# The Perro Mierda District Railway



## nadnerbster (Nov 19, 2009)

(excuse the language . . . but I've followed the tradition of naming my railway after local geological features, and there's plenty of Perro Mierda in my back yard!) I've started construction of my railway finally! Stage one is a 12 metre X 6 metre (40' X 20') oval, about 90cm (3') high - a nice simple level oval which hopefully will give me "something to run on" while the much more ambitious stage two will follow (a branch line going around the house twice to a ground level terminus). The stage 1 bit will hopefully be flat enough and wide radius enough (10' radius curves) for visiting Asters and other such stock. I've used some H4 pine split posts, concreted about a foot into the ground (the clay starts there) - frost heave here shouldn't be an issue, I'm 40 miles west of Sydney and in mid winter it only drops to around freezing a few nights per year. Attached to the posts are buttresses made of 9mm marine ply. I'm using 70mm x 35mm (about 2.5" x 1.5") H3 pine for the support rails, the decking is 6mm marine ply. So far things seem solid enough but if you see any potential issues I may have, please let me know! 



 My 34 kilo (70 pound) test weight! The other one's a 43 kilo weight, but he's not as cooperative in photographs . . .


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Be sure to "soak" the cut edges with paint/sealer, that's where moisture will try to get in and swell the wood. The marine grade glue will of course hold better, but the cut edges are a "sponge". 

Yes, unless you are running 7-1/2 gauge, I think you have no problems with strength! 

I was sort of wondering why you offset the track, rather than center on the posts. 

Regards, Greg


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## nadnerbster (Nov 19, 2009)

Thanks Greg - yes, I'll definately be sure to paint the cut edges. I was already going to do that for the posts, but I didn't think to do it for the ply as well. 

It's offset because after I dug the holes, inserted the posts and poured the concrete, I checked the clearance between the house and the layout and found that the gap wasn't quite big enough to walk through comfortably (I'd checked before but mucked it up, and there's a hot water tank out of shots which make it a tad tricky. And I want two people to be able to pass each other behind there). It seems to be strong enough though - the ply seems to spread the load nicely, and I'm thinking of putting trellis or something underneath at the angle of the buttresses to make it look a little decorative.


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