Rail yard complete (mostly)

The PE&A is proud to announce that the newly opened Dogwood Yard is now accepting traffic. There are still some things that need attention but overall the bulk of the work is done and I'm able to use the yard for switching and holding cars.

Dogwood Yard filled with rolling stock. Track one is against the garage wall and can hold three cars. Tracks two and three both lead into the shed. Track four is a spur that goes along the outside of the shed.

Picking up where the last post left off, I needed to continue filling in, tamping and leveling the yard. Here I'm using an eight-foot board as a straight edge.

Once I had an even surface to work on, the next step was to layout where I wanted the tracks, making use of the switches that I had on hand. I had originally envisioned having the entry track right next to the garage, but I think this makes more sense. This will also allow me to put some narrow buildings between the incoming track and the wall.

As I worked on placement I would check distance between tracks to make sure everything stayed relatively even.

For the yard I was using six-foot lengths of code 250 brass rail from Sunset Valley Railroad. Threading the rail onto the ties took patience but I got the hang of it eventually.

It had not occurred to me until I had a track running into the shed that the bottom of the door is slightly below the floor of the shed. So I'll need to remove the doors and cut off about a half inch so they can clear the top of the tracks. 

After the track was where I wanted it I added ballast, tamped it in, and hosed everything down to try and lock it in place.

Along part of the retaining wall I left space for planting. I put in a layer of potting soil and then topped that with compost.

My NW2 is switching cars in the yard. I started discovering problems as soon as I backed the first car in. One problem is that I didn't properly join the code 332 track coming off the mainline with the new code 250 track in the yard. That's easily fixable. Another problem is that I noticed the "air hoses" on the Kadee couplers on some of the cars are too low and sometimes get caught when going through a switch. 

The side track along the shed ends with an abrupt drop-off right now, but still has room to hold three cars. I plan on extending the retaining wall and track a couple more feet. Beyond that is a fence, although potentially the track could cut through the fence allowing expansion into new territory, perhaps a loop track. 

Another thing I did this weekend was rip out my siding, which has been completely overgrown and is no longer usable. I thought I was going to reuse these switches in the yard, but decided to use Sunset Valley switches I had on hand instead. I may reuse the switches from the siding inside the train shed, if I think I can squeeze four tracks in it.

After the track was pulled up I cut back and ripped out the creeping plant and regraded the road bed.

The hen-and-chicks alongside the track are looking especially lush this spring. They clearly like their new home.

And one more picture from the garden. The columbine are all in peak bloom right now and this is a particularly pretty one.

Expansion for rail yard and shed

This weekend I started working on my new rail yard which will be in a narrow space between the garage and a fence. I had planted this area with twig dogwood several years ago as I wanted something that could be completely neglected and make it through the summer without watering. The dogwood has done very well and completely filled in the space, and was trying to climb over the fence as well. When I learned a few weeks ago my neighbors were planning on replacing the fence sometime this year I realized I needed to get back there and trim the dogwood back, but then I decided to coppice instead to stimulate new growth.

Once I had cleared out all the growth, I saw all this open space and realized I had a much better idea. I had not considered running the train back here when I originally was planning my layout as the space is only seven feet wide so I wouldn't be able to create a loop. But for a dead-end train yard the space would be perfect.

A view of the site after clearing out most of the growth. Other things back here that need cleared out include my pile of unused bricks.

After digging out the dogwood roots, my first step was installing a small retaining wall using stackable 4" high concrete blocks. I wouldn't recommend this type of block for a real retaining wall, but for something 8" high it's perfectly fine and inexpensive.

This is a frequent area for moles, so my next step was to put down a 1/2" wire mesh. Bricks are holding it in place until I can get some gravel on it.

Next I started putting down 3/4" minus crushed rock and arranging bricks to serve as the foundation for the train shed.

Another view of the foundation in progress, making sure everything is level. 

Once the foundation was complete I moved the train shed to its new home as it was blocking my progress to the north.

The main track where the spur will branch off is slightly elevated above ground level. Rather than having two elevated tracks here I decided to elevate the ground level instead, using bricks as a short retaining wall for now. I may replace this eventually with something more decorative. I filled the area with gravel and tamped it down.

On top of the gravel I added 1/4" minus crushed rock, then installed the switch and reattached the main track.

This image shows the completed switch after adding ballast.

The rail yard is three feet wide so I could fill the whole area with crushed rock and install up to four parallel tracks. But I'm also thinking I might install only three tracks, and put a buffer of soil along the retaining wall to allow for some plantings.

Alki checking out the wall. Something new to pee on! The wall will continue another five feet south along the train shed to help prevent soil slumping. I only built six feet of wall today as that's all the blocks I had on hand.

My first bearded iris of the year opened up today thanks to all the sunshine!