# New Track in Red Rock Canyon



## rhyman (Apr 19, 2009)

I started laying track in Red Rock Canyon today. Over the past couple of days I moved two tons of red sandstone and a lot of dirt. It's only about thirty-five feet of canyon, but it gave me a real appreciation for what the prototype builders must have experienced back before they had mechanized equipment. Here is the lower end of the canyon. The curved turnout is a #10 with a 30 foot radius on the outer leg and a 20-foot radius on the inner leg. The six-foot long turnout module is setting on the canyon wall ready to be mated to the track module already installed on the stanchions. Roadbed is my standard PVC lattice method, which has been discussed here on the forum. Rail is Code 215 aluminum, painted a rusty brown, and hand-spiked to cedar ties. In case you are wondering why the PVC lattice is brown, I paint it before installing the ties and rail.












Here is another view of the canyon taken while I was stacking rocks and before I bolted the lattice modules to the stanchions. The bottom layers of the canyon wall are banded rose sandstone. This particular style is called "4-inch chop" Above the layered sandstone are various sized chunks of Prague Red Sandstone. I left plenty of planting pockets for greenery.











This is a view of the upper end of the canyon. This particular spot is where the line crosses a side canyon on a 4-foot long wooden trestle. For now, I just continued my PCV lattice roadbed across the canyon and will come back later and install the trestle. The turnout in this shot is a #8 and leads to a 18-foot long spur which will serve a mine. To the right of the photo, you can see the main line continuing upgrade. Tomorrow, I hope to start planting the section that I installed today. I will post more photos as it shapes up.


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## Rods UP 9000 (Jan 7, 2008)

That looking good Bob 
The curved switch is very nice. 

See ya soon 

Rodney


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## Amber (Jul 29, 2011)

You have way more ambition than I have!  
That's going to look really good when it's done.


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## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

Looking Great Bob, keep us posted on the progress. 

Chris


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## rhyman (Apr 19, 2009)

It rained all day Sunday and most of this morning so I haven't got a lot done in the past two days. It dried up enough this evening to plant a couple dozen small trees and shrubs on the higher area. Hard to believe from these two photos that we have had over two inches of rain in the past two days. By the way, you guys didn't warn me that I should buy stock in a home improvement store or a plant nursery before getting into garden railroading! Just kidding. I stop by all the plant places and buy their rejects -- usually near the end of the season or after some bad weather. I usually get the plants for half price or less. I bring them home, stick them in one of my planting beds, and forget about them. If they make it - fine. If they don't -- well, it's not a big loss. Also, there are Eastern Red Cedar trees that seem to sprout up all over the place here in Oklahoma. I used to pull them out an throw them on the compost pile. Now, I just transplant them to to layout. They are good for about five or six years before they outgrow the needed scale size. I did pick up a couple of plugs of Irish Moss and a few mounding Junipers this morning. Other than that, everything else came out of my existing planting beds. Here are a couple of photos to show the progress today. The two trees at the center of the photos are three year old Red Cedars. You can see that they look different from the Dwarf Alberta Spruces. I mulched around the plants with red rubber mulch made from recycled tires and spread a layer of pea gravel in the bottom of the side canyon. This gives me a pathway to get into the area and do weeding, trimming, and all the other stuff we hate to do.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

I bought stock in all the home improvement stores. I figured you guys would all contribute to My retirement funds!!! and Layout project!!! 

Not,.. ha.. 
... Dirk


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

Looks great Bob


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## SLemcke (Jun 3, 2008)

Looking good. When's the first run and open house. 
Steve


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## rhyman (Apr 19, 2009)

I managed to get a bit of work in today on the side canyons. I put down some river cobbles in the pea gravel and placed some crushed rose quartz along the canyon walls. This is the start of trying to replicate a stream bed and some realistic talus slopes where the nearly vertical canyon walls meet the horizontal surfaces. I also planted some creeping myrtle, prostrate rosemary, and stonecrop in the areas leading into and out of the main canyon to help ease the transition. Still have a long way to go, but hopefully you can see where I'm headed with this part of the layout. With the three day weekend coming up, I plan to get the majority of the work done in the canyon area. Here is a photo showing one of the side canyons. The differences in the colors is not really this vivid; I had just sprayed down the area to wash off the rock dust and everything was still wet. When dry, the colors blend together a lot more.











Steve,
As to a date for a first run, I'm probably looking at mid-June at the earliest. I'm leaving next week for a trip to California to pick up three of the Granddaughters who are coming out for the summer. They love trains (my two oldest sons are both are Amtrak engineers) so we will probably get quite a few runs in while they are here. As to a open house -- well, that's still a long way off. But you (and anyone else) are welcome to come over and check out the progress any time!


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## Rods UP 9000 (Jan 7, 2008)

Hey Bob 
I really like the rock color. That going to add the SW Colorado look. 
I may have to make a trip down to run on your layout sometime. 
BTW are you coming up to NG meet in KC?? 

Rodney


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## rhyman (Apr 19, 2009)

Rodney,
Not sure if I will be able to make it to the Kansas City Narrow Gauge meet or not. It depends on when I get back from California after I pick-up the grand-kids. You are welcome to come down to visit anytime. In fact, you could even install a couple of your world-famous K-27 gear boxes for me while you are here!









I don't have a lot of the new hand-spiked code 215 track down yet and most of the original Code 250 flex track has been pulled. There is about a 100-foot section of new track in place from the canyon area leading up to the site of the future high trestle at Ophir if you don't mind just running back and forth. I've got enough PVC lattice material, ties, and rail on hand to do the next 200 feet of track from Ophir through Rico and around to the back side of the layout. 

At the rate I'm going, it will probably take me another year or so to complete the first outer loop. I plan on driving the golden spike in front of the pond. I know that most folks like to get the track down first and then come back and start the landscaping; but I prefer to build the layout in stages. This allows me to work on one focal point at a time. I seem to learn something new with each new section that I can use on all of the following sections. Also, it keeps the wife in a better mood if the entire back yard doesn't always look like a major construction area!


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## Rods UP 9000 (Jan 7, 2008)

We will see in KC if you make it up here. 

We are going to have 3 of our granddaughters here for part of the summer so we will be having some fun running trains too. 

We will see how things go and maybe get down by the end of summer. If I don't make it down there, I install them at Marty's. 

Rodney


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## rhyman (Apr 19, 2009)

Well ... the three-day weekend is over and I didn't get as much done in the canyon as I wanted -- but I did get something running.











The first thing that traversed the new 48 feet of track was old #455 -- my first 1:20.3 loco. I really like the look of the code 215 rail with a large scale narrow gauge engine. It scales out to 65 lb/yd rail which is prototypical for the RGS.











Here's a view of yours truly taking a break from the heat. Actually, I was playing around with the momentum settings on my throttle when my wife snapped this shot. 











I couldn't pass up the chance to take my C-19 out for a quick run. It's my most finicky loco when it comes to trackwork, but it didn't have a bit of trouble on the new rail. That's my railroad shop in the background. I had the AC running full blast in there today and made plenty of excuses to go inside to get something.


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

The new track is looking great Bob. 

Reminds me that I gotta get my battery conversion done on my C-19 so i can run it.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

Bob, 

I don't know if this has been discussed, but how do you glue/attach the ties to the ladder system your using.. 

This was My problem - how to attach wood ties to a plastic ladder? 

THX's - Dirk


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## rhyman (Apr 19, 2009)

Dirk,


I use the original "Gorilla Glue" (see photo of bottle below.) I did a 8-foot long test section last summer right before we had the 45 day streak of 100 degree days. It's been setting there for almost a year now enduring direct sunlight, extreme heat, extreme cold, wind, rain, snow, sleet and hail. Even had a small tree branch land on it during an ice storm this past winter. Every tie is still firmly in place. I wet the ties in a container of water before gluing. I do ten ties at a time. I put a drop of glue on the PVC at each tie location, then position the ten ties, then lay a brick on them. I move on to the next ten ... and so on. I leave the bricks in place for at least a couple of hours. I wait at least a day before spiking the rail.


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## SD90WLMT (Feb 16, 2010)

THX - I settled on using Tite-bond 3 for gluing My ties to a cement based siding board. My last years work has done nothing also, well sealed and stained before the rail goes down...( My main-line with dark ties, - compared to your n.g. grey in place ties, - which I will have on my n.g. also ) 

It is the years down the road that will be the great test I guess, we can never know till we get there! 

Dirk 
DMS Ry.


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