Track around koi pond.

[benchmark]

In the summer, i intend to build my garden railway. I then thought about making a koi pond and letting the railway run around its edges.

From what i gather, because of their size a koi pond has to be at least 5000 ltrs and to avoid it freezing up in the winter i was advised by the fish pond guys that it must be at least 1 meter deep.


Does anybody havea railwaysetup with a fish pond in the middle? I will appreciate any tips and tricks or even pictures for more inspiration.

Thank you.

[TonyW]

A friend of mine built a viaduct across his fish pond. All the fish died within a week of him running his first train. The reason was that the viaduct decking was not completely sealed, and a drop of oil fell in to the water. This formed a film on the top of the water, so stopping oxygenation of the water.

[invicta280]

Like you i am intending to start laying track for my garden line when the weather improves, and if it goes ahead as planned it will encircle the existing pond which we put in many years back.



In our case the pond (approx 14' x 6' ) is more of a wildlife pond. We have frogs,  newts and the usual wildlife as well as goldfish which fend for themselves. The railway as planned will only come to within  a foot of the water in one place, and even there rocks will stop rolling stock taking a plunge should the worst happen.

If you're thinking of a Koi pond with expensive fish living in controlled conditions then, as the others have suggested, you need to be more careful. Even the construction work if you are using paint/concrete/preservative could be detrimental.

I thought about a viaduct but i think it would need careful planning.Best done when the pond is being built. Ideal i reckon would be two ponds joined by a short 'canal' which could be bridged easily- not ideal for Koi though!
edit: Sorry about the size of that photo!

[Narrow Minded]

another issue may be the tightness of curves to turn with the pond, these may limit the type of trains you can run, unless you are going lgb.

or industrial.

[benchmark]

Thank you for the good advice, maybe i should keep both projects separate for now. Itwould beva catastrophy if oil gets into the pond.

[benchmark]

Since i have thought the better of making my garden railway around a fish pond , i will like to explore the option of laying it in a grass i have about 600 square meteres of grass lawn but if i lay the track there, it shoud be low enough not to interfere with the lawn mover blades, is this possible? .

Can i lay track so low and still maintain asthetics?

[benchmark]

Thats a fantastic layout you have keith. Good job on the website too.
I am just too unwilling at this stage to give up my lawn

[Spule 4]

Our old SM32 railway (1980s) was around a fish pond, nothing ever fell in the drink, but then we had only one bridge accross the main pond and a smaller one over a pump supplied creek.

Dad's current pond is not that deep, but it is kept from freezing solid by having a circulation pump in the house with a filler and airation. The pond is far from a simple affair, and he could have bought a nice vintage car or large (ride on) live steam loco for what he paid for it 17 years ago.

[DLRdan]

My track was at one time laid entirely in the lawn on bricks. All you have to do to make the mower blades miss is lay it slightly lower than the lawn. The method I used was to cut a trench in the lawn about 2 inches wider than the brick, level it up using some soil, then pack the remaining soil back down the sides of the brick and move onto the next. I can get some pictures if you want.

[JMORG]

Are you copying the PW of a typical American logging Railroad?

[JMORG]

Only joking!
What radii are you planning on using for curves?

[benchmark]

thank you for the enlightening contributions. i have decided to keep the pond project and the garden railway separate , at least for now.

Here are the humble beginnings of my new garden railway project

http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about5297.html

The koi pond will start at another end of the garden in April when the ground is no longer iced up.

Here is a google map sketch of my garden, The red square is where i will start my garden railway for now and the dotted lines are possible extensions on the future. The blue bean shaped area will be a 8000 litre koi pond. There will be at least half a meter between the pond and the proposed track line.

[benchmark]

Any reason why your house is red and the others are dark grey?

if i zoom out a bit more there are numerous other red/brown ones too, it is just concidental that the roofing tile colour immediately around me are black/grey.

I would be tempted to put the Koi Pond near the house (where you have indicated in red the railway square)  and run the railway up one side of the lawn, you can then slowly extend as you wish either in width or continue round the perimeter of the garden as time and money allows.  You mentioned originally you were building at ground level, but you seem to be building higher than ground level now?

The problem is that under the area with the red square is an old oil tank from the 70s for the former oil heating system. This was decommisioned in the 80s when the heating system was changed to gas and the old oil tank was filled up with sand according to the papers we have on the house . Hence i will rather avoiding digging up the decomissioned old tank.

I have decided to elevate the railway because the clearance under my robot lawn mower is only 2.5 cm so i think i should play safe.