Starting work on track alignment upgrades

I've started work on the next phase of development, replacing the temporary track with a permanent 42' oval, as well as adding a crossing and turnouts in preparation for what will be coming in the future. Track has been ordered and will hopefully be here by the beginning of next week. In the meantime, I'm preparing the road bed but not yet ripping out the existing temporary track.

I decided on a final alignment of the oval today, a slight adjustment from what I originally had planned, and outlined it using wooden stakes. There was a small amount of turf and plant removal needed to clear the area.


In the area of soft soil, I put down a floating foundation of bricks which will help keep the road bed stable and level, just like I did with the temporary track. In the photo below, note the difference between the existing 5' diameter curve and the future 8' diameter curve.


The bricks in the photo below provide a rough outline of where tunnel no. 2 will be built; it probably will be about 4' in length. I won't be doing any work on this until the temporary tracks are gone. I haven't made a decision on the method of construction for this tunnel, but I'm leaning toward brick and mortar walls with a concrete lid.


A bigger challenge will be tunnel no. 1. There is a very large block of aggregate blocking the path. And once I manage to get that out of the way, I will likely have a few large roots to cut through. This will not be fun.