Scorpion Bend - my backyard RR

[TrainNut]

In the essence of bringing something fresh to the new forum rather than bringing over all my old stuff, may I introduce you to what will someday be Scorpion Bend.
I most certainly have nowhere near the amount of space that some of you do and I my funding department is meager at best. Despite these two limitations, I've rather conservatively stepped off into the shallows and begun construction on our first, serious, G scale layout! I say serious because I've done G scale before but it's never amounted to anything more than an oval around the Christmas tree!

While this is still going to start out as a glorified dog bone around a pine tree, it will help get my foot in the door for future expansion. The railroad will also begin life as a DC system but later switch over to battery power. Let's take a look at the backyard.
Front and center, I envision a simple dogbone loop around the pine tree. It will then extend back to the wall turning right to the town of Saguaro (Phase 2). To the left, it will hug the wall all the way around behind the shed to bulge out from the left wall at Needle junction (Phase 3).



To the left of Needle Junction, the track will again cling to the wall behind some Oleanders and then pop out into Pine falls (Phase 4). In this area, I plan to build up a large mountain against the fence and have some sort of a waterfall cascading down into a pool at the bottom with the track running through the mountain and across the pool on a long girder bridge. Imagination is required when looking at the picture!



The next thing we did was picked out a starter train. I know.... we bought the train before the track was even installed. Doesn't everybody do it that way? Here you can see my two little engineers testing it out. The older boy runs it very realistically. However, the younger one likes to see how many G's it'll pull around corners .



Next step was deciding how the railroad would be constructed. We knew that we wanted it up off the ground (above the level of the yard) and so discussed some kind of containment and backfill. I started looking into RR ties and discovered they were priced atrociously. Later that week, my whole family was riding the train at McCormick RR park in Scottsdale, AZ when I happened to glance into a back corner and saw piles and piles of treated, 4x4, RR ties. The next day, I inquired and was told that they were changing over to a composite ties and I could help myself to as many as I could carry off... new or used! BINGO!!!! JACKPOT!!!! Several days later, I took my truck and trailer back and loaded up until my tires all looked squishy! I figure I got about 400 in that trip.





I know it doesn't look like much but 400, treated, 4x4, RR ties is a pretty heavy load for a half ton and a lightweight trailer!!!!!

I've now dug a trench down about 12" (except where there's roots), buried the 4x4's end down, side by side, leaving approximately 18" above ground. I've then tied them together with some pallet banding strap to make things a little stronger and unify it as a whole.



Since I don’t have any fancy tools, I was cutting each 4x4 with my chain saw until it crapped out. Now I need to take it apart and do some saw maintenance (spark plug, sharpen the chain, etc. etc. etc.). Since my saw was now out of commission, I figured I could use some exercise and used my hand saw for a while. That took a REALLY LOOOOOOOOONG time. My wife felt sorry for me and approved the purchase of a new toy! Now it's coming along MUCH faster!!!!



At this point, some friends of mine voiced concern for my tree. It was their opinion that what I was doing was... going to kill it . I love the tree, as shade is very important here in Phoenix. However, my wife hates it because it grows straight up for about 12' and then takes off at an angle over the neighbors wall. Likewise, the neighbor hates it because it hovers over his yard and drops pine needles all over his golf course lawn. With that said, if the tree lives... great! If it dies, by the by.
When I installed the ties, or rather when I dug the trench, I severed very few roots. Most were left intact and I cut the ties at random lengths to sit above the roots and maintain a somewhat uniform height above ground. Some of the RR ties are only buried by an inch or two, others go down in between the roots up to 15".



I completed the majority of this project early summer before it got hot and I have not noticed any change in the tree during the last 5 months. True, I have not added the fill yet. I have asked several nurseries about what I have been doing and have of course gotten the the whole range of answers from, "Ain't gonna hurt it" to, "Oh yeh, certain death." In hopes of minimizing my impact, I think I will still fill but only half as much as I had previously planned.

After some further thought, I've decided to cut the 4x4's down 8" to only 10" above ground. Since the ground slopes up towards the tree naturally, this should not impact the tree much as I won't be piling new dirt up against the trunk, just adding about 6" above the roots in an 8' diameter circle. Cutting the 4x4's down will also significantly reduce the amount of fill I will need to bring in. To keep the track a little higher, there is talk of putting it on a trestle around the tree now to maintain the 18" above ground. Anybody got a template for a G scale trestle?



Today, my two boys and I laid out our track for a test fit and ran our first train. Why is it that the track never goes together like it’s been drawn? I drew it up in AutoCAD to exact dimensions and for some reason, it’s way off. Regardless, I took some installation liberties and made it fit! Some of my joints aren’t butt to butt and it’s driving me nuts but it will do for now.





Keep in mind that ALL of the track will be raised with fill by another 8-10”. This is just to give me a rough idea of how things will lay out. Since my layout will probably change and evolve, I’m going to use treated 4x4’s for the subroadbed and screw the track to that as opposed to a concrete roadbed.

Like I said, this is a first for me. I've done lots of layouts but never one outside or in G scale. If you see that I'm making other glaring mistakes (such as possibly killing the trees ) please speak up! I've located some free fill and also some free boulders so it seems more exercise will be the next step!