# And so it begins...



## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

Well, after a year and a half, I finally got started.  No name yet, other than maybe WWGRR (World's Worst Garden Railroad)
I wandered around scoping out the yard, then marked it all up with orange paint.  I filled up my cart with a load of track and threw pieces on the ground, trying to roughly follow the paint.

I shot some pictures, but it was dark and they don't show up too well.  The basic design is supposed to be a folded figure-eight to get an over-under situation.  LOTS of imagination needed on these pictures.


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

The two pieces of wood standing up in the middle of the loop were to indicate where a waterfall and trestle would be.


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

A few days later, in daylight this time, I put in grade stakes to see if all this was going to fit and clear.  Then I got the cheapest fence boards Home Depot had and screwed them into the grade stakes as a temporary roadbed.


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

I used a four foot level with a spacer on the end to try to maintain my grade.  Crude but effective.  At least as long as my calculations were correct!


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

Even though it is all temporary to get an idea of where to start dumping dirt, the boards and track give a much better perspective of the layout.


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

Sometimes it is challenging to keep the track on the board or the board on the grade stake.  A man can never have too many clamps!


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

All in all, it turned out to be a pretty productive day.  The weather was beautiful.  Just right for working in the yard.


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## work4fil (Jan 4, 2008)

I say, it is far from the World's Worse Garden Railroad.  You are light years ahead of me.  I threw a couple of pieces of track on the ground briefly and then whined to me wife that I needed more.  I have yet to conceptualize any track plan and have moved locations about the yard more times than I care to count.  To make matters worse, now my wife says we have to move (maybe she just says I have to move, I wasn't really clear on the statement).  I do like your folded eight design, plus your four foot level idea.  I plan on lurking and observing your progress, because the beauty of this site is the vicarious modeling I can enjoy without spending too much $$$.


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

It was a good thing to get as far as I did that day.  I know Texas weather can change rapidly, but this is ridiculous!  This is the day after I took the previous pictures.


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

Here's where the imagination has to come in.  The loop will be around and through a mountain.  Between the two upright logs will be a waterfall and there will be a bridge over the water.  Continuing to the right, it will enter a tunnel about where the track starts to curve.  For the crossover, the track will come out of a tunnel immediately onto a bridge over the other track.  That area will possibly be a big manmade type cut along the downhill slope of the mountain.  Shortly after passing under the bridge, the uphill track enters a short tunnel.  It will come out of the tunnel in the curve about where the two boards come together.  Then a little ways to the bridge over the water.  The upper level, when it comes out of the tunnel and over the bridge over the lower track, there will be sloping hillside as the track goes downhill and off to the left.  It will go down and wrap around the pond, swing around and come around the back side of the tree to complete the loop.

Lots of work yet to do.  It is almost close enough to run a train on.  Of course a little more bracing will be required.  Once the train runs, the track comes back up.   Then comes in lots of dirt and some fake mountains of cement over wire for some critical areas.  Of course I couldn't have gotten this far without the valuable information I have found on MLS.  Thanks guys.

When I get around to doing more, I'll put up some more pictures.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Lovely start! 

You've got my garden railroad beat by a few miles


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## tom h (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice start, the only advice i can give being very new to this is ask a lot of questions and watch everyone posts there stuff to get ideas from. I started 2 years ago and am going to finish most of my track this year, of course the problem is i keep expanding. And thats the other thing, think up some ideas as you go about buildings, where to put them, do you want just the train to go around in circles? or frieght yard? switches? try to think about it as you go to make sure, i had to change a few things because i never thought of something till someone else posted it, then i smacked myself upside the head and thought why didnt i think of that. Do you want to store your trains outside? its a pain to carry them out there all the time. Hopefully we can make you think of things before you mess up, i did it enough and its frustrating changing things because it didnt work out, most of all you have to have fun doing it

tom h


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## Big John (Jan 4, 2008)

I see where you are using planks to support your track. Look into the ladder system for your track support method. It really simplifies making your layout. Especially when you are elevating the track.

John


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## jamarti (Jan 2, 2008)

Just a quick question for you.   It appears in your picture there is a rather steep slope to your track as it crosses and loops back around and under.  How have you figured your degrees of slope?    I suppose if you ran clockwise that steep looking part would always be "downhill" and the longer climb around the bigger part would provide for less slope and an easier climb for your train.    I found it took a lot of track to make an over and under but I never though of making one section longer and the short steep part, "downhill".


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Big John on 03/16/2008 3:51 PM
I see where you are using planks to support your track. Look into the ladder system for your track support method. It really simplifies making your layout. Especially when you are elevating the track.

John




Those boards are temporary to get the feel of the layout.  They're the cheapest fence boards Lowe's had, 1x4x6ft for $.98 each.  They will be repurposed later.  That area will eventually be filled in with various materials later.  Most of the track is intended to be free floating, prototype style.

Michael


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## barnmichael (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By jamarti on 03/16/2008 6:47 PM
Just a quick question for you.   It appears in your picture there is a rather steep slope to your track as it crosses and loops back around and under.  How have you figured your degrees of slope?    I suppose if you ran clockwise that steep looking part would always be "downhill" and the longer climb around the bigger part would provide for less slope and an easier climb for your train.    I found it took a lot of track to make an over and under but I never though of making one section longer and the short steep part, "downhill".    




Camera angles, the slope of the ground, etc. can play tricks on appearances.  The ground slopes down and the track slopes up.  In reality, the grade rarely exceeds 2%.  There's still a lot of tweaking to be done as the landscaping goes in.   That circle has about 24 feet of track between the crossing points and about 10 inches of clearance at the crossover.

Michael


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## Matt Vogt (Jan 2, 2008)

Congratulations, Michael, on your great start! You sound like you have put some thought into things. I'll be watching fopr progress. 
Thanks for sharing,
Matt


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By barnmichael on 03/15/2008 8:51 PM
  No name yet, other than maybe WWGRR (World's Worst Garden Railroad)


You can have my second choice... WBT&S (I was never quite sure if the was for "West Broad Top & Southern", or "Wobble, Bobble, Turnover & Stop", lol /DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/mls/emoticons/tongue.gif) 

Seriously, though, it's a good start.


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