 11 days today!!! And apart from fixing a leaky shower (SO ANNOYING- can't work it out!), reroofing a shed and watching England- the whole time is dedicated to rebuilding the Cogges Railway to be twin looped, level and with sweeping bends. Bliss... I will keep you bunch updated as I plan to take pics etc... Also expect a rash of questions arising for you more experienced G Scalers!

I plan to affix the track on decking planks and then ballast for effect. Last time I just hammered pressure treated stakes into the ground and screwed the deck boards onto them- OK for a year or two but not I think for 10 years- I have seen pressure treated fence posts rot suprisinlgy quickly where they contacted the earth. I am not convivnced on relying on gravity even in a nice gravel bed, as the boards may well warp etc. So I am thinking of laying weed proof fabric, then some kind of block/brick/slabs at intervals and screw the decking to them. Then ballast up the whole thing with some form of gravel. Are there any appropriate blocks which are easy to screw/drill into- just want to save myself the aggrevation and effort of drilling many times into a very hard material...

Help and advice please!

 

[stevelewis]

Are you talking ground level Here??

If so why not do what a lot of us do and lay your track just like the real thing in a bed of balast?

I have used this method for years and it works!

I use approx 5mm white granite chippings from local building yard approx £2 for 25KG bag it is intended for putting on flat rooves!

Dont use pea gravel ! it is nescessary for the ballast to lock together to retain the track, but at the same time it does 'float ' a little with the passage of trains, this assists in keeping the insides of the ral joiners cleaner.

In my opinion and from my expereince with different metods of track laying I have tried over the years one of the worst thing you can do is to fasten track down rigidly so there is no movement

 

[daveyb]

what shower have you got,, problem etc,,,

 

[Madman]

I would say that if you must watch England, you will not have the time or energy to do much else

 

[JRinTawa]

I'm with Steve, if it's a ground level line then I'd lay the track in ballast with some 100mm of basecourse in a trench under the formation before laying the ballast. Probably equal effort to laying on timber and cost wise probably cheaper.

 

[CoggesRailway]

I have flexi track - does that need to be fastned or will it work in ballast too?

 

[yb281]

I have flexi track - does that need to be fastned or will it work in ballast too?

Best to secure it I think, it will have a tendency to try and return to it's original shape when it's been down for a while. Especially with the expansion and contraction due to changes in temperature.

 

[nico]

I have flexi track - does that need to be fastned or will it work in ballast too?

I used Flexi track on all my railway floating on 5mm gravel since 2008 no problems yet

 

[stevelewis]

Assume its LGB flex?

Thing to do is to bend the rail OUT OF THE SLEEPERS then re thread it back on the sleepers that way it WILL retai its curvature, its a bit tedious a job but one soon develops a KNACK to it!

I used to bend the rail round my Knees when in a crouched position!! bend BOTH rails together lining tem vertically side by side so the inner is slightly more cureved than the outer rail.

Vaseline or grease on he rail helps when re threading on hte sleepers

I had LGB flex laid this way, in ballast, for around 12 years without problem on a previous line

 

[Westcott]

Some manual benders' techniques are not quite as good as Steve's, so a track bender is a more expensive option.
The best ones fit over the complete track, so you don't have to take the rails out.
All of my flex track was bent with one of these - as Steve says, once bent it stays where you put it without any fixing.

 

[nico]

Assume its LGB flex?

Thing to do is to bend the rail OUT OF THE SLEEPERS then re thread it back on the sleepers that way it WILL retai its curvature, its a bit tedious a job but one soon develops a KNACK to it!

I used to bend the rail round my Knees when in a crouched position!! bend BOTH rails together lining tem vertically side by side so the inner is slightly more cureved than the outer rail.

Vaseline or grease on he rail helps when re threading on hte sleepers

I had LGB flex laid this way, in ballast, for around 12 years without problem on a previous line

AMS Track and i used a rail bender

 

[jacobsgrandad]

I use PECO flexitrack which I bend by hand as I lay it. Floating in ballast no problems to date. (3 years)

 

[CoggesRailway]

this sounds promising!!! let you know progress.

 

[stevelewis]

Its some years now since I laid Flex track and in those days there was only one rail bending machine avaiable and that was very expensive, considering also it would not be used much after the track was laid, ( it was around £95 that must have been around 1985 ish)

So I used my knees

Just another tip when laying curved flex track, if a joint occurs on a curve, stagger the joints by a couple of inches, this avoids getting dog -leg joints!

 

[beavercreek]

Hi Ian
I go with the posts from Steve, John and Nico. I have used a mix of flex (LGB) and stock straights and curves (LGB nd Aristocraft)
I also used a mix of methods for laying the track. Where it was running around the lawn and beds I used twin walls of log roll with metal stakes to keep it rigid and upright. I laid roofing felt with plenty of drainage holes between the log roll walls under the and around the bottom of the logroll to add more damp soil/weather protection and also as a base for the ballast to be poured on. This then had batons (pressure treated) scewed acoss at 12" -14" intervals to screw the track to. The whole lot was then filled with the ballast so that it just covered the batons. The track was then screwwed to the battons after shaping. I left small gaps at each join to allow for expansion and also 'slotted the fixing holes on the sleepers to also allow expansion on the curves.
This shows the two logroll walls but after deciding on twin track I decided to add a passing loop and this has caused the tracks to have to spread out over the log roll itself

Where a whole section of lawn was going to be commandeered into use I had to compensate for a bit of a slope where the lawn swept down to behind a retaining wall (9 inch drop). I decided to fill the area with soil and turf taken form the log roll installation area and then quite deep gravel ( large granite chips topped with smaller chips). Into this was sunk pressure treated stakes (with added 5 star wood prervative soaking) and pressure treated roofing tile slats fixed between the stakes to create a 'floating bed' for any change in my original track design. The ballast was poured between the slats and around the stakes and the track fixed to the slats. Small size ballast was then added and the slats disappeared.

This is the area that was 'claimed from the lawn' which is now under tons of gravel. The slats run under the present rail design but allow for alteration and rescrewing in the future. The slats do keep the track secure especially if I have to tread over the site to clean up or play 'hand of god'. I have close clearances to rocks all over the layout and do not want track wandering no matter how little that may be!

It has all been in situ for about 4 years with some alterations and additions and is still rock solid..no rot yet....oh what have I done...never tempt providence!

 

[Wobbleboxer]

Have you considered plastic posts and boards? There are a few threads on here discussing it and I'm sure some people on the forum have used it with great success.

 

[Sea Lion]

For a ground level railway I use "bendy concrete"

From a builders merchant get strips of PVC about 4 inches wide (anything up to 12 feet long). This is the stuff stuck over joints between new PVC window frames and the brickwork.

Use the PVC on edge as shuttering, 2 strips just over the width of your track apart.

Bend to whatever layout of curvature you want.

Place small pegs/stakes on the outside to hold it in place.

Stand occasional half bricks between the strips to hold them apart.

Pour in concrete and trowel off level to the top of the PVC, removing the half bricks as you go along.

When set peel off the PVC and re-use on another section.

Place flexi track on top of concrete, highly recommend removing the rails and rolling them to put a "set" in to the required curvature, not absolutely essential unless you are a perfectionist.

Using a small masonry bit drill through the plastic sleeper and into the concrete.

Push in a small plug (I use the Red size), and screw track down.

You will find this a very fast way to get very good track laid at low cost. The shuttering standing on edge is an easy way to keep a fairly good level "top" to your track as it doesn't really bend in the vertical plane.

And if you want to change your layout a few good whacks with a lump hammer will break out the old concrete so you can start again.

Hope this helps!

Happy steamings,

John

 

[Martino]

My vote goes with Steve, John, Nico and Mike.

It's easy, prototypical and seems to work even with extreme heat and heavy rain we have here. Not had a problem with flex track (LGB) unbending, nor with expansion issues. Maintenance is 'just like the real thing' - a bit of tamping and re-ballasting every now and then.

 

[JRinTawa]

Ah ha, found a wee topic I did on how the H&MGR was laid http://www.gscalecentral.net/m27429 < Link To Track Laying on the H&MGR
It's not the only way by any stretch but it works for me. Hope you find it useful.

 

[CoggesRailway]

Chaps this really is brillaint. So far (see other thread) I have been on concreted areas, and now thermailite blocks which will be ballasted in between and disguised by log roll.

I am about to break ground across the lawn ( to swmbo's horror) and this is where the above advice will really come into play.