Building a Retaining Wall - Part 2

I finally finished up the retaining wall I have been working on the past few weeks as the weather had warmed back up and I could work outside again. This post follows on to an earlier one you can read here.

As I had realized I built the retaining structure way too narrow, my next step was to replace the cross beams with longer ones. I decided on 6 1/4 inches. I had already covered over the wood screws on one side, but as they were securely in place, I was able to easily twist off the beam and put a new one on.

My temporary shop set up in the garage. Do two pieces of equipment qualify as a "shop"?

I built a second three-foot section exactly one inch shorter than the first one. I also cut a one-foot long wing wall the same height as the first section. Here all three are lined up on the garage floor.

Next step was attaching the tile to the viewer-facing sides and tops of the wall. After curing for three days, I then applied multiple coats of sealants. I used a sealant for stone on the rock faces and a wood sealant on the exposed wood. I then let that sit for a few more days to completely dry.

About a week after assembly, I was ready to place it in the site.

The most critical part of placement was ensuring just enough horizontal clearance for trains on the lower track. First I checked out by BN locomotive and it had just under a 1/2 inch of clearance.

Next I checked my longest piece of rolling stock, a streamlined passenger car. It had only a 1/4 inch of clearance, so I had to nudge the wall out a bit more.

The passenger car is waiting safely in the tunnel during construction so it won't be harmed.

As I cleared away the ballast to make room for the retaining wall, I realized that one of the concrete blocks underneath the track had tilted back toward the fence, causing the front to rise up about the ground level. As a result, the retaining wall wouldn't rest evenly on the ground.

Given the choice of cutting down the retaining wall and resetting the block, I decided that fixing the underlying problem made more sense. These blocks predate the railroad—they were originally installed to support the back edge of a patio.

After the wall pieces were all in place where I wanted them, I filled the trench with 3/4 inch crushed rock and tamped it down with a trowel, then covered that with 1/4 inch minus.

I aligned the track in the center and adjusted as needed to make sure the slope was even. I expect there will be some settling over the next few months and I'll go back and adjust this sometime this summer.

I then placed a top coat of ballast and gently tapped it in place then brushed away the excess.

And finally I rinsed everything off to allow the ballast to settle and lock the track into place. Looks great!

Laupahoehoe Train Museum

After our brief taste of summer, the weather in Seattle has returned to a very normal spring. Which means frequent rain and not a lot of chances to get outside and work on the railroad. It should start drying out soon so I can get back to work on projects like the half-finished retaining wall. In the meantime I thought I'd share a few pictures from the last train museum I visited.

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The Laupahoehoe Train Museum is the only train museum on the island of Hawaii and is housed in one of the only remaining train related structures on the island, a former station agent's house adjacent to the Laupahoehoe Station on the Hāmākua Division of the Hilo Railroad, built between 1909–1913. This division was an engineering marvel and incredibly expensive to build, resulting in the railroad going into receivership by 1916 and then being reorganized as the Hawaii Consolidated Railway. The railroad operated up until 1946, when a tsunami did such extensive damage to the line that it was cost prohibitive to rebuild.

The museum was opened a little more than 20 years ago after an extensive restoration of the building. It's small, beautiful and charming, and clearly a love of labor for the community.

A map showing the full extent of the Hawaii Consolidated Railway in 1945, a year before a tsunami brought an end to the railroad. Laupahoehoe is the fourth station from the end of the northwest branch.

Inside one of the rooms in the museum, filled with pictures, documents and various pieces of train paraphernalia.

This old boxcar used for hauling explosives was found abandoned in a gulch and donated to the museum.

The concrete platform in front of the museum is the original platform for the station. 

A train shed next to the museum houses a few scale layouts, including this one modeling a sugar mill. I saw some G scale pieces of rolling stock and some track, but none of that was set up yet. Maybe next time I visit!

The view from Laupahoehoe point.