# Elevated Garden Railroad height?



## Dansgscale (Jan 9, 2010)

What is a good height for a garden railroad? 30", 36", 42" or 48?

The older I get the more I am not looking forward to getting down on my knees and the ground to put trains on the track and to pull weeds.

So I am considering strongly elevating the whole thing.

Dan S.


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## Tom Bowdler (Jan 3, 2008)

My live steam layout (Eaglewings frames and some homebuilt supports) is level though the ground slopes. On the uphill end it is less than 18" above grade which allows a fairly easy step over to the inside. At the steamup end it is between 32" and 39" above grade for easy prep and servicing of the locos and rolling stock. I guess if I get more decrepit I can get the locos ready to run from my lawn chair at chest instead of waist height. 
Only part of it is landscaped and the plan is to grow shrubs that will be easily sheared under the more elevated part to hide the framework. I am also designing a removable bridge to allow running trains into a nearby shed so I can keep them on the track. 
Tom


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## Polaris1 (Jan 22, 2010)

I have an easy answer how I arrived at a maximum layout elevation height of 22"....... . This sure aids a 70 year old body !!! 

Home Depot 1.5" ID PVC pipe comes in 10 ft / 120" lengths..... I pre cut the PVC pipe in both 30" and 40" lengths only for dead blow hammer "Pounding".. 

I defined my pound depth as 18 inches in all cases.... via a tubular painting fixture. 

A 40" tube pounded to 18" deep equals a 22" elevated curved ladder height. My Layout back yard has a tapered grade..... so 1/2 of the pipes have the shorter 30" length.. or less... 

I have had only 10 or 12 boxcars fall 22 inches to grass/Garden...... NO Passenger car nor Engine falls yet...... These wrecks occur mostly in the train push mode. 

Dennis M from GBay, WI 

PS: Double click on my LOGO photo at Left to see 4 Photos of my Elevated Curved Ladder layout (340 ft of 332 Aristo Stainless Steel rail & Bearboard Choc Brown Plastic Wood from Elgin, IL)
My only pain is NOW Cutting the Layout Grass...... Using a 20" narrow Elec Mower, dual string weed wacker, & Fiskars long handle grass nippers..... about 3 hrs work....


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## fyrekop (Sep 20, 2011)

22 - 24" is a good starting height for those of us over 50.  I borrowed an idea from one of the Tucson Garden Railroad Society members and built a raised area using retaining wall bricks from Home Depot. 6 bricks was 24" above the average existing grade in my backyard. 22" at the high end and 28" at the low end. Will be using ladder system as mentioned before for track above grade in the new "Planter Box".


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

What is the average kitchen counter height 32 inches ?

That seems like a reasonable height. 

One could use a stool to sit on and be at a comfortable level to work on things 


JJ


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## Dennis Paulson (Jan 2, 2008)

36" is where we built at , nice an easy to lean on while you work on the track or some lineside item , and its eye level while sitting in the lawn chair leaned back , perfect height , for us
and your back and knees will thank you thru the years . . .......and you can sit while you switch the yards .


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## Bob Pero (Jan 13, 2008)

Mine was 16 inches off the ground. I had a rolling cart that I could sit on and work on the track etc. My new layout will probably be about 20 inches off the ground. I found that height was easy for access and viewing while sitting in a lawn chair was perfect. Not to mention the ease of taking phographs. www.liveoakrr.com


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## Dansgscale (Jan 9, 2010)

Thanks for all the input guys. It seems that the height is a personal preference as it varies so much from 16" to 36" I am leaning more to the 32" to 36" mark as I have two raised flower beds that some of the track will be going through and they are 24" at the highest and 15" at the lowest. My yard is basically flat with a very slight grade for water drainage. The space I have to build in is 15 foot deep by 56 feet long with a possible yard extention in the future off one end of 3 feet by 45 feet which will form a "L" off the main layout. I am still in the process of designing the track plan, but I want to have continous operation in the form of a long folded loop maybe twice around. I plan on having a few sidiings for industries, one being Oil related with tanks and dereks, another will be a cattle pen or two for the minature cows my wife likes. I am currently working on the structures for my Cumbres area and plan on incorporating Cumbress Pass track plan into the layout. I have the Original Cumbres Station about 1/4 the way built. This is the one that was torn down in 1956 and not the current one which was the section house. I have also been toying with the idea that the yard extension will be the Chama yard as I am working on the water tank and as soon as I can find the plans for the Sand House and Coaling tower will start working on them. This will provide a terminus for the Gramps Tank cars and a reason to have the Pipe Gondolas. With a Warehouse and Cattle pens located there as well it can tie the whole railroad together. 

My track Modules are 4" wide and 6 feet long with hand layed Steel rail of Ceder ties. You can see some photos of these modules and trunout module on my website along with some of my other projects. In case anyone is wondering, yes I am marking my own turnouts using Steel rail and none of the rail that I have currently layed on the Modules including the 8 foot diameter curves was bent using a rail bender. It was all hand bent and eye balling it, but I do use some home made track gauges to keep the rails in proper gauge. 

I am always looking for suggestions on industries and track plans that I can possibly use. I still have a lot of work to do in the yard before I can even start laying track and I have to finish my garden shed so I can get all of the garden tools out of the garage so I can have a place to work to build more track modules and a place to set up my table saw to cut more ceder ties. 

Dan S. 
Colorado & Rio Grande Southern 
http://danshobbies.webstarts.com/index.html


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