# I Built My Elevated Railway + more



## afinegan (Jan 2, 2008)

I think I just had the best christmas ever


 


Well, I got to build my first elevated railway in my backyard. All the wood is pressure treated.


1. I dug the holes with a posthole digger(gas engine) 2 feet deep. The posts where 4 feet apart


2. Put the 4x4's into the holes and used a plastic tube to make sure all my posts where level (good old archimedes). Cut them if they werent. Poured concrete into the hole and refill the hole in


3. Screwed 2 1x6's to the outside of the posts all the way around and screwed planks on top of the boards.


 Took me 5 days but it came out excellent, for the cherry on top I built a bridge over the waterfall pond my parents had in there backyard.


 


We had to keep the layout semi small the start (homeowners association gave us funny looks when we mentioned it 3 years ago. The neighbors love it though.


Future plans are, switches from outer to inner track, steamup bay and line extension when the neighborhood warms up to it more (start small)


 


Here is a few pictures


 










 










 










 


 


Finished it the day before christmas, then on christmas after opening the presents, my dad hands me an envelope. I open the envelope and there is the 2 cylinder shay review printed out, im think noooo cant be.


Then he shows me to the garage and points to a big box and there it is. Accucraft Live Steam #2 Shay !!!! (I was only a Ruby owner previously).


 










 










 


I thought it would of been a long time until I could afford a new engine! (saving for a house)


 


We spent the rest of the week playing with My Ruby, Shay and my dad's K-28. We even put the electrics on (even had the Fortuna Flyer, fly off the bridge and into the pond (that was funny) I guess trying to achieve mach 1 didnt work even with all those R5 curves ( the entire layout is R5 atm).


I will post the videos and more pictures sometime tommorrow here. Im at work and left 3/4's of them at home by mistake. (all the runing pictures and videos)


 


-Andrew


P.S. looking forward to participating in the SHAY event at diamondhead.


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## weaverc (Jan 2, 2008)

Andrew,


Good going. You'll love it as I do mine. You can go out and run anytime you want.


I also had some homeowner association concerns at my last house, but I went to one of their meetings to give a lecture on live steaming and showed pictures of garden railways. Until then, they had no concept of what I was talking about. I kept the oval simple and planted some evergreen bushes near the posts. Mine sat on cast piers because according to the HOA, posts in the ground would have been a "permanent" structure, which would have been prohibited. I painted the piers green to camouflage them somewhat. One woman who worked hard to stop me with flyers and letters to the board, tried to convince the HOA that the "crowds, polution and noise would be overwhelming." Go figure!


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## David Rose (Jan 2, 2008)

Andrew,


   Looks good! Have fun with it.


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## afinegan (Jan 2, 2008)

Ya, thats why my dad and I didnt build it 3 years ago, We explained where it was going and what we where doing to our neighbors (2 of which are on the board) and they where fine with it, the 2 houses on each side of my dad's house cant even see the oval(did this on purpose), to go on from here, I dont know, I would love to expand it hehehe. People love to say no as a sign of power especially when they don't understand what we are doing. I am treading carefully from here. Too bad I live in south florida and my dad lives in DeLand (between Daytona and Orlando). 

Maybe I will add a steamup bay next in a few months. 

-Andrew


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## Terl (Jan 2, 2008)

Ho  Ho Ho,  Merry Christmas!  /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/laugh.gif  You got a nice layout there and steam engine.   Maybe you could invite some of your neighbors over when you have a run.  It might thaw them out when they see how much fun it is.


Terl


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## Steve S. (Jan 2, 2008)

Andrew, great looking track.  Sounds like you have a great "Santa" Dad too.  Get out there and run the heck out of those engines.


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## themetalman (Jan 3, 2008)

great looking track....enjoy it


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## Bruce (Jan 3, 2008)

Congrats on your new layout and shay. I bought myself the open cab shay a month ago and really enjoy running it. 
I noticed you said you live in South Florida. I also live in South Florida, Pompano to be exact. I have about 75-80ft of track in front of my house around my main landscaping island. I don't have an association so I can get away with it. I just have neighbors watching me saying to themselves, this crazy guy is playing with his choo choos again! But they don't realize how addicting live steam is. 

Bruce


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## afinegan (Jan 2, 2008)

The neighbors love it so we dont have an issue.


Lets just say, I built this track for 5 days sunrise to sundown. If I had floodlights I would of been into the night lol. When it was finished I went through a whole gallon of water (1/4 went into the k28 tender for gas tank temp) and burned through a


 220g Primus mix gas can lol. Ran them alot, forwards backwards, pulled all the cars out to see how many I could pull with each engine, speed trial (need to work oiling better/breaking in), slow operation, Double Heading.


Elevated railway is the way to go, finally see your engine work!


The only 2 elevated tracks I have ever been at was Norm Saleys house (fixing my ruby and meeting some central florida steamers at a steamup) and the one I just built at my dad's house. (not mentioning running on the concrete driveway) 


I live in an apartment in Boca so I have no room to run them down in South Florida. So my Shay and Ruby sit in a display case lol. I do run nscale to hold me over.


(I left them at my dads the next 2 weeks cause we are going to Diamondhead anyway). Always looking for places to get together and boil some water .  Live steamers must stick together since where semi far and few between.


- Andrew


 P.S. forgot to bring the camera to work again to post  the videos... DOH


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

Great looking RR. Looks like the fun has just begun. Ba humbug with the HOA They need to get a life. Later RJD


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Man, what a great dad you have  I hope you treat him right come fathers day


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## tparone (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks nice, what does a layout ( except for the track) cost to construct using that method? How many feet of track do you have?


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## jmkling (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice looking track and for live steam, elevated track is the way to go.


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## afinegan (Jan 2, 2008)

Dont worry I take care of him plenty, I installed a remote for his whistle on the K-28, built his garage table (16' X 16') and did alot of work on the outdoor part.


I think its a way to get another live steam engine in the house without my mom having a fit. /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif


Other Items I used on the layout:


screwdriver with screw autoloader ($100)
http://www.senco.com/con_rem/ViewTool.aspx?toolid=171

Used a miter saw ($100 something ?) 
(that is not really made for this type of work) to cut all the wood
Clear plastic tube used for leveling ($10)
5-6 bags of quickcrete (stop sinking, we dont get permafrost or snow in florida though)
All the wood was standard pressure treated wood from lowes (around $400 of 16 foot 1X6 and standard 4x4).
I spent around $400 for all the wood.

As for the measurements every turn on the layout is LGB 1800 (R5) curve track. (inside track is a 1 foot straight and outside has a 2 foot straight to make them fit). The straightaways are around 15 feet long. I didnt take exact measurements.
Just layed the track on the grass and used a measuring tape to get the curve setup properly and moved the track until everything fit.

I think it is around 100 feet of track on the outside.

Total job without purchasing tools,, around $550 (pretty bridge aside, my dad had it in his garage, and I decided to make it a permanent fixture).


Here is the video and more pictures I promised:

































Dark at first (first track run in the dark, we where excited, had to do it), but there are lighted parts too, yes I had my gas slightly too high and had the whistles (I think the gas tank was warming up and increasing pressure while it was running).


Future videos will be alot better from me, no wife shaky cam (tripod next time), run through my video editor






(btw I just posted the html of the object embed tag from youtube to post the video like this)


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## macbookman13 (Jan 22, 2008)

Good looking track. I bet the neigbors loved the whistle.   If you ever get this far north give me a shout and will steam up.

Daniel
P.S. This is Daniel my old account wouldn't work after the new sight was created.


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## Charles (Jan 2, 2008)

Andrew
That is a bargain: $500 for the layout.  Of course having to add in the extra's such as track, bridge and of course a live steam engine.
Beautifully done and outstanding location with the pond.  Great to have a dad that is willing to go the distance with the the HOA along with the "nosey" neighbors.  I am sure there will be many from the community yet to come over at a steam up.


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