# Temporary way to hold up track until trusses are finished.



## Brandon (Jul 6, 2011)

Just curious what people recommend for holding up track while I'll be spending the next year or so finishing 80' of trusses and bridges. 

The trusses will range from 3" to 26" high, mostly straight but some curved.

I'm wondering if the pvc spline method is the most cost effective, 4'x8' sheets of foam board cut up and stacked, cinder blocks, or even something else. 

It will probably be next year before I get all the trusses finished.


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## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

You could just use cinder blocks, bricks or wood stacked to hold the track up. Thats what I did and it worked fine until the trestles went in.


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## Bob Pero (Jan 13, 2008)

As Shawn mentioned. I used a bunch of bricks to hold mine up.


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## Ted Doskaris (Oct 7, 2008)

Brandon,

I've been working on extending my layout from under my house to outdoors and have used bricks and wood shims to temporarily establish the track height for a double loop of tack to gain altitude.

The videos to follow include information that may be helpful to you.

Part 1 of track loop construction: (You may wish to start this video at about 1 minute into it to get past the power supply info.)




Part 2 of track loop construction:




-Ted


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

If your into that long of a project then use what ever you think will support the RR. Min of every 6 inches to support the track. Later RJD


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## Tabooma County Railway (Aug 12, 2012)

Ted, 

Nice videos, very good clarification of your building techniques. I have a couple of questions: What brand of (flex, I assume) track are you using? And what, just out of curiosity is the floor to ceiling clearance under your house? I have a similar situation that I'm "engineering" right now (read that: laying on the couch, thinking about it...) 

Al Carter 
Mount Vernon WA


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## Ted Doskaris (Oct 7, 2008)

Hi Al,

Thus far, for the outdoor extended layout, I am using fixed length sections of Aristo-Craft stainless steel track. The curves consist of either 12.5 foot diameter or 20 foot diameter track sections. I did a custom modification in one section by re-bending the rails using the Aristo rail bender. The few straight portions consists of fixed length track sections, 5 foot if I recall correctly. Since the videos were made I progressed a little bit more and made the cut in the hill side where I will place an 8 foot "flex" track section. I use split jaw clamps to join the track sections. As you can see from the videos, my layout uses track power.

The under house layout consists of Aristo-Craft brass track sections - mostly 10 foot diameter curves, some "S" bends (with short straight track sections to ease in and out). The rail yard approach uses 8 foot diameter track sections. 

The 10 foot diameter loop-back is shown in the below picture. From the far end of this loop, an Aristo Wide Radius switch turnout vectors off from its straight to route the train through the wall to go outdoors.










As to "walking" clearance under the house, the house is on somewhat of a hill, so the higher parts vary from about 6 to 8 feet tall, then as you go toward the shallower end, the space becomes progressively smaller becoming a "crawl" space.

For a full description, see the "*Under house suspended layout article*" 


-Ted


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## Brandon (Jul 6, 2011)

If only I had a good supply of bricks for stacking... I'll have to buy whatever I use. 

I took a trip to home depot to kill some time last night and bricks/pavers were about $.50. One 24" tall stack would cost $5.00, ouch. 

I walked around the store and looked at everything from $1 8x8x8 cinder blocks to $2.97 2x4's 8' long. 

Then I saw these: 

 

I asked and it sounds like they're not treated but at 8' long and designed for outdoors I wonder if I could get a bunch of these and saw them to various lengths, dig some 6" holes and pack around to hold up the track for a year or so?


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Brandon,

I used these on my very first outdoor railroad in 1984, as cribbing. Lasted about a year and then I had to pull them! Rotten all the way through. Waste of $$$$, speaking from experience.


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## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

Brandon, 

If this is really a temp deal for 12 months or thereabouts why not avoid digging and do what I did.










I took some 4x4s added some scrap 2x4s to make a base, and mounted the track on 1x4 fence board. It sits on the ground, is easy to adjust and move a needed and you avoid putting something in the ground that you'd just have to tear out later. I did this then added trestles and mountains as I went along. Still have this in places on my layout.

Best,
TJ


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## Brandon (Jul 6, 2011)

Gary, did the parts not in contact with the ground rot? 

They're cheaper than 4x4's and I'm wondering if I used TJ's method if they'd still rot out. 

I'm also not expecting them to last more than a year and for less than $40 I can get 72+ posts which would be plenty for me. Pavers or anything else would cost far more than $40 and after a year I'd be stuck with having to find a way to get rid of them.


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

When we first built the trestle on my dad's Woodland Railway, we used regular 2 x 4s or 1x4s set in the ground to support the trestle stringers. Nothing fancy at all. The trestle stringers were cut from redwood, and would stay in place when we began replacing the 2 x 4s with proper trestle bents--6 years later!!! 

Later, 

K


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## rmcintir (Apr 24, 2009)

Since you have some real answers I thought I would throw out mine 

Beer Cans...


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Might work, but if the bridge collapses, be prepared for the the headlines that read "Alcohol may have been a factor."  

Later, 

K


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## MimiLuna (Aug 30, 2012)

Brandon, You can try to imbue them with creosote http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creosote


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