building blocks

[methsman]

I hope that Im posting this in the correct place.
Im thinking of building my railway on a base of b/blocks and was wondering what type of blocks others have used ,ie med.density, dense or aerated. Thanks in advance Chris

[Chris Bird]

Hi Chris
Well I will break the silence!
I used aerated blocks, cut in half lengthways to give a 4" deep block. I set these is a well tamped trench on 2" of mortar. They went down in 2007 and are still fine.

The upsides are that they can be cut with a saw, the track can be nailed to them with galvanised nails and are light and easy to lay. Also if you need to remove the railway, they will come up easily.

Downside is that cement ballst does not stick to them (for some reason). That is not a big problem as it just sounds a bit hollow in places. The tales of frost damage are just not true (in Dorset where we reach -10C).

Of course if you are building a raised track, then denser blocks might be the thing.

You can read about the Summerlands Light Railway here:
http://www.summerlands-chuffer.co.uk/#/ ... 4535186111

I hope this helps
Cheers
Chris

[DLRdan]

Some how missed this thread. My railway is on concrete bricks rather than breeze blocks. I dug a trench in the ground, laid the brick in leveling and packing the soil back around it. Its a very simple and quick method and so far (been down 7 years) has been imune to frost heave.

[benchmark]

I used ordinary pavement bricks for my foundation.

See how i did it here : http://dampmaskiner.webs.com/gardenrailway.htm