Well, I am now 58, with a badly damaged knee over the past 3 years, so ground level tracks are not really suitable for me anymore. Luckily I was thinking of how things might be when I got older, when I started building this layout in 2004. Luckily our garden slopes, and I am glad I took advantage of this and built Welton station at the bottom of the slope, thus bringing the height of the station area, steam raising sidings and future goods yard approx. 3ft feet above ground level. Although I must say the stone wall surrounding Welton station area on 3 sides is a job I would never want to do again. One year later after an accident, the wisdom of the raised station area was brought home to me.
The track is really only at absolute ground level where it crosses the lawn at Welton Junction and behind the trees in that area. Puffin Bay station is also raised off the ground 1½ to 2 ft, and hopefully if all goes well, the future Tumbly Down station area will also be approx waist height. Most of the ground level work done on the railway, and weeding, since my knee was damaged is done sitting on the ground ! I am in the process of changing the ballast from granite chippings (some of which are slightly larger than the original chippings, which are no longer available) to powdered granite (I think you call it fines in the US), which I find looks very pleasing once it has been rained on a few times. As you probaly know, fines go quite hard and are nearly as good as setting track in cement, but easy to remove. Hopefully the change of ballst will prevent leaves and debris from accumulating in the track bed, as was the case with the chippings. In the parts of the layout where I have tried "fines" it seems to be very easy to maintain

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I must admit I had never been a big fan of elevated track, until I visited a garden railway in Massachusetts, it certainly makes running live steam loco's easier, and has the advantage of giving a totally different view of the trains and easy operation of non R/C loco's. I have also seen photo's of some elevated track with buildings, vegetation and a good deal of railway atmosphere. My only fear with elevated track would be a derailment at such a height ! Ouch /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/shocked.gif" border=0>
Wood or any other construction materials cost an absolute fortune here, so for me it is not an viable option.
Henner:- I have seen a video on YouTube in which one of your loco's was running, it was taken at Richard and Melinda's, now that looks to be a superb railroad !! If mine got to be half as good I'd be a happy man !
I am glad the link to the video worked, for some strange reason, everytime I submitted the reply, the URL changed some parts just disappeared and I could not get it to work from the forum.