Garden Railway Forum

This evening I began on the new Two Dogs Mining Company (TDMCo.) in spite of the heat.

Included is a rough sketch of the layout track plan. It's a simple loop-to-loop design folded up on itself. A small mine will be located at each loop with a town located about mid-point where the mill will be placed.

The layout will be elevated about 18" above the patio and consist of two portions which are separated by a mythical "valley" but connected by a trestle on the west side of the layout. A tunnel will also be incorporated on the line. Guestimated footage will be about 100 - 125 feet of mainline. Landscaping will be a desert theme... rocks, gravel, sand... anything that doesn't require spending money on water or time trying to keep things green in the Oklahoma summer heat.

So this evening I began piling up rubble from what was the exterior brick wall from my house demolition project. I've saved many of the house's bricks which will be cleaned and reused as retaing walls for the layout. The rubble will be the base for the layout which will then be covered from dirt reused from the previous layout.

Well done Dwayne, a good start. Building layouts is much more interesting than building houses!

I like the design, long sweep curves will make for smooth running.

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Fri Sep 20, 2019 8:10 am I like the design...

Me too! A fantastic combination of aesthetics and operational interest, just the sort of thing I'd like to build if I had the space. Don't take this out of context, but you really have an eye for a good curve...

I'm looking forward to watching the build progress.

All the best,

Andrew.

Thanks gents. I forgot to mention that the sketch is very much not to scale. My experience has been to just get a basic idea of the track plan and let the actual dictates of the landscape determine how it all comes to fruition. I try to avoid any straight sections of trackwork as much as possible. At any rate, the two loops will likely be between 36" - 48" radius each.

An issue I'm tossing around in my mind is whether I want to upscale to 1:13n2 (7/8ths) or stick to 1:20n3. I've dabbled with 7/8ths in the past but never pursued it entirely. It's just that there is something "cute" about the larger scale that piques my interest.

Looks a good plan to me. What sort of radius will you be able to use for the end loops? I see the station will be alongside the patio, so will it be radio control from a sun lounger or will you need to follow the train round. Both ways have their good points.

Don

Radii of the loops will be between 36" and 48". All my equipment is radio controlled. I favor actual operating and car movements/switching to just watching trains run in circles.

Hi Dwayne
Sounds pretty good to me I like to do more than just go round and round.
Don

The day started out with rain but by noon the skies had cleared enough for me to continue with work on the TDMCo. The task today was to completely remove the approximately 24 feet of concrete cinder blocks and bricks of the former exterior wall which I succeeded in accomplishing.

I'll be leaving a 12 inch gap between the existing concrete slab and the retaining wall of the layout. That gap will be filled with gravel for drainage. If I were to place the layout retaining wall directly against the slab I'd likely face drainage issues which would not be a good thing once the new laundry/mud room is built.

In the photo an upright positioned landscape timber visibly marks the 12 inch spacing. Incidently the top of the timber is 18 inches above the surface of the slab which is the target height I had settled on using.


If all goes well tomorrow, I should be able to begin installing additional timbers to get a real start on the layout.

You are making good progress. Wise move about the drainage.

Don

Interesting design - a dogbone for the Two Dogs.....

Good luck with the rebuilds (all three of them).

Rik

Your line will suit 7/8ths well, looking forward to seeing the larger rolling stock.

Somewhat cool day here in central Oklahoma... but the humidity is a kicker as we've had two nights of rain. Any physical activity works up a sweat.

But I pressed on with installing the landscape timber retaining wall. I managed about 20 feet before running out of existing timbers. Not an issue as I had planned on using other types of materials to build the entire layout.

A couple of photos... first is from the patio side, second is from the opposite side. In the second one can see the rubble that I've used as fill which will be covered with dirt eventually.

Dwayne wrote: ↑Sun Sep 22, 2019 6:17 pm Somewhat cool day here in central Oklahoma... but the humidity is a kicker as we've had two nights of rain. Any physical activity works up a sweat.

But I pressed on with installing the landscape timber retaining wall. I managed about 20 feet before running out of existing timbers.

Its looking good and coming well. You are a quick worker Dwayne, and as I've said before, I envy your workable soil. By coincidence I had to dig a hole approx 2ft square by about 5inches deep this morning - it took me just over 3 hours in this clay that is laughably called soil around here!

Thanks Philip. I'm doing as much as I can before colder weather arrives (usually late November). I should be working on my house addition but until I get around to installing the trailer hitch on my new car in order to use my trailer to bring home supplies... I figure it would be more fun working on the railroad.

Much cooler weather arrived this weekend. Today I began to wheel barrow dirt from the former layout site to the new layout... about 100 feet apart... and covering the concrete rubble before a cold drizzle started.

It's shaping up nicely. At this rate you'll be tracklaying in a week or so

Really good progress and I think you can safely say its always going to be more fun working on the railroad.

Don

Work continues on the railway. I redid the timber retaining wall. Originally had them set at 18 inches above the level of the patio. Seemed to high for some reason. Opted to lower it all down to 12 inches. That took several hours to accomplish.

Afterwards I continued moving dirt, covering the concrete fill to roughly form the 180° loop on the east end of the layout. I have to move the pile of scrap lumber that came from my spare room demolition in order to get the loop to fit properly.

Better to make the change now than later regret not doing it. Looks good to me.

Don