# 2nd attempt at a garden railroad



## iowafarmboy1960 (Jan 6, 2008)

I purchased my current house about 6 months ago. I had a small garden railroad at my last house. This house will hopefully be my retirement home. I'm attempting to build a larger garden layout. Attached you will find a diagram of my property with a drawing of what I hope will be my new layout. My backyard is sloped away from the house. I want to build a level retaining wall for the layout. I'm hoping to have the layout about 18" high closest to the house. That means that the side closest to the back fence will have to be about 48" high. I don't want to go any higher than 48", or I'll have to get a building permit. Does anybody in the Twin Cities area know any reasonably priced landscapers that do good work. I'm hoping to use retaining block for the layout depending on how much it's going to cost me. If I have to resort to wood timbers, I'll probably do the work myself. 


http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/io...ad%201.pdf


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

I really dont like those sharp reverse S curves right there behind the shed, can you smooth those out into wider diameter curves? They will be a source of frustration later unless you are only running Stainzs and HLW Macks. Also the turnouts at the firepit looks very tight as well. Maybe you can match your other 8' diameter curves? Remember what you run on your layout is only limited by your tightest curvature and those look tight like R1's to me. What are you going to run on this? 

Otherwise its a nice set up.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Vsmith, Sir his loops are 16' across or 8' Radius (not Diameter). 
My suggestion is to un-enclose the fire pit and make that track a passing siding behind the pit. You might want to park fire pit accessories on the closest track as trains run behind... 

On this board it is common practice to have a straight section of track (as long as your longest rolling stock) between the reversing curves. This helps prevent derailments as two long car ends overhang in opposit directions.... That's for sectional track, flex easements can eliminate that need. 

Best Wishes 

John


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## iowafarmboy1960 (Jan 6, 2008)

My mistake. The diagram shows the retaining wall that I'm hoping to build. I haven't designed the track plan yet. I may have to redesign the layout anyway. I just got the first estimate for the retaining wall, $22,800.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

John my bad, been doing a few smaller scale plans, getting my D's and R's mixed up lately.










Iowa, I tried to lay this out on CAD using your dimensions, but it doesn't add up. I ended up with an almost 10' gap between the track at the back of the yard so something is off, or I missed something in the translation (very likely on me). If you can, use one of those track planning programs (some are free) or buy an plastic LGB track planning template, they really make laying this stuff much easier and more precise. 

Just a suggestion...


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## iowafarmboy1960 (Jan 6, 2008)

Since I just move in most of my stuff is still in boxes, including the computer with my track planning software. I thought I had it on my laptop, guess not. I'm planning on using 12.5 diameter curves at the 16' points and 8' & 10' curves on the rest of the layout. I figure I'm going to lose around 2' 6" to 2' 8" for whatever type of material I use for the retaining wall. One of the contractors recommended that I try and split the layout in 2 sections allowing a gap for drainage. I was thinking about doing that where the S curve section of the layout would be. Maybe split the layout by 3' or 4' and have a couple of bridges spanning the gap. With the cost likely high based on the the first estimate, splitting the layout in 2 sections would allow me to build 1 section now and the other 1 later when I can afford it.


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## iowafarmboy1960 (Jan 6, 2008)

After receiving my first quote on the landscaping, I've decided to start with a smaller layout. This way I can hopefully get something started this summer. I've decided to do the entire layout in 2 parts. Attached you will find a new rough sketch drawing of the first part. I don't have exact measurements yet, until I can come up with a track plan. Also, I'll try and attach a couple of pictures of the area. 

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/io...ad%203.pdf


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)




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## iowafarmboy1960 (Jan 6, 2008)

Thanks, Steve. I don't know what I'm doing wrong when I try and post pictures.


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## iowafarmboy1960 (Jan 6, 2008)

Here's the track plan that I'm hoping to do. 

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/iowafarmboy1960/New Garden Railroad/Revised Layout.pdf


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Some of your previous .pdf's have opened, but this one has a problem and wont open.. 
cant see it, it wont open on my computer.. 

Im not sure what the problem is, but there are two things you can try: 

1. Dont ever put a blank space in a file name.. 
most of the time the blank space isnt a problem, but many programs do have problems with blank spaces. 
instead of: 
Revised Layout.pdf 
name it: 
Revised-Layout.pdf 
Revised_Layout.pdf 
RevisedLayout.pdf 

Only use a dash, underscore, or not space at all.. 

2. Instead of uploading them as .pdf's, can you convert them to a simple image format? such as .jpg ? 

Scot


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Scot, 

The diagram came up for me OK.


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Gary Armitstead on 12 May 2013 10:06 AM 
Scot, 

The diagram came up for me OK. 



hmm, strange! im getting "This PDF document might not be displayed correctly"
and an "open with different viewer" button..only other program that might work is photoshop, but that doesn't work either..

Scot


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Fixed it! (sort-of) I saved it, then it opened in adobe reader.. 
must be a browser issue then.. 

Scot


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Scottychaos on 12 May 2013 10:28 AM 
Fixed it! (sort-of) I saved it, then it opened in adobe reader.. 
must be a browser issue then.. 

Scot Happy to hear you got it to work. I have quite a few pdf's of my layout design, but could never get it into a photo image.


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## Wesley Furman (Jan 2, 2008)

I see a brown diagonal line crossing your grass in the back yard. Is that a direct bury phone line from the "can" outside your fence. Should check it out before digging or covering it up. Like the idea of starting small and adding on, worked for me. 
Wesley


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Happy to hear you got it to work. I have quite a few pdf's of my layout design, but could never get it into a photo image.One easy way to do it (Windows PC)... 

1 - Open the PDF and size it so the whole thing fits on the screen. 
2 - Press Shift-PrtSc - this copies whatever is on your screen to the clipboard. 
3 - Open MS Paint of another image program and start a new file if necessary. 
4 - Press Ctrl-V (or do an Edit | Paste) to paste what's in the clipboard into the file. You now have an image of the PDF. 
5 - Crop as necessary to get rid of the Windows borders and crap, and save as a Jpeg (or whatever). Done. 

Alternately, if full screen view makes the PDF too small to see well, you can do in sections, pasting each section into the image file and aligning as necessary.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks much Dwight!


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## iowafarmboy1960 (Jan 6, 2008)

Wesley, 
That line is a buried TV cable which I'm not using anymore. Switched to Dish Network.


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## CliffyJ (Apr 29, 2009)

Tom, 
Unless I'm missing something, your loops don't connect... Is that because they are on quite different levels? Or maybe you've just not gotten that far with your plan? 
I like your design: nice broad curves, and the wrapping around the fire pit thing will be impressive. Put in some outdoor lighting, maybe build in a BBQ...  
Cliff


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By CliffyJ on 12 May 2013 12:42 PM 
Tom, 
Unless I'm missing something, your loops don't connect... Is that because they are on quite different levels? Or maybe you've just not gotten that far with your plan? 
I like your design: nice broad curves, and the wrapping around the fire pit thing will be impressive. Put in some outdoor lighting, maybe build in a BBQ...  
Cliff 


Looks like two dufferent loops. Maybe over and under in some places OR some costly custom crossings!


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By iowafarmboy1960 on 12 May 2013 08:03 AM 
Thanks, Steve. I don't know what I'm doing wrong when I try and post pictures. Are you using the Insert Image







button and its dialog to select the image to insert in the reply?


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## iowafarmboy1960 (Jan 6, 2008)

Suppose to be 2 separate loops. I just changed the track plan by inserting a double-crossover.Steve, I just located the insert button. I'll be using it the next time I post pictures.


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

Even for a farm boy unless you have some dirt moving equipment, you are fixen to move alot of dirt, at 48" tall retainer wall. Not for sure where to tell you to look but Daniel Peck has a really unique layout in some of the forum of a couple years ago, Unless you dont like bridges they would be cheaper than alot of retainer walls. He has incorporated several bridges and mountains that really looks great.










This is not Daniels this is mine, still lots of rock and dirt, but creates a different look.Dennis


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## iowafarmboy1960 (Jan 6, 2008)

Looks nice Dennis. My backyard is slope, so I need to level it. The layout is going to be 42' x 42'. Here's an updated track plan. 

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/iowafarmboy1960/New Garden Railroad/scan0001.pdf


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

Your track layout would work very well with a variety of techniques, mountains and tunnels would look great, if that is what you like.
Trestle 42-18 inches in 35 ft, yes I have a slope too.
Dennis


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## iowafarmboy1960 (Jan 6, 2008)

Here's the layout in the diagram of my backyard. Minimum diameter curves on the inside track is 10'. Minimum diameter curves on the outside track is 12.5' with the exception to the curve around the fire pit. Minimum diameter there is 20'. I added the double crossover so I could have the option of running 2 trains at the same time or 1 train over both tracks. Luckily, I been accumulating track over the last 15 years. I still need to buy the 12.5', 20', & a few 11.5' curves. The rest I pretty much have. I'm hoping to do the retaining walls around the layout in block. If it is too expensive for block, then I'll have to revert back to landscape timbers. 

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/iowafarmboy1960/New Garden Railroad/RevisedLayout2.pdf


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## iowafarmboy1960 (Jan 6, 2008)

Nice trestle denray.


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