# The best way to remove leaves



## cape cod Todd (Jan 3, 2008)

Hello All 
WHAT is the best way to remove leaves and similar fall debri from the right of way? I have a friend who custom made a battery powered blower car and that works very well. I know another that uses one of the rail broom car kits that sweep and fling everything away. Lacking either of these high tech gizmos today I ran my aristo plow around and it cleared enough to keep anything following from derailing. 
When things get really bad I pull out the backpack blower and go to town. One year I put the leaves in hoppers and ran them down back to unload them into the woods. This didn't work very well because I was using a scale 1:20 rake!! 

What do you guys like best and what works better?
1 a blower car
2 a sweeper car
3 a plow gondola with a brick in it
4 the backpack leaf blower (though just a bit out of scale)
5 or pack it in til the spring and hopefully over the winter wind will blow the leaves to a neighbors yard.

Todd


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I think it really depends on the leaves you have. I have some small leaves, about 2" and my sweeper does a great job, and it also generates enough "wind" to eventually get stuff out of the way. 

I also have a Magnolia tree, with longer and larger leaves which don't move as easily, but it's only a 15-20 foot tree, so not so many leaves. 

Now, my friend RJ has big leaves and lots of them... a vacuum unit (less messy than a blower) gets them out of the way most efficiently. (If I have been lax, this is what I use too) 

So really depends on the number and size. 

Regards, Greg


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## chuck n (Jan 2, 2008)

I use a spring steel leaf rake with a normal handle, but the width of the rake head is only 10 inches. It works very nice just raking along the track. My leaf blower removes as much ballast as it does leaves. I do use the blower and a regular rake away from the track when it becomes necessary.

I think that the small headed rake is designed for getting leaves and other debris out of shrubs and hedges.

Chuck N


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## DennisB (Jan 2, 2008)

I have a leaf blower vac with a 2 speed motor. I run it over the rails and it pretty much does a good job. Regards, Dennis.


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## Trains (Jan 2, 2008)

18 volt Black and Decker blower


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## smcgill (Jan 2, 2008)

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## Bob Pero (Jan 13, 2008)

We have Live Oak trees which do a "super drop" in February. These are small leaves, so I start with the shop vac and finish with a quick shot from my leaf blower. During the rest of the year, we get some leaf drop, but the blower takes care of it.


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## mgilger (Feb 22, 2008)

The combination of a blower and brush works for my layout. The brush even removes the unwanted or excess ballast from between the rails. I also have a Chinese chestnut tree in the middle of my layout and the brush moves these 1-2 inch chestnuts out of the way like they were peanuts. 


http://mmg-garden-rr.webs.com/apps/...d=97875411



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qNfSlPo6DI

Regards,
Mark


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## dieseldude (Apr 21, 2009)

I've got 3 big maples with lots of leaves, so the leaf vacuum with mulcher works best for me.


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## smcgill (Jan 2, 2008)

Leave vac will not pics up all the acorns that seam to around this year! 
Ohhhhhhhhhhh to bendover to pick up them darn nuts!!!!!!!!


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Sweeper will get the acorns... 

Greg


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## LebenswichtigeGartenBahn (Oct 23, 2010)

Posted By smcgill on 25 Oct 2010 07:41 PM 
Leave vac will not pics up all the acorns that seam to around this year! 
Ohhhhhhhhhhh to bendover to pick up them darn nuts!!!!!!!!







Wow, and I thought I had it bad with pine needles! I guess I'd rather have the needles! At least they won't damage anything like those hard pelting acorns!









On the original question: We have mostly drifting pine-needles from surrounding 100ft pines. Even though the trains are in a clearing, the wind carries a rain of floating needles!

This time of year is naturally the worst. It''s not pleasant, but we pick the needles by hand. Brushes and blowers seem to be ineffective at fully displacing the pine straw without rearranging 
ballast and other things and they won't clear the Alberta Spruces or the junipers. It's a nuiscance but it's easier "gardening" than pulling weeds; just tedious.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Pine needles are the worst, because they work their way between the ties... it's time for a chainsaw. 

Greg


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I one of those convertable blower/vac AC powered units... It has a vane up near the motor that either directs the impeller output down a narrow 3-ft tube or if the vane is flipped the other way the output is directed into a large cloth bag but the intake is from the end of a 4-in. diameter tube parallel to the smaller tube. 

In vacuum mode it will easily vacuum up about 1/2 the "chicken grit" ballast, amid horrible grinding noises, filling the bag to an unwieldly weight in less that 30 seconds, while leaving the leaves and twigs alone. 

But when set to the blower mode it will completely clear all the ballast away, while conveniently leaving the leaves and twigs in place of the ballast is has spewed all over. 

Somehow or other this doesn't seem quite right!


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## cape cod Todd (Jan 3, 2008)

I forgot about my pine needle and acorn problem in addition to the leaves both large and small. I have used a shrub rake at times to reach into the tunnels which works well. Looking outside this morning alot of leaves came down last night so it might be time for the big guns, the leaf blower. How about damp leaves? it seems the sweeper would work better than the blower. What about a little snow would it be the sweeper or blower that would move the white stuff?


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## jebouck (Jan 2, 2008)

I do option 5 and move to the indoor layout.
4 huge maple trees just about bury the layout.


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