The roadbed of a railroad is the stuff that the track lays on. For real railroads, it's called ballast and consists of various types of crushed rocks, depending on what is economical for the railroad based on where it is located. This produces a firm, yet flexible, foundation for the track to rest on. All railroads, whether real or models, needs a roadbed or some sort. BTW, that's a 7-1/2' radius turn in the picture above.
For garden railroading there are many ways of producing a roadbed. For example, a very common way is to dig a trench in the garden, fill it with "crusher fines" (very finely crushed stone) and lay the track on top of it. Unfortunately, this didn't work for me because my "soil" consists of 4" of decaying pine needles and oak leaves, then many feet of sand. The crusher fines simply sank into the sand! The original roadbed from my first attempt at a garden RR at this location is completely gone after only a few years.
So, I was looking for a better roadbed method when I came across a great idea by Bill Logan, which is commonly called ladder roadbed. This method was perfect for a number of reasons:
- It allowed me to get trains rolling first, then later back-fill with soil to form a garden for my wife.
- Very nature resistant. No wood involved, which means no rotting/replacing.
- Reasonable cost.
- Reasonably easy to fabricate.
- Some of the grunt work could be done in the garage on rainy days in preparation for nice days to work outside, like cutting the support posts, spacers, etc.
When I began to research sources for the HDPE (high density polyethylene), there were no dealers nearby. Getting 12' lengths of it would require a truck for shipment (not UPS), and therefore about $150 just for shipping. If I under-estimated the material and needed one more piece, it would have been a very expensive proposition!
My Solution
One day while shopping at the local Lowe's, I came across a product called ChoiceDek by Weyerhauser. It's a recycled plastic and wood product, similar to Trex. There are a number of different types of pieces, but I found two that are perfect for roadbed construction. Better still, I have three or four Lowe's within a 30 minute drive, and they all stocked this material. Unfortunately, it appears Lowe's has stopped carrying ChoiceDek, but the local Home Depot has something called TuffBoard that is similar and worked quite nicely. Note that my pictures here are still of ChoiceDek, but the other material is what I'm using now.
First, there is a very simple baluster that is 1-1/4" square and 30" long. This forms the spacers and vertical supports. Here is a shot of the end of one of these pieces:
If you use this method, grab these by the dozen! You'll need lots of them! I've found several different brands of these as well between Home Depot and Lowe's, so I grab a bunch of them from time and time and they all seem to work nicely. I'm not a deck builder by trade, but it appears this is a common size of balusters regardless of the brand. If possible, I like to use standard materials.
Next comes the really interesting piece. They have a piece meant to trim the edge of the deck to hide the ends of the flooring, and have one rounded corner. They come in 12' pieces. In this picture you can see the rounded corner on the upper left. It's a bit ragged because I cut this piece, but is sands just like wood and I'd certainly smooth this a bit before using it. These make up the sides of the roadbed that the track actually rests on:
To fasten things together, I picked up a large box of #7 phillips head screws, 1-5/8" long, meant for outdoor use. Make sure you buy something meant for
outdoors or it'll rust in no time!
If you look at the picture at the top of this page, you'll see how they get used to form a very good roadbed system. The rounded corner is on the bottom and away from the supports.
The 12' stringer pieces are fairly flexible, but can break, as I found out. However, if they get toasty warm, they do flex easier. I leave them on the paved driveway on summer days until I need them, and they bend quite easily, then harden up once they cool. My roadbed has been in for several years now, and I can't see any flexing yet. However, I do recommend that you support this at least every two feet. This material does not have grain, so it will bend over time. I do have one warning: between years, I left a couple pieces just hanging, which did droop. The next year I attached the dangling ends to a vertical support, but the droop eventually re-appeared, which means I have gaps between the rail and the roadbed beneath it in several places. My only solution is to remove the track, drive new vertical supports, and then attach the drooped pieces to them.
Securing the Track
Actually, I do not "secure" the track, but I do try to prevent it from sliding off the top of the ladder roadbed. We have lots of deer meandering through the yard, and they tend to knock things over. I once found about 30' of track off the roadbed, laying on the ground, which inspired me to find a way to solve that problem.
I cut short (1 inch) sections of the ChoiceDek material, drill a small hole in the middle, enlarge a hole in the Sunset Valley center spline, and then use a small brass screw to secure it:
As you can see, the small block doesn't fit tightly. This allows the track to wander a bit from expansion and contraction, but still keeps the rails on the roadbed. I happen to like #4 x 3/8th inch brass screws, Micro Fastener part # RWB0406. I've ordered from these folks a number of times, and have always gotten very fast service.
Spacing Parallel Tracks
This is very simple. I just used 5-3/4" sections of baluster and secured it between legs of the parallel tracks. This gives about 7 or 8" of spacing.
Supporting Switch Stands
Again, this is pretty simple. Just using scraps of material, I added an extension to the edge of the roadbed:
