Garden Railway Forum

Well I had to rip up my old.line, and now I'm.starting again with more space.

My old garden was terraced, so I enjoyed all the benefits of a ground level.line and and a raise line. New Garden is flat.

So my initial concern is trackbed, my old linrwas filcris at ground level buried in gravel. The new line I suspect I'm.going to be looking at blocks.

So....I read a lot, my preference is thermalite blocks, light easy to cut etc, however there is a lot of conflicting stuff about Frost resistance, some say they crack easily in Frost, others (manufacturers included), say they are highly Frost resistant, what's the consensus?
And also foundations, again lots of contradictory stuff, just cut a level trench and.plonk em in, cut a level trench then a bed of morter, some tamped gravel and lay them on that, tamped gravel and a morter bed, concrete footings of (insert random.number).depth. I'm only going 2 blocks high, so what seems sensible...

If you are going two-blocks high (rather than setting a block into the ground) then you need a better foundation.

Where in the country are you, and what are your ground-conditions like?

I was in Tamworth, on Staffordshire clay, and would get 3" of heave, summer to winter.
Now in Nottingham (on sand) and could dig immediately after a thunderstorm!

Phil.P

South/west wales, ground appears brick hard...

Stumpysdad wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 6:49 am South/west wales, ground appears brick hard...

Use Slate!


Phil.P

Stumpysdad wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 6:49 am South/west wales, ground appears brick hard...

You are about 20 miles away from me and we are on clay, which is rock hard after a continuous hot dry spell. After the rains come, and they will, the ground becomes like quicksand and as slippery as a skating rink. Be prepared for some serious ground heave if yours is similar.
My personal solution was to drive treated wooden poles deep into the ground and connect them with a support framework and decking of treated timber. This has proved to be more than adequate during the past ten years with very little movement.
In similar fashion, others have used plastic pipes instead of timber, which is something I hadn't thought of at the time, although you might have to dig deep holes and set them in concrete. As long as your track base is out of direct contact with the ground, and possibly covered with roofing felt, it should last for a considerable length of time.
Of all the garden railways I know and have visited, no two adopt the same method of construction. Only you can decide what best suits your ground conditions.

I'm going to fo s bit if ground investigation over the next few weeks. The park if the garden I'm using appears to have been tamped hard and been covered with a weed membrane followed by 'decorative' ballast