Developments On Grant's Railroad

2021 Garden Railroad Rebuild

We thank Grant for sending along these amazing images of his rebuild of the garden raiIroad as well as the wonderful "back story" and captions.  What follows is in Grant's own words.

 I built my first Garden Railroad 30 years ago (boy, time sure does fly by) which was a simple loop with a passing siding. The roster consisted of the LGB 2-6-0 mogul plus a handful of LGB cars. The trains ran on track power. The general inspiration for the railroad was the Denver South Park & Pacific Railroad of the 1890’s.

Over the succeeding years the railroad “moved” to other locations around the property as we evolved the flower gardens, with each move the railroad grew in size while retaining in the concept of a “railroad in a garden”.

Unfortunately the current version languished over the past 10 years as other priorities consumed my time. The railroad soon fell into disrepair and saw limited “train” action. This layout consisted of two return loops connected with a single track and had a couple of passing sidings. The layout was designed more for running trains round-and-round as opposed to operations.

Fast forward to spring 2020 where an unrelated event rekindled interest in the railroad.  Our septic system decided that after 50 years of receiving the family waste, it was no longer going to accept any more. This resulted in replacing the septic tank and weeping bed which required removal of one half of the railroad. I also retired last year which meant I had more time for the hobbies and with the pandemic Lock Downs, I was “forced” to turn my attention to the railroad!

Upon further inspection of the remaining part of the railroad (referred to as the Southern Loop)  we determined certain pieces required rebuilding as the underlying 2x8 road bed had essentially dissolved.  I started with the curve at the far south end of the railroad as it was also experiencing operational problems as well since the curve wasn’t uniform and was “pinched” in a few spots. The following describes the rebuilding of this section of the roadbed.

Click on the image of the track plan to enlarge it for better viewing.  Click outside the track plan to return to the default look of the page.

Our property has a gentle downward slope to the rear fence thus providing interesting topography for the train to run through though the track is perfectly level. This loop is bordered by a vegetable garden on the right, lawn & upper patio behind the retaining wall and more lawn on the left. In the middle we have the lower patio with the rest of the space filled with flower gardens. The track parallels the rear fence as it heads towards the Northern Loop.

I never thought to take pictures before I commenced ripping up the old trackage so I don’t have a “before” view. The Micro Engineering track was mounted on 2x8 pressure treated lumber that sat on stone dust / dirt. The track was carefully removed as it will be reused.

What was left of the wood went into the trash.

This work was performed during the exceptionally warm April days which was before the flower gardens had woken from their winter slumber thus making  access to the right of way easier.

Once we laid the removed track beside the other curve on this loop we could see how erratic the curve was hence trains were prone to derailing.

To make life easier on us we used the patio’s flat surface to lay out the new roadbed which was made from sections 2x8 PT wood screwed together. Through careful measurement of the construction site, we determined a uniform curve with a radius of 6 ft 9 in would fit the space nicely. A compass was fashioned from a piece of string which ensured the wood pieces were cut and fashioned together correctly. After assembly, the track’s centre line was then drawn on the boards.

The new roadbed assembly was then lifted into place. You can see here how the old roadbed did not have a uniform radius!

The new curve alignment required a change to the turn out leading to the passing track. Originally the right hand switch was on the curve but it’s branch radius (LGB turnout) was significantly tighter than the new 6ft 9 in radius thus we had to move the switch forward to the straight section of track.

Here is the turnout in the new location. Relocating the turnout has shortened the passing siding by a couple of feet so we decided to move the far turnout the same amount thus retaining the capacity of the siding.

Once the location of the sub roadbed was sorted out and attached to the existing roadbed, crushed stone was shoved under the 2x8’s and leveled. The expectation is the crushed stone will provide better drainage than the previous stone dust. The track was then re-installed but with the kinks removed!

The back side of the curve connects to a Howe truss bridge. Some fine tuning of the trackage is still required but in the mean time the trains transverse this section under a slow order.

The Connie taking a short train through the new trackage – smooth running!

The Connie running past the Hancock Station. Note the track gang is in the process of completing the passing siding.

A few days of focused effort was required to repair this section of track which, based on the vast operational improvements, was well worth the effort! Unfortunately, through running the test trains, we discovered a track problem on another section of the layout that requires attention, more on that later.  Grant.

We thank Grant for this amazing posting covering the recent developments on his Garden Railroad.  We look forward to seeing more pics and stories from this awesome looking railroad in the near future, Grant!

All the best, Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada