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interlink Garden Rail SystemSave time. Save money. Save hassle. |
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Re- ballasting Mar 2005 Video
Clip Garden
Rail Shows The information contained on these web
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Current Methods When building a garden railway it would seem that the majority of people who build them need to have experience in brick laying, carpentry, landscaping & surveying. The planning & cost alone could be daunting to anyone who just wants to see his trains run around a garden landscape without major upheaval. It could also be an issue to introduce a railway into an established garden and difficult to justify to the gardener in the family that it will not be a problem. Also when selling your house its the trackbed that normally gets left behind & makes it difficut to sell your house. There are currently many ways of constructing a garden railway base structure using established methods, these can be seen in many of the Garden Railway magazines and except for the materials, have basically not changed for years. The most popular methods used by experienced garden railway builders are: 1.Floating the track in ballast. This normally requires digging a trench 5 to 8cm deep and approximately twice as wide than the width of your track. Good drainage is essential and so ballast is backfilled and tamped with no cementing. This method allows the track to expand in the summer and contract in the winter. The track is not fixed, so ballast movement can cause derailments. The track movement & strain on joints can also be a problem especially when gaps for expansion are introduced. It is argued that this system can have soldered or rail clamp joints (e.g.Hillmans RailClamps), therefore avoiding expansion gaps. 2. Raised track on a wooden construction frame. This method is self-explanatory and whilst it can be used at ground level it is popular when the layout is required to be at waist height. The drawbacks with this method, apart from being a major carpentry venture, are the cost in wood and concrete. The concrete is required to cement the post into the ground. It also has a tendency to warp because of the effect of time and weather on the structure. The track needs to be screwed to the structure so it is recommended that expansion gaps are used at the track joints. 3. Concrete foundation. The major drawback with this method is that it requires the route to be 100% correct. To ensure that the concrete bed does not crack it would be advisable that steel rods are embedded in the concrete. Small stone ballast can be used with this method and it’s advisable to embed wood centrally in the concrete so the track can be fixed. This system also requires the expansion gaps at the track joints.
Conclusion There are many variations on these methods, with a possible mixture of all on one garden railway, depending on the terrain of your garden. The Interlink Garden Rail System will take away the mystery & hard work out of track bed construction no matter what type of garden you have. It can be used on established lawns, sides of hills or any soft, rough, marshy, rocky terrain. It can even be used on existing brick or concrete base. Other trackbed methods or systems Concrete Roadbed , Not as Hard as One Thinks. by Marty Cozads Easy Flexible Roadbed Method By Paul Race and Bill Logan Track bed system that enables track to be laid quickly by Tuxcraft
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