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silverstatespecialties
1st Class Member
Brakeman
Posts:66
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 | | 05/20/2008 10:53 PM |
| I've finally been able to start on a project I've been dreaming about for the past 10 years or so: a walkway/pathway alongside our home, consisting of paving stones set between real mining railroad rails & ties. I've accumulated a decent collection of real 12- & 25-pound rails, 60-inch-wide ties (sleepers), as well as rail joiners, shoulder bolts, and spikes from a 3-foot gauge mining railroad that saw heavy use in the 1920s & 30s:
For anyone interested in viewing the construction progress (it's still a ways from completion), for your viewing pleasure I've set up an online slideshow narrative, so I don't jam up anyone's download times in this thread:
Side Yard Pathway Slideshow
The area under construction now will feature a real functioning switch, recovered from a scrap pile at this abandoned mine. Much of this pathway/walkway is inspired by an 18-inch gauge ride-on railroad in Oregon,which details the construction of working switches (points):
Meadows & Lake Kathleen RR. Fascinating!
My ties are set on 18-inch centers, which allows 12-inches between the ties, just enough room for the 12-inch square paver stones to set in. I originally wanted to gauge the rails to 18-inches, as this would look a lot better on the 30-inch-wide ties (I cut each 60-inch tie in half to fit; due to the narrow width of the side yard access between my house & wall with plants, 30-inches was all I could fit in), but my lawnmower & other yard implements wouldn't fit on the walkway...SOOOO, I regauged to 24-inches at the last minute, which looks a little funky on 30-inch wide ties. Oh well, it's better than not having it at all!
Outside the yard gate, I started cutting the remaining ties to 36-inches, which looks much better! I was able to do this because there are no plants or other restrictions in this area. However, where the 36-inch-wide ties start, is also the end of the 12-pound rail and the start of the 25-pound rail. I will have to neck down the ends of the 25-pound rail to join up with the 12-pound rail, which is no problem with my metal-working tools on hand...I will just have to create a transitional rail joiner and use the drill press to drill the concave holes for the shoulder bolts.
Interestingly, while trying to straighten some 12-pound rails, I destroyed 2 heavy-duty swivel vises & tore the corner off my substantial workbench...even after heating the rails to dull glowing red! An interim solution was found by bracing the rails against a street sign & block wall in the front of my yard, wrapping a 3-inch "snatch strap" around the area to be straightened, and using my Dodge Cummins pickup as a deadman for my hand winch. However, the 25-pound rails are too short to use with this method, so a search was launched for a suitable rail bender.
I found numerous hydraulic rail benders available from RR supply companies, but the prices start at $3,000!!!  " border=0> However, I found a how-to on building your own rail bender, good up to 90-pound rail:
http://www.1yard3foot.net (at the bottom of the page). I've found a local supply yard with some scrap sheet steel suitable for making my own rail bender, so this weekend it will be time to fire up the torch once again and then make a run to Harbor Freight tools for a compact 50-ton hydraulic jack (works in all positions!).
I'll also grab some 2-inch square tubing (0.250-inch sidewall thickness) to make a worktable bracket, so I can slide this into my pickup's towing receiver hitch for a suitable work area while bending. Remember, I've got only a very limited working area so I have to maximize what little space I have!
Anyway, once this walkway is completed, I can resume work on my outdoor railroad pond, bridges, and tunnels, and start to lay my Code-250 & Code-215 rail!! How exciting! The main railway will run along the block wall shown above, bolted to the wall, and resembling a bridge of some sort (I haven't decided whether it will be a girder-type or something else). | |
Warren Willis Jr., President
Bullfrog Las Vegas Railroad
Pioneering Beyer-Garratts in North America | |
| lvmosher
1st Class Member
Brakeman
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| | tbug
1st Class Member
Foreman
Posts:131
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| | 06/18/2008 8:36 PM |
| | Geez - another great idea for the future Deer creek RR. I plan on an extensive layout to walk in and around, w/ real RR-related features such as this in and around. Cool stuff! | | | |
| jimtyp
1st Class Member
Centennial, CO
Conductor
Posts:723
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| | 06/19/2008 9:07 AM |
| | Great idea Warren! Looks really good, just need RR crossing sign :-) Thanks for the link on the how-to rail bender! | |
livin' la vida loco | |
| silverstatespecialties
1st Class Member
Brakeman
Posts:66
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| | 06/19/2008 10:13 PM |
| Thank you for the kind comments! I've been working on finishing the walkway over the past few days, and here are a few photos of my progress:
The large rail in front of the block wall is a piece of 45-lb rail that was used on the Arden Plaster Co rail line in the 1930s (just outside Las Vegas). I used 12-inch paver stones set between the ties/sleepers, and used my tile saw to cut them to fit in between where the turn for the driveway & garage will be. The final ties/sleepers are 4x6-inch pine beams I found at Home Depot, for a very reasonable cost...I just cut them into 36-inch long pieces to install on the pressure-treated 2x4 stringers (not shown, buried underneath). I also used a couple of 4x4 posts in between the 4x6 ties where the curve will go.
Tomorrow we're heading out to a scrap yard that supposedly has some 10-lb & 12-lb rail sections; hopefully these will be salvageable so I can use them to finish my pathway.
As for the rail bender, I had second thoughts about building one due to the astronomical price of 1-inch steel plate. SOOOOO, I am in search of more 10-lb or 12-lb rail to use to finish the pathway. I will post my results as soon as I have them! | |
Warren Willis Jr., President
Bullfrog Las Vegas Railroad
Pioneering Beyer-Garratts in North America | |
| silverstatespecialties
1st Class Member
Brakeman
Posts:66
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| | 06/19/2008 10:20 PM |
| Posted By jimtyp on 06/19/2008 9:07 AM
Great idea Warren! Looks really good, just need RR crossing sign :-) Thanks for the link on the how-to rail bender!
Thanks Jim! I thought it might be useful for others, since the next-least expensive rail bender I could find was nearly $3,000! These expensive rail benders use a similar concept and layout as the home-made one I linked to, but DANG, $3K??? Needless to say, the home-made option currently is the only one available to me. But with the astronomical cost of steel plate these days, I decided against building one for a one-time use (at a minimum, it would sit idle for the next 10 years until I retire anyway). If I ever have a need for one in the future, I at least have the plans on hand to build one (and the torch kit inside the garage).
So, my 25-lb rail will sit on the other side of my house in my "storage" area, along with a set of points for 25-lb rail I recovered from the same mine (buried under a rubble/rock pile).
Hmm...I never did think of a RR Crossing sign, thanks for the idea!!!
| |
Warren Willis Jr., President
Bullfrog Las Vegas Railroad
Pioneering Beyer-Garratts in North America | |
| 3lphill
1st Class Member
Maywood Park Oregon
Brakeman
Posts:20
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| | 06/20/2008 10:21 AM |
| Instead of putting it off or building a bender, job it out. Call a random metal fab shop and ask for a recommendation. I would be surprised if it cost much more than $75.00 per bend.
Phillip
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| silverstatespecialties
1st Class Member
Brakeman
Posts:66
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| | 06/22/2008 12:35 PM |
| Posted By 3lphill on 06/20/2008 10:21 AM
Instead of putting it off or building a bender, job it out. Call a random metal fab shop and ask for a recommendation. I would be surprised if it cost much more than $75.00 per bend.
Phillip
Thanks for the recommendation, but I already inquired and the cost would be well over $250 total...but SUCCESS! I bought 3 12-lb rails from my trusty salvage yard, they found them when clearing out a section of the yard that was condemned for a freeway widening project...all in great shape too! They had some other pieces too: several short 10-lb sections, a 15-lb piece, and a 25-lb straight piece; but all were worn through on the tops, all the way down to & into the webbing. I got lucky!
I'll get the rails installed in the next day or two, and will post photos as soon as I'm done. | |
Warren Willis Jr., President
Bullfrog Las Vegas Railroad
Pioneering Beyer-Garratts in North America | |
| silverstatespecialties
1st Class Member
Brakeman
Posts:66
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| | 3lphill
1st Class Member
Maywood Park Oregon
Brakeman
Posts:20
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| | 06/26/2008 2:44 PM |
| Very Cool
Phillip | | | |
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