# Building a lonnnng snowshed



## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

I guess it's a snowshed, although I really need it to keep the Day Lillies' long, sturdy leaves from derailing locomotives.











I have a shed started but building it to fit the inside of this curve isn't as easy as I thought. I would want a more or less open area in the front of the shed because I don't want to hide the train, just a bit of a view-block. And I wouldn't want to deal with a twenty-foot curved tunnel.

Has anyone ever built something like what I need? I'm going to have to steal someone's wisdom if I'm ever going to get this thing done.

JackM

The trains usually just ride over the leaves, no big deal. But I've actually had a train STOPPED by a leaf wrapped around the front of the engine with the tip caught under a wheel.


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

Jack


How about a fence made out of hardware cloth with 1/4 or 1/2" holes and made it 8 - 10 inches high. If the holes are small enough the leaves won't grow through the holes and they would lay over the top hopefully far enough above the track not to cause problems. You could put it 3 or 4 inches back from the track. 

It might look a little strange in the winter, but it should keep the fronds back from the engine and cars.

Chuck


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## backyardRR (Aug 14, 2012)

Jack, I used some inexpensive wood picket edging I picked up at Lowes to keep English Ivy in check along one part of my RR. It's straight but you may be able to curve each piece a bit. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow.


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Interesting project Jack. Perhaps you might approach it in two steps, the first being the interior permanent wall. Then add removable / cosmetic sections of the downhill roof and buttressed wall bracing.


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

Cliff - interesting how we folks here can help each other. Your thought, and the photo, jogged my mind and made me realize I didn't see the obvious. It didn't occur to me til just now that I should build the rear wall in place! THEN add the roof with front supports.

All this time I've been building a roof with rear supports; glue, clamps, etc. Slow work. I can put in a back wall similar to some cribbing I built five years ago to prevent one side of a hill from collapsing. I'll post a photo tomorrow if the sun ever comes out. It was pretty quick to make and can be any length. 

Thanks for "kickstarting" me.

JackM


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## scottemcdonald (Jan 11, 2008)

Looks to me like you have the beginnings of modelling something like this: 






Scott


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

JackM said:


> Cliff - interesting how we folks here can help each other. Your thought, and the photo, jogged my mind and made me realize I didn't see the obvious. It didn't occur to me til just now that I should build the rear wall in place! THEN add the roof with front supports.
> 
> All this time I've been building a roof with rear supports; glue, clamps, etc. Slow work. I can put in a back wall similar to some cribbing I built five years ago to prevent one side of a hill from collapsing. I'll post a photo tomorrow if the sun ever comes out. It was pretty quick to make and can be any length.
> 
> ...


Cool! I'm really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.


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## backyardRR (Aug 14, 2012)

Jack, here is a picture of the Lowes wood fencing I was talking about.










The pieces are 12" high by 3 feet long. They have a little bit of give if you try to bend them but you would probably be better off
keeping them straight in some sort of circular arc pattern. Hope this helps.


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## Crisolite (Jan 9, 2008)

Jack, I had a similar problem.









Before










After

I put up a retaining wall to hold back the plants. Sometimes I need to trim a leaf every once and a while, but otherwise it works great.
These retaining walls are from BridgeMasters.


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

Ed - Those retaining walls don't look bad, but I think my plants are a mite bigger (taller) than yours. Wayne's fencing, I think, would be too "porous" for my crop.

Here's the cribbing I was talking about:











It's just some pine sticks I found in the garage. Thompson Sealer hasn't kept it as pretty as I'd like (I don't like silver wood). To the left is my train shed which is cedar. The annual Thompson's treatment is worth the few minutes it takes me to slosh it on. This cribbing was just an afterthought when I realized that the raised area would be right next to the patio.

I don't know if I actually dreamed this up myself. All I did was drill a small hole about half an inch from the ends of the wood "beams" and threaded some bare 12 ga. Romex wire, The wire is simply bent 90 degrees at the ends. As simple as this is, I think I should be able to build the rear wall like this for a few bucks worth of cedar. Strip some Romex and thread it all together, laying it out on the grass as it gets out of hand. Since it'll be taller than the cribbing in this photo, I would need some supports leaning toward the rear. I'm just now trying to visualize how I'd build the roof, or roof supports, and the front supports.

Sadly, I have no training in this kind of stuff, so I usually have to figure it out as I go, just as I did this cribbing. A pencil and paper go only so far with me. Most of my 
technical drawings are done on a Post-it pad, as was the entire train shed. I think I'm going to need a few big hunks of cedar if this snowshed it going to be 15-20 feet long. I doubt it'll be finished before the lillies wither for the winter.

JackM


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Nice cribbing Jack, with or without the Thompson's. Hadn't heard of the wire trick, thanks for that.


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## Crisolite (Jan 9, 2008)

Jack,

I like your cribbing. Make sure there is something solid behind it or the leaves from the day lilies will poke through. I found this out the hard way. My retaining walls are 12 inches tall. I found this height seemed to work out better. Should be a good height for the snow shed.

I’m trying spar varnish on a new bridge I’m installing this year. I found a spray version of spar varnish at Home Depot. Hopefully it will keep the wood from graying. The brush on version worked great on my friends boat.


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## Dick Friedman (Aug 19, 2008)

I had the same problem caused by a mock orange tree growing over and into my RR. I made a hoop of 1/2 inch (25mm) harward cloth as a tunnel under the tree. Then I laid tar paper (on a hot day) over the hardware cloth. Now the branches of the mock orange create a green tunnel (on the outside at least)! Would send a picture, but not today.


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