Garden Railway Forum

Soooooo..... I might be moving house, so it's time to think.

If I did this again, I would come up higher, I look at the Peckforton videos and that does really look like a nice height.

Reading this blog entry, -https://riksrailway.blogspot.com/2006/0 ... track.html - How did the breeze blocks in the beds last? I found mine directly in the ground have moved a little too much. However, the bricks that I sat on a bed of stones and then a little cement have been really good. But the idea of building a very large, raised bed, filling with soil, then blocks, sounds like a huge expense! Even more expensive, filling with rubble first.

Hi
Most of the blocks have remained unmoved ... .... for around fifteen years now - but a few have sunk. I decided not to lay them on a bed of concrete in case I ever needed to change my track layout at some point in the future - so what I've gained in flexibility I've sacrificed in terms of permanence - but probably even a concrete base would be no guarantee against settlement.

In some cases, I remedied the sunken blocks by lifting them and relaying them and in other cases I simply raised the track by packing under the track with bits of tile, using longer screws and then ballasting to the new level.

Progress Report 90 shows both methods - https://riksrailway.blogspot.com/2021/0 ... rt-90.html

Rik

sjrixon wrote: ↑Wed Jul 14, 2021 11:58 am ........ But the idea of building a very large, raised bed, filling with soil, then blocks, sounds like a huge expense! Even more expensive, filling with rubble first.

Of course, the ultimate choice is yours, but in my case, all the soil infill and, where I did occasionally use rubble, came from re-landscaping the garden. I lowered the main lawn by a few inches which gave a surprising amount of soil for the raised beds (plus enough to fill a skip). Around half the sandstone cladding was dug up from beneath the lawn as was a load of bricks and even a few intact breeze blocks.

Breeze blocks are generally around £1 each (depending on where you buy them) and so I felt they were cost effective when I compared them with other methods (eg railway sleepers or rockery stone).

Rik

The other thing to take into consideration is the type of soil in your garden. If it's clay then you will potentially have all sorts of movement issues every time it rains or the sun comes out or the temperature drops in winter.

philipy wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:09 am The other thing to take into consideration is the type of soil in your garden. If it's clay then you will potentially have all sorts of movement issues every time it rains or the sun comes out or the temperature drops in winter.

No need to ask how you know .......

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:04 am

philipy wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:09 am The other thing to take into consideration is the type of soil in your garden. If it's clay then you will potentially have all sorts of movement issues every time it rains or the sun comes out or the temperature drops in winter.

No need to ask how you know .......

Rik

Anyone in Northamptonshire knows. You could lose a whole train down a crack in the height of summer.

That's why my track-bed is made of decking boards that float on supports a foot off the ground with only every third support hammered into the ground.

Scott - mine was the reply on FB that mentioned using Lonicera and Lavender to fill the gap.

BorisSpencer wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:20 pm

Anyone in Northamptonshire knows. You could lose a whole train down a crack in the height of summer.

I did measure one at 16" deep once, it was about 1.5" wide.
Last time I looked, the bank of my stream was over an inch away from the concrete stream bed wall, and that was after all the rain we've had.

And I thought the clay was bad in Reading, I've had nothing like that!

Between the facebook group and here I've gained quite a few ideas. I need to collect them all together and then I've got loads of ideas for once we move house! Likely to be nearer the end of the year, so time to plan in the Winter, to try and get something running next Spring.