[up9018]

For those of you who read my post "Power for Grades", here are photos of my yard. I will keep adding photos as my railroad progresses.


Here is the lower end of the railroad, It is 23' from the house to the hedge, 40' house length, 55' from the lower end of the railroad to the beginning of the hill.

This is where the railroad turns right and runs along the hill, 40' to the garage.

This is looking up the hill where there will be a 180 degree curve to send the train back to the north and up the hill further, 29' max to the rear.

And finally looking back toward where the railroad will make a 360 degree turn and head back

Here is the top looking down:

 

[up9018]

So, the first thing to do is clean everything up and do some preliminary landscaping. If IT EVER QUITS RAINING ON THE WEEKENDS/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/angry.gif I am going to rent a mini excavator to remove all of the saplings from the hillside. Then there is general cleanup from years of the people at the top of the hill picting things over the edge. (Not the current residents, so I get to clean it up).

While I have it I'm going to excavate for a patio to hold my BBQ grill, and add a small retaining wall at the bottom along the patio. I also plan on doing a bit of grade work for the future Right Of Way, and digging for my upper pond and stream.

At $75.00 and engine hour, I can do quite a bit of work with this little jewel.

Right now I'm working on a set of plans. I have a pretty good idea, all my measurements. Now I will just lay it out and I will post it when I'm happy to see what you guys think.

 

[snowshoe]

You have great area to work with as far as creating a RR. Workwise it will be a lot but well worth it. It will give you a lot of options for your RR. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[Torby]

RE: Cripple Creek & Western Railway

Hmm. Nice setting. Let's see what ideas the guys here have for it.

 

[wchasr]

RE: Cripple Creek & Western Railway

$75 an hour? $600 a day? or more? Shoot buy one for that price and rent it out yourself!

Chas

 

[Jerry Barnes]

RE: Cripple Creek & Western Railway

Hey Rodney,
Good to see you posting again and nice you are starting on a RR to run all those big engines on! Jerry

 

[Matt Vogt]

Nice place for a layout (not that there is a bad place) It will indeed be interesting, no matter how you slice it.
As far as the excavator goes, I agree with Chas if we understand you right. unless you are on a tropical island, I can't imagine you would be unable to find one for half that or less. I suppose it depends on the area. I can rent one for under $200/day in SW Ohio.
Keep us posted, we'll be waiting!

Matt

 

[Torby]

RE: Cripple Creek & Western Railway

Hmm. When we built the pond, $75 an hour included an expert operator. Was it that long ago?

 

[up9018]

Buy one? I'm talking about renting a Bobcat 430 Mini-Excavator, a 4 year old one sells for $35,000.00, which may be a BIT much for 3 hours worth of work. It would be nice, but I think I'll rent it and save money for trains.

I'm working on my track plan and hope to have it posted this week so it can be evaluated by the "Group"

 

[mewilkinson]

I had the most fun with a Bobcat Mini-Excavator when I redid our Koi pond last year. I had to rent it for a minimum of 4 hours, but for the amount of back-breaking work it saved me. I would happily rent one again if needed.

 

[tbug]

Glad to see your posts on this build. I'll be working land much like yours, and keeping an eye on this post as what to expect. Thanks for the effort and enjoy!

 

[up9018]

Well I laid out a plan I liked today, then examining it with my elevation and hill angle, my horizontal plan doesn't agree with my vertical plan. At least not without a BIG excavator./DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/shocked.gif

So instead of making a 180 degree turn, I will add either a 360 degree return loop, or a wye which will be just large enough to turn a K-27.

Then a single line will travel up the remainder of the hill to a mine. This gives me the perfect opportunity for using a Shay, pulling the train up the hill, running around it and of having to back it tender first down the hill to the wye where it can be turned to run correctly.

What do you guys think, I like the idea of the wye for operational purposes, but for continous running the loop would be much better.

I did find out a very nice feature of the Bobcat I'm going to rent, it is double jointed so the bucket can be laid on its side for digging horizontal to help level the right of way.

 

[Torby]

RE: Cripple Creek & Western Railway

You mean to use an extra loop at the bottom as a helix to get up to the higher level? Let's see, that'd be 540 degrees. With a 20ft diameter circle, that'd be 94 ft of track, so if you wanted to rise 4ft, it'd be 4% grade. Still pretty steep, but not bad. If you used some of the straight for the rise and fall, you might reduce that to 3% or so, which is pretty reasonable.

 

[up9018]

OK, here is my first attempt at a layout plan. Keep in mind this is mostly just the main lines, I may choose to add a small yard and/or a couple of passing sidings. The wye is at the top of the run for rod locomotives, then it would be shays or heislers to the mine. In the photos the wye is where I said i was going to make a 180 degree turn. Let me know what you guys think, ask any questions and critizie away.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Torby]

RE: Cripple Creek & Western Railway

I see. And you'll drop most of the difference in the loop by the old foundation. What's the diameter of that smaller curve?

 

[Gary Armitstead]

I like it! The radius of the smaller curve will also affect the percentage grade. Somewhere I have a book about railroad standards and if memory serves, having a grade on a curve is paramount to adding 1.5 to 2% on a straight section. It does make a BIG difference. I DO like the plan.

 

[tbug]

Nice plan, but maybe too 'perfect'. Maybe let the straights and curves meander some so it's not so symetrical and perfect looking. I like the plan though.

 

[up9018]

My minimum radius is 6', including the tight curve in the wye. Most are 8' and the large one in the loop is 20'. Yes a good part of my elevation change will be made in the loop at the old foundation. I hope to create a 3' (approx) elevation increase here, depending on what grade it will create, then rise another 3' across the hill to the wye. Between the low part of the loop (the bottom of the drawing) and the old foundation there will be a 1' rise in approx. 40'. This is the roaming territory for my Annie.

This is my general layout, I don't plan on having all of the straight runs shown, especially to the mine.

 

[up9018]

Had a great, rain free day here and took the chainsaw to the trees on the hill. Have about half of them cut away and began the cleanup work. Now I have a huge pile of brush, so I'm going to find a good economical chipper and make my own mulch. Hopefully I can keep cutting away and get the rest done really soon so I can begin the inital landscaping.

So how about some more ideas/critism of my plan? Looking for all the great ideas and helpful hints I can get!!

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Torby]

RE: Cripple Creek & Western Railway

6 and 8 ft radius are nice big curves. Remember, in garden trains, we usually talk about the diameter, 12 and 16 ft, so you don't get surprised when you receive your track and it's a lot smaller than you expected.