# finished with bottom of layout



## tom h (Jan 2, 2008)

Here is what it was before I had to kinda level it a little bit, I did not realize how much slope I had till I put the laser level on the bottom part. Hard to see but I took 2 points, one before bridge by tall evergreen, and one underneath just past bridge on concrete roadbed for the places to start making it level.









I went with the ladder method because I had to raise it so much, I had to make a trestle like ramp to get to where the ladder part started, I took 2 points on my concrete roadbed and started from there, but it went pretty far back up the roadbed, so i had to build it up with cedar trestle 










1st run to make sure the track is laid o.k. it seems like its really going up hill, but its not, the ground slopes so much









it really makes me nervous having it run so high up, not used to it, its about 2 to 2.5 ft above ground, just got to get used to it, i have run it since taking these pics and it seems allright, everything is level, just put PVC pipe in ground about 3 ft, and kept enough above ground to keep everything level, i had a couple of pieces of trex boards left over from my deck, 5.25 in wide, by 2.5 in thick, i ran them through the table saw in half each way, gave me real good support and flexability, 




















hard to see with track on top, the poles are about 20 to 24 in apart, and i put trex blocks in between for more support and to screw track down to. Next spring I will clear out a lot of the rocks to make it look nicer, I have to redo my tunnel now that the track is so high, and eventually will put bents under track and keep them a couple of inches off the ground and lay rock along under bents so it looks like the bents go to the ground, should look pretty good when I am done.










This will really help the water drain also, I used to have a lot of problems because it could not drain when I had the fines in between the rocks, it would become a lake down at the bottom. Now I can run trains.

tom h


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Never trust your eye to determine "Level"... ya just can't trust it. 

When you get to land raised closer to the track it will be easier on the nerves to run the train on it!


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

All my raise track are in the form of bridges. The desert winds will blow my train right off the track. I was looking at some wasted space under the back porch.
I thought I could "store" trains there. So I went to all the trouble of putting a spur in. 

Well the wasted space is still wated. The desert winds blew under the porch and tipped my train over. 

I have abandon that for better places. 

The RR is looking great Tom


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Great looking layout.

What radius curves are you using?


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## leonpete (Jan 4, 2008)

TOM, 
Your layout is looking great. How about some pictures of the rest of it. 
Leon


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