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Beginning my Outdoor Empire. A Raised Steam layout.

6346 Views 56 Replies 14 Participants Last post by  Tdreabe, 
T
4
I am expecting(Hoping) to get my first large engine this year when Accucraft makes deliveries of the C-18. As those engines will require more space than my indoor loop will allow, I had better snatch up that permitted land my wife agreed to before I do something to upset her.

Last year I purchased 6 cases of track from Accucraft, anticipating the this build and fearing the price increase that has happened. Their 332 Flex track was selling for $4.15 a foot last February,(same price I was getting used stuff off ebay) currently their website shows $7.33 per foot.

I have been studying construction materials and methods for my elevated layout. I have found a great deal of inspiration from Peter Spoerer's Youtube video and his Elevated Layout.

My plan was to copy his design of PVC posts on 4 foot centers with 1x4 Stringers, 3/4 inch plywood on top. While looking around for reclaimed materials I came across some 4 inch SCD 80 PVC in 5 foot lengths for $5 each. Quite a bargain in today's economy, especially since my target elevation is 24 inches and I hope to have 36 inches in the ground. They're already cut to length!

While in the yard for this surplus store, they had 8 to 10 foot lengths of 4x6 x3/16 wall Fiberglass beams for $12 each. My plan is to simply hole saw into the fiberglass to make sockets for the pvc posts.
Wood Tree Grass Building Shade

What luck, for less than the cost of lumber, my frame will be made out of materials that won't decay. And stronger. I have been looking to find another material I could re purpose to make the 16 inch wide decking and have a permanent (won't rot away) rail road structure. For now I have an abundance of hardwood pallets free to me that I will use, Paint with preservative, then cover with roll on roofing.

My layout will be built in stages, and in a manner that allows additions that I don't even know of yet. I have a general plan of all the features I want infrastructure wise. But the first step an all variations is a double mainline loop around the outside.

My curves will be 12' 4" and 11'8" radius, it will be mostly rectangular, overall 45 foot wide by 75 Foot long. The long straight next to the garage inside the loop will eventually be a depot/switching yard. The opposite side against the woods will be a curvy straight that follows the edge of the current grass. I plan to have the track 6-8 feet from the garage so I can eventually have it as a covered patio area for steaming in the shade/out of the rain. The layout will stay 12 feet away from the fence.
Building Tree Plant Natural landscape Wood



Plant Sky Building Tree Branch


They are hard to see, but the orange Fiberglass driveway markers are inserted as the centers of my 4 main curves.

Hopefully in the next few days I can get better pictures with a hose showing the path of the mainline. And within the next few weeks I can start digging post holes after the frost is out of the ground. Tomorrow I will call diggers hotline. I know the only thing back there is the power line, so I need it know where I'm going.

Updates to come.

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T
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Haven't had a chance to set any more posts since my last update. We had a heat wave and that sparked a fury of activity on other aspects of the rest of the yard since my wife and kids spent more time outside, my hunny do list grew. And the power company dropped 3 trees in my yard for me, so I had those 20" trunks to buck and stack off the grass.
I don't know how much it weighs, but an 18" long by 20" round white pine log that is still green, is more than I can lift.

Tonight I was able to do some destructive yield testing on the fasteners I plan to use on my decking.
Plant Water Wood Rectangle Grass


This is a general layout of my mainlines. They will be spaced 8 inches between centers. The deck will be 16 inches wide total. The heavy pencil lines outside the track denotes that dimension. I have considered reducing the amount of space from the outside track to the edge, but I keep having terrible thoughts of a consist having a derailment and tumbling to the ground.... And 16" is a good number when most my lumber options come in dimensions of 4 ft multiples.

Plant Wood Line Cemetery Cross


I centered my body weight on the"edge" of the board to see if the machine screws I used would take the pull. They held.

Wood Plant Grass Line Groundcover


When I stood outside the dimensions I could start to hear the sounds of impending failure.
I am confident that my system will work especially since I plan on having sister boards to help distribute the load to neighboring boards.

I need a good few days to finish my posts then I'll get my decking material.
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J
Tyler - I heard you on Model Rail Radio podcast recently. Any further progress on the construction?
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jridge16 said:
Tyler - I heard you on Model Rail Radio podcast recently. Any further progress on the construction?
Click to expand...
Thanks! Great to know there are other large scale people listening.

I haven't taken the picture yet but I have finished setting my PVC posts. I have a 12 foot gap at the far end of my garage that I am building a 10 foot drawbridge for. I hope to finish the structure for that this weekend so next week I can start my decking.

My work season is starting and I'm hoping to get at least one loop down before the end of next week, since free time will be imaginary until September.
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J
Tdreabe said:
I haven't taken the picture yet but I have finished setting my PVC posts. I have a 12 foot gap at the far end of my garage that I am building a 10 foot drawbridge for. I hope to finish the structure for that this weekend so next week I can start my decking.
Click to expand...
Glad to hear you're still making progress. Post more pictures when you can.
Thanks,
Jeff
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T
9
We had a storm go through, my wife called and said a branch landed on my railroad. I replied that at least it's not finished, I can easily replace some structure.
Wood Outdoor bench Grass Plant Groundcover


She admitted that she was just kidding to see if I would get home faster.

I finally have pictures of all of my PVC posts in the ground with the fiberglass beams. Every post is the same height with the aid of a rotary surveyor laser. The posts are not in cement. It bears my weight with out moving. But a mallet will allow me to pound them deeper, slowly. And a rope and implement jack allow me to raise them. Correcting for height changes in spring, if any, should be of minimal effort.
Plant Tree Land lot Woody plant Shrub

Plant Tree Building Natural landscape Land lot

Plant Tree Natural landscape Land lot Fence

Plant Tree Natural environment Natural landscape Wood


All curves are standardized at 15 foot radius, even the S-curve along the woods.

I started visualizing what the deck will look like once I start attaching it.
Table Plant Wood Outdoor furniture Grass

Wood Rectangle Wood stain Road surface Outdoor furniture


The top surface will be about 16 inches wide with 8 inches between track centers.

Plant Tree Shade Land lot House

Plant Property Tree Land lot Grass


This is where I plan on building my drawbridge with a 10 foot span so that I can get equipment from the driveway, along the side of the garage and into the inside of the layout. In case I need a lift to trim trees or a backhoe to make a pond/Mountain.

I've stated construction of that bridge. It won't be a scale replica or pretty model based on prototype. It will be functional over form. I will get those photos up as I have time.
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Greg Elmassian
how far down into the dirt are your posts, and what is the frost line depth?

Are the post ends cut square or angled?

Also, I get how you can pull the posts up, do you intend the bash on the track to lower them?

Greg
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Greg Elmassian said:
how far down into the dirt are your posts, and what is the frost line depth?

Are the post ends cut square or angled?

Also, I get how you can pull the posts up, do you intend the bash on the track to lower them?

Greg
Click to expand...
Posts are 60 inches long with 22 inches target height. 38 inches dept +- 4 inches due to ground elevation changes.

Frost depth is about 3 foot in this area. But depending on recent weather my ground water table is about there too. The white fence in the background is about 3 winters old now, not moving yet. Same depth.

Posts, fence and track, are a hollow square cut.

While I may be neanderthal in some respects to problem solving, I have many options available to me. My initial attempts will include a 2x4 laying on the deck between the mainlines over the posts and using a rubber mallet on the 2x4. If that proves fruitless, then the worst case is removing the structure in four or five foot sections. They simply rest on the posts semi socketed, with about 4 screws per span holding them from voluntarily lifting off the posts. As of yet I have not used any screws to secure anything yet. Once the decking is on, if they don't want to move, I may not secure the beams to the posts at all.
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GoldenBrassRail
This is fantastic. I took about 8 to 10 minutes looking at all the photos you laid out here.

This layout reminds me of when you see some freeway decks in the city. They are not very common but I am pretty sure at some point I have seen massive concrete Y-shaped posts supporting two directions of traffic in inner-city freeway spots, particularly if its some kind of ramp or something but my recollections are vague.

I can envision your railroad... a T-shaped elevated railroad where there is one direction of rail traffic on each side of the 16 inch wood deck.

You talked about questioning the support strength of your deck... I did not remember if or what you said above about how the wood deck beams are fastened to your fiberglass beam, but of course, the integrity and load capacity of the two railways and how it performs when a heavy locomotive is travelling down one side of the railway will depend wholly on how you are fastening your 16" wood deck to the fiberglass beam and how the beam is fastened to the posts. A wide array of various joint "things" exist out there, many of which you might get at some home improvement or lumber companies?

I wonder what speeds this railway with its 15' turns can support. I could imagine you just might get to run a train at 80 inches per second?

The distance between rail lines on your layout is 8" and if I recall youll have a wooden beam separating traffic. Either way, this distance between is sufficient so that you wont have two heavy locomotives collide with a 15 % overlap offset head on collision with a closing speed of 140 inches per second. Such a collison would be a pity.

Have you considered the possibility of constructing a guardrail - perhaps a 2.5 inch-tall cable type where you have intermittent metal dowels with a hole running through them going the length of each side of your 16" board? The cable is fed through the holes in the small metal posts and then tightened at each end and is very sturdy. It would be identical to the cable-made guardrails you see along some stretches of interstate. This would be mostly a cosmetic novelty purpose, but it would indeed prevent a nice locomotive from careening 175 scale feet over the edge should a derailment occur.
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GoldenBrassRail
You just read my response to your project above this comment ..

And You have read about my dream yard layout but for right now, I got this Janky causeway inside my apartment. It’s several inches off the ground and even though it’s temporary in construction and not mounted down, it seems to hold together perfectly as the train travels around

Hood Automotive tire Motor vehicle Car Automotive design
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How are you attaching the square pieces to the round PVC upright?
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yellow_cad said:
How are you attaching the square pieces to the round PVC upright?
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In one of my earlier posts I detailed with pictures how I use a hole saw to put half round notches in the bottom at each end. I originally wanted the posts to socket in, but the posts are wider than the beams. Right now there are no fasteners. The beams are just set on the posts with half round notches. Eventually I will screw the beams to the post. The screws won't bear any weight, just prevent them from lifting off.
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Y
I wonder what speeds this railway with its 15' turns can support. I could imagine you just might get to run a train at 80 inches per second?

That is 102 scale mph.
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T
Just an update.
Like I've explained in other posts, my career in Agriculture doesn't allow much free time to work on anything from June through the beginning of September. But this last weekend I did get a chance to enjoy the backyard layout with the kids helping me with my construction, where I left it over a month ago. This fall I'll have to retrace a few steps. Its all worth it.

Here is a video of my daughter helping.
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yellow_cad said:
I wonder what speeds this railway with its 15' turns can support. I could imagine you just might get to run a train at 80 inches per second?

That is 102 scale mph.
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Why?
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Y
The first sentence is a quote from this thread. I simply added that the speed discussed would be 102 scale mph which I find way too fast to look like anything normal.
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4
I finally have had an opportunity to do some physical work on the layout. Attached are some pictures of the Sono tubes I placed for my drawbridge foundations. This weekend I hope to pour the cement. In doing so I realized I had to remove one of the PVC posts I had already set. The video shows my son demonstrating my method for adjusting track height if needed in the future.
Plant Nature Tree Grass Woody plant

Plant Tree Land lot Grass Road surface

Plant Wheelbarrow Tree Grass Public space

Wood Tree Table Shade Plant


This bridge is hopefully the last big hurdle/project before I start adding the decking and track.

Here is that video. If I need to go down with a post, a rubber mallet and block will allow me to tap it deeper.

More progress to come as the summer work season continues to slow down.
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I have dug the last post hole for the far end of the Drawbridge. Since this post will be supporting the end of a 10 foot span and subject to impacts if the bridge doesn't come down softly, I am setting this post in cement. The top beam and the saddle for the bridge are attached on threaded rods giving me the ability to adjust almost 2 inches in each direction up or down if the post should ever move relative to the bridge tower.
Wood Monoplane Gas Grass Soil


The PVC post in the ground nearest the camera had to be driven a few inches deeper to match the level of the bridge.
This next picture shows how far I am off elevation wise after 224 feet and following curves using just a torpedo level.
Wood Grass Gas Monoplane Composite material


Roughly 5 inches.
I also purposely set my bridge tower 1/4 inch lower than the rest with the plan that I will drive the rest of the posts down a little to match.
Once my concrete is cured a day or so, I will set up my rotary laser and set my grade around the whole loop.

Then comes decking.
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I haven't updated on all of my progress recently.

I have my bridge structure installed, I still need to install cable and lift rigging.
Plant Tree Land lot Woody plant Grass

Plant Tree Land lot Natural landscape Grass


Once I was done with that, I leveled all of the posts using my rotary laser and a rubber mallet to pound them all to match the lowest post.

Finally, I could start fixing the decking. To make things straight and square on the straight sections, I stretched a string, then used a t-angle from a garage door opener to butt the boards against.
Wood Road surface Plant Grass Plank


On the curves, I used the tripod for my laser and a 16 foot deck board. The curves are actually faster than the straight sections to attach the decking.

Plant Wood Tree Grass Wall
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I ran out of picture space on the last posts.

This last picture is where my progress is now. About half way through putting the decking on.
Plant Tree Natural landscape Grass Groundcover


I used the board and tripod as a protractor to draw the center on the curve, and the centers of each mainline.
Leaf Water Road surface Infrastructure Asphalt


The pressure is on for me, Accucraft announced they'll begin shipping the C-18 in November.
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RR Buttes
That looks very well thought out and the decking gives it a very nice look. I have been watching your progress since near the beginning post. Thanks for the updates! I am looking forward to seeing the rail go on. Are you putting in switches to cross over to inner and outer lines
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