Apr10 Written by:Tom Farin
4/10/2008 6:56 PM
San Anselmo - Roadbed Construction
The NPC Garden Railroad will have a concrete roadbed. I want to thank Marty Cozad for his article on constructing concrete roadbeds.
http://www.mylargescale.com/articles/articles/concreteroadbed/roadbed01.asp
My roadbed is nearly identical to that described by Marty in his article with the exception that my concrete roadbed is 3"x6".
I used 60 pound bags of Quicrete, and 3/8" rebar in constructing the roadbed. Forms were 3" x 8' strips of 1/4" plywood. Stakes were cut from 8' 1x2 pressure treated lumber. I used 1 1/4" deck screws to screw the top of the forms to the stakes.
Concrete was laid in two levels. The first level was nominally 1-1/2" high. Once this layer was in place, I floated rebar on top of the concrete layer. This photo shows a section of rebar suspended on top of the concrete.
Once the Rebar was in place, the final layer of concrete was put poured and floated in place. Here's a photo of completed road bed.
There will be two bridges in this section. Gaps were left with exposed rebar. Bridge supports will be poured concrete and attached in this area.
Today we laid approximately 100' of concrete road bed. The job took 30 60# bags of concrete and approximately 110' of rebar at a total cost of $94 - just under $1 a foot.
The following photo is of my Harbor Freight Concrete Mixer taking a bow. Both adults involved in this project declined to be photographed after completing their work.
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