# You can see the progress from one end to the other



## riderdan (Jan 2, 2014)

So, this summer was a mixed bag as far as the actual garden part of my railway. I went to California for more than a month, and this being Kansas, had 3-4 foot grass and weeds over the unfinished part of the layout. That took a good bit to sort out. Also, I put a few fish in the pond, only to have them eaten by (I believe) a heron. $30 of heron food wasn't what I thought I was getting when I bought them.

On the positive side, I've been able to take some cuttings from some of the more successful plantings and spread around the attractive plants that grow well. And the two small hills I added have withstood the occasional torrential rainstorm without being washed away. And I think I've got the algae in the pond mostly licked.

I have a friend who I occasionally tease with pictures--he has a postage-stamp-sized yard in California. When I took these today I wasn't thinking about the progression, but you can clearly see where I started (the first picture), where I've been working (the second) and where I haven't done much of anything.


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## jimhoot (Mar 21, 2015)

Looking good Dan
Is that cement under your town?

I have not gotten much done on our RR as I was to hot and tired after 10 hr work day with 90% heat.
I am off this week and getting ready to roll.


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## riderdan (Jan 2, 2014)

Hi Jim,

The town base is a long story... there is concrete under it, but on top is a piece of closed-cell foam I got from Cliffy. 

When I first put the town in I knew I wanted it to be low(er) maintenance, so I wanted a stable base and no mud splash when the Kansas rain pours down in buckets. I poured concrete in the general size of the town, with runs of conduit for wire to light the buildings. My eventual plan was to skim the concrete with exterior grout to make "asphalt"

Later, I decided I wanted a streetcar to traverse the street. Since there's no easy way to embed rails in already poured concrete, I thought I'd add a top layer to put the rails in. There's a thread about this (http://forums.mylargescale.com/14-buildings/55834-foam-streets.html) here on MLS. Cliffy offered me a piece of foam to try out and it worked fairly well at first--but this summer I was having some problems with the foam getting humps in it from the heat expansion differential between the black closed-cell foam that forms the "surface" and the insulated foam I'm using for the base.

I'm still pondering what to do about this. I could try and re-glue the foam with a stronger adhesive, or switch to a different, denser foam, or just go back to a no-streetcar grout base. In that first picture, the road from the layout edge to the crossing is concrete with grout.


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## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

Looks pretty darn good!


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## DennisB (Jan 2, 2008)

This is very picturesque. Congratulations on a goood design. Regards, Dennis.


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## MJSavage (Dec 27, 2007)

That is looking great to me!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Greg 1,046


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Nice. Looks like an interesting wye.


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