The Backyard & Southern Railroad (BS RR)

[Dwayne]

I've got a gun safe full of tools that could quickly dispatch all the squirrels I have in the yard but I enjoy their antics. They tease the pups mercilessly. A wild turkey wondered into the backyard the other day and Hope almost had it. Turkeys don't often fly but this one did for sure.



As for the progress, it's simply because I don't have a job to go to at the moment. Of course, that'll change within the next week or two. So in the meantime, I'm busting butt to get as much track down as possible.

I do have one honey-do project in the bathroom needing my attention that I need to start and finish while the wife unit goes up to Canada for a week. Always better to do those things when she's gone.

[Keith S]

There's nothing like the look of hand-laid track. I'll be trying this myself when I get started.

[Dwayne]

I agree Keith. I can't remember the last time I bought commercial track, even when I was playing with On30 years ago I hand laid the track. Once I get going with it I feel like the old track gangs building the Transcontinental Railroad must have felt in seeing how much track they could lay in a day.

We had a pretty good thunderstorm last night (reports of tornadoes south of me a few miles) and the newly installed track came through well. Had some ponding going on where the trackwork was behaving like a damn. Some quick excavation of a shallow ditch by the sole track crew employee drained it away quickly towards the ravine before a track washout could occur.

Have to take a break from putting together track today as the wife unit has a honey-do chore for me.

[Dwayne]

My honey-do errand and rainy weather dampened progress on track laying but the sole track gang employee of the BS managed to knock together another couple of six foot sections and get them down to extend the line on both sides towards what will be the north loop.

[Soar Valley Light]

Dwayne,

That track laying looks very carefully done. The geometry has clearly been paid close attention to and the results clearly show how worthwhile that effort is.

keep up the good work,

Andrew

[Dwayne]

Thanks Andrew.

All the ties are nearly the same length, centered and roughly spaced a scale two feet apart. From past experience I know that it's only a matter of time that the "new" wears off and the line begins to succumb to the ravages of mother nature. The raw look of the fresh cut ties will fade to a weathered gray. The aluminum rail itself still carries a coat of whatever primer I had on hand at the moment during my previous attempt at building a point-to-point line.

Not really visible in the photo is that is begins at about 70 inches and tightens down to 60 inches where it crosses the bridge... which I included when Philip pointed out that the layout was crying out for a bridge.

[Dwayne]

Fellers, I've been working on the railroad. ♫

Began with a quick trip to the big box hardware store to pick up some lumber for tie material. After about an hour of running boards through my table saw I had a container fairly filled with ties.



As it was a sunny day for once (with all the rain we've had lately I'm beginning to feel like I live in the UK.... lol) I began putting some track together.





I also worked on improving the appearance of my temporary bridge. Added some sides to it to widen it out to just beyond the width of the ties. Nailed down a stringer along both sides on top of the ties and then after masking it, gave it a few coats of rattle can black paint to give the impression of a steel girder bridge. When the paint dried added ballast to finish it off.



Since I was up early yesterday to take the wife unit to the airport for her visit to Canuckada I only managed the one additional section of track and the bridge before calling it a day.



Rain moved in again this morning. Gives me a chance to put together some more track.

[LnBmad]

nice work! loving the look of the hand laid track!

[Dwayne]

Thanks for the comment. Handlaying isn't a difficult task, just takes a bit of time. In my case since the overall length of the loop is going to be about 100 feet, it's easily doable. The more difficult part is the building of switches. I have done a stub switch but this time am thinking of going with regular point switches. I'll add those after I complete the loop.

I did manage to put together another 3 six foot sections of track today. Oddly enough I hadn't really paid much attention to how long it takes to assemble a section so I timed it... 50 minutes total which includes making two rail joiners.





This being a long weekend and with the wife unit gone I might be able to complete the entire loop in a few days.

[Soar Valley Light]

You're certainly blazing away there Dwayne and it looks better and better with each new section. Are you fixing the track down or is it just sitting on the ground?

Turnouts terrify some people but there really isn't any great mystery to them. The difficult bit (if you are working with hand tools) is putting the planing on the switches and forming the V between the point and splice rails in the crossing (oops, seeing as we're talking about America that should be frog shouldn't it?)

[Dwayne]

I managed another twelve feet of this morning. Thirty-six feet remaining to close the loop. The track just sits on the ground and held in place by the ballast. Winter frost and heaving isn't an issue here in central Oklahoma so there isn't the need for making it more complex than what I do.

Here's a couple of photos of the stub switch I knocked together. This was my first switch. Turned out to be easier than I expected it to be. And yeah, we call them frogs over here.

[Soar Valley Light]

Very nice work Dwayne. I like the angles flare on the check rails, practical and a nice solution. You turn out some very neat track.

Keep up the good work and you'll have a complete line by the time your good lady returns.

[Dwayne]

Thank you sir. My first attempt to bend the check rails as I often had seen done seemed like a lot of work for nothing. A good friend of mine and fellow hobbiest who lives up near Philidelphia, Pennsylvania suggested doing it that way. I was a bit dubious at first but it turns out that it's plenty to keep wheel flanges in check.

Total footage of track assembled and installed today comes to 24 feet. I took off a couple of hours to meet a friend for lunch and brews otherwise I might have gotten a couple more sections completed. The gap between the two end of rails can be seen on the right of the photo below. I'm thinking that I should be able to close it tomorrow... or die trying. Of course as I type this the tornado sirens are going off on my side of OKC so who knows what tonight might bring. Might all be gone... lol.

[philipy]

Here's a couple of photos of the stub switch I knocked together. This was my first switch. Turned out to be easier than I expected it to be. And yeah, we call them frogs over here.

Dwayne,
It looks good but I have a one question, is there any mechanical fixing of the two parts of the Vee? There doesn't appear to be in the pictures and I could foresee that one side or the other might creep apart from the other.

[Dwayne]

Philip, only the spikes keep the frog components in check. Occasionally there might be some slight movement when the adjoining segments of track expand or contract but not enough to warrant concern. Like the real railroads I simply do some quick track maintenance to remedy any movement. I think this is more of an issue with hand laid track which is actually something I enjoy as I view track as much as a model as the trains themselves.

The photos below are from yesterday evening once the tornado threat dropped off. Within an hour we received 3.10 inches (we've had 16.20 inches for the month of May... a new record). The fresh ballast I had put down can be seen to be scattered a bit from the heavy downfall. None of it was washed away but instead just settled a bit. I was hoping for this as it will help anchor the track to terra firma. Today I'll just add some more ballast to make it look all nice again.

[Soar Valley Light]

Dwayne, you are a man after my own (and several others on hear's) heart. It's the complete railways that does it for me and the track is a very big part of that. I can get as much pleasure from admiring a well built railway with no trains running at all as I can watching a huge shiny loco pulling a splendid rake of hand built rolling stock.

The proof of this is in your own photos. Your track is clearly American, it has a character all of it's own. It looks like (and is) track built to the design and specification of the railway company who own it. You could have used a proprietary track but that would look no different to hundreds of other peoples railways - corporate construction if you like. The pictures clearly show how worthwhile all the effort is.

Like Philip I noticed that the point and splice rail looked to be unconnected. I'm surprised that doesn't give you problems but if it works for you that's all that matters. Machined flares on check rails have been a standard practise in this country in 12" to the foot scale since the advent of flatbottom track (at least as long ago as the 1950's, possibly earlier on the few lines that used it before the war.). As such you are adopting a well tried method there (which I strongly suspect came from the States in the first place!).

Good look with joining up the two 'heads of steel'. Will there be a golden spike ceremony?

Andrew

[Keith S]

In what way is the track "clearly American"? I have been admiring it and I've been thinking that I would like to make my eventual track in the same way. Is it the flat-bottomed rail, and the lack of chairs using spikes instead? Do they not do this in England?

The reason I'm asking is, my rolling-stock is English, so when I get around to laying my own track, I don't want it to look silly if it's on track that looks obviously wrong for the type of equipment.

Having said that I really like the look of Dwayne' American track and I might do mine the same way regardless of what country it looks like it comes from.

I Canada we feel free to poach designs equally from the Americans or the British, depending on what we feel like at the time.

[Soar Valley Light]

Hi Keith,

I guess there's a good deal of personal perception involved here. To me it's the cross section of the ties, the length of them and the spacing between them. It's also partly the rail section and the 'dogging down' of the rail directly to the ties.

A lot of narrow gauge railways dogged the rail directly to the the sleepers and this includes the UK. Bullhead rail needed a chair to provide a means of fixing to the sleeper but with flatbottom rail that expense could be saved and the baseplate omitted.

In the case of Dwaynes railway there is something about the ballasting which conveys an air of US construction too. All this is based mainly on photos and film I've seen so may be somewhat influenced by that, although I have visited the country and seen the standard gauge railways for myself.

At the end of the day, as I said in my post earlier, it's each to his own. The lines we build are our own, we set the standards, we design them and what they look like is entirely up to each of us. There is no right or wrong, just as in prototype practise, the company who builds, owns and operates the line does whatever it chooses and whatever that is is right for that railway.

[IrishPeter]

We get some pretty serious downpours in Arizona, and as a result I have found it necessary to mix a certain amount of cement (Quik-crete type stuff) in to the ballast to get it to 'stick.' Otherwise it follows the pine needles, oak leaves, and top soil out into the street when it rains here.

British NG track follows one of two paths. the Isle of Man Railway and other users of flat bottom rail general spiked straight down on to wooden sleepers placed at 2'6" intervals (2' at joints), whilst those who used bullhead, or double-headed rail used chairs screwed on to sleepers placed at about the same intervals. The typical IMR sleeper was 6' by 9" by 6" which with 45lb/yard rail gave a maximum axle load of 10 tons.

There was also a certain mount of 60cm gauge 'Jubilee' track used for the WDLR system which found its way back to the UK after the Great War, which rather resembled the old Hornby tinplate track where steel sleepers held the track to gauge, but in order to carry decent loads it was usual spiked to short sawn SG sleepers placed at 2' to 3' intervals. On boggy ground Jubilee track would be spiked to full length SG sleepers to spread the load, if you are into the deeply industrial look.

Peter in AZ

[Dwayne]

I suppose my trackwork does have that "Merican" look about it. Never gave it much thought. I figured that track construction was merely a simple process of spiking rail to ties. No doubt I have been influenced by my exposure to narrow gauge railroads over here and having the pleasure of riding a few Colorado based narrow gauge tourist railroads.

There are two distinctly 'Merican forums online that I've joined and read. Unfortunately they both cater mostly to the same cookie cutter track and equipment. So I rarely visit them anymore as they bore me to tears. I also joined the SE Lounge though I'm not an active participant and prefer to lurk there. That forum seems to have a split mix of modelers from both sides of the pond.

Interestingly enough, when I found this forum, I was instantly attracted to the layouts many here have. As close as I can determine, UK modelers are the bulk of folks on this forum. And it was from ya'll, with your space limitations of small yards and such that prompted me to not mimic my North American brethren. One line that definitely influenced me was Steph's St Andrews Island Estate Railway. Honorable mention goes to the Summerlands Light Railway, The Takasaki Light Railway, the Peckforton Light Railway and the North Hampshire Minerals Railway. Simple lines in wonderful garden settings.

This influence is mostly in the general design and applied garden aspect of each. It seems to me that ya'lls track is integrated in the garden and becomes one with nature.

'Merican garden railroaders by contrast seems to view the yard as one large flat 4x8 sheet of plywood where the objective is to install as much track as possible and run as many big engines with long strings of cars behind using archaic track power. The garden aspect is rarely even considered or addressed.

So I guess my layout will be a blend of North American equipment with a British influence on the simplicity and garden. Right now as the BS is still raw with regards to the garden aspect but once the track is installed then I'll concentrate on the botanical side of things.

Oddly enough, although I have lived in the US since the age of five years old, I was born in Canada to parents who immigrated to there from Holland. My current wife unit is Canadian, having only been down in the US for four years. She doesn't miss the snow of northern Ontario btw. My family still lives in Canada, scattered across from Victoria, BC to Kingston, ON. I actually have dual citizenship, which has it's perks. My wife didn't know any of this when we first met. She figured me to be a goofy, gun loving, model railroading, slow speaking, redneck Okie.