# A new garden railroad in SC



## irondan (Jan 7, 2008)

Hello All,

I thought you guys would like to see pictures of this garden railroad. This layout took a little over 2 years to put together from designing to fabricating and installing.  

We fabricated the steel bridges and the elevated steel track platforms for both track lines. Our fabrication process for the track platforms, stands and bridges only took about two months to complete with powder coating. 

The layout has a double track main line that is 16” above ground. The track covers an over all area of 76 feet by 64 feet. We used 15 - 16 ½ ft. diameter curves. This line has a 10 foot long double track suspension bridge. 




























There is also a second single track line; 12” above the main double track line. This one covers and area of 82 feet by 48 feet. For this line we used 8ft. diameter curves and 10 ft diameter curves.  











The second line has a total of 8 bridges. 

2. Eight ft. arched deck trusses 
1. Five ft. curved chord truss 
1. Three ft. manual draw girder 
1. Two ft. girder 
1. Two ft. curved open thru truss 
1. Two ft. round end girder
1. Three ft. flat top thru trestle 



















We had an idea of the landscape that was going to surround the tracks but I have to say we’re very impressed with the end result Both lines loop around trees, plants, ponds and creeks. The landscape around is just beautiful (a garden railroader dream). We’re just happy that we got to be part of this project.


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## Nicholas Savatgy (Dec 17, 2008)

*This is way cool Dan, great job looks like a fun RR...*


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Looks nice, darned good work.


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## Bills (Feb 20, 2008)

Nice work dan. Is this rail road yours, or part of a landscaping job? Is this private home? How many feet of track. Isn't rust an issue in SC?


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## altterrain (Jan 2, 2008)

Wow, that's a lot of steel! Very nice. 

-Brian


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

You're correct. We did like seeing pictures of that garden railroad


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## snowshoe (Jan 2, 2008)

Great looking RR. Everything looks perfect and the waterfeatures look refreshing.


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## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

Gorgeous! Did you make all your own bridges?


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## irondan (Jan 7, 2008)

Thank you, all for your comments. 

Bills, 

Unfortunately the layout is not mine; but the layout is on a private home. There are 260 feet of track on each one of the loops on the main line and 235 on the single track loop, for a total of 755 feet of track. All the track platforms are powder coated as well as the bridges which makes them rust resistant plus with adequate maintenance it shouldn't be a big deal. 

Jim, I just built all the track platforms, the supports and all the bridges and then I shipped them out to S.C. The layout was installed by Dave Bennet from train installations.


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## Bills (Feb 20, 2008)

I hope this isn't inappropriate, but what does a job like that cost?


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## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

Go to Eaglewings website to get an idea of structure costs. 

www.eaglewingsironcraft.com


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## GG (Jan 1, 2009)

Wow, very nice work. 

 gg


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## David_DK (Oct 24, 2008)

Dan

Thanks for posting the photos. Very impressive and a good source of inspiration for the rest of us. And thanks for the link.
Well done!

Regards

David Clement
www.havebane.dk


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## CSG (Jun 13, 2009)

Thanks for sharing. It is wonderful and looks like fun to operate. How are the engines powered? I bet you could run a mess of different trains on a layout that size. Cool.


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## rivets (Jun 17, 2009)

Thank you for posting all those photos. The concept of a lower height railroad on a metal framework is interesting. The garden does not get in the way of the trains and vice-versa. The narrow, infrequent support posts make it easy to maintain the paths and garden. It is a very elegant design concept and looks competently carried out in the photos. 
John


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## bottino (Feb 7, 2008)

Very nice work Dan. I too like the raised track, and all the landscaping that is possible around and under it. It is very pleasing to look at. His only worry in SC will be the same as mine here in Delaware. A hurricane can come in and blow some trees over on the layout. That won't be so pretty. 
Paul


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