Erskine Tramway

[Erskine Tramway]

Today, I finished painting the frames and decks of the two bulkhead cars. I temporarily 'wheeled' one of them so that I could check the coupler height. Now that I've established that, I'll finish the coupler weldments, then paint the bulkheads and bolt them on.

Here's a picture of the two cars sitting on the track, sans wheels.

And here's the one I put on its' wheels today.

Enjoy,

Mike

[tomc]

u r filling up the car barn. lookin good

Tom C.

[NP317]

Inspiring!
~RN

[neanderman]

Apologies in advance, but every time I spot this thread, I think, "Who is Erskine Tramway, and why is he saying those terrible things about me?"

Ducking and running...

[Erskine Tramway]

Hi Folks.....

I was out this morning before it heated up, and spread some more sub-ballast. I ended up about six feet short of my 550-foot target for the year, but the track is going to start curving off to the East there, and I don't know exactly where yet, so I think I'll quit there until I get some more grade work done. Here's the result:

This afternoon, I went out again and put down about 20 more feet of ballast 'base' over the sub-ballast. About 42 more feet will bring me out to the end of the sub-ballast. I got the material for the rest of the ties the other day, so, next week, I'll cut them and be ready to build track. Before I work on any more track, I need to finish the bulkhead flats. It's getting to be wood hauling season, and I don't need any more track to do that.

Enjoy,

Mike

[Glenn Brooks]

Mike,

Looking good! What equipment are you using to prepare the bed? Also what thickness sub ballast and top ballast are you using? Iam getting ready to order some crushed rock for my little 12" ga loop, and trying to figure out what depth of ballast I should lay down. (4"x4" ties)

Thanks
Glenn

[Erskine Tramway]

Mike,

Looking good! What equipment are you using to prepare the bed? Also what thickness sub ballast and top ballast are you using? Iam getting ready to order some crushed rock for my little 12" ga loop, and trying to figure out what depth of ballast I should lay down. (4"x4" ties)

Thanks
Glenn

Hi Glenn.....

Thanks. We had a guy with a 'Cat' out to do some dirt work around the place a couple years ago, and I got him to run me about 300 feet of grade. So, it's pretty smooth already. I use the weed whacker to clean up any weeds that have grown on it, then cover the dirt with four-foot wide, heavy duty weed fabric. I cover that with about an inch of 'base course' sub-ballast, that they use for roads and driveways around here. When it gets wet, the dust in it 'glues' the whole thing together, and makes a pretty waterproof coating. I figure it also makes for a cushion between the fabric and the 3/4" 'clean' rock I use for ballast. I spread about an inch-and-a-half layer of 'clean', then lay the track panels on top of that. After they're bolted up, I dump more rock, up to the top of the rail, and lift the track up through the ballast, until I've got maybe two-and-a-half inches of 'clean' under the ties. I tamp the ballast with my wife's old spading fork, then 'broom' it off to fill in the 'cribs' between the ties. I'm using 18" long 2x4's lying on their 4" faces for ties, 14 to the twelve-foot panel. The whole ballast profile ends up about three-feet wide at the base, with the 'base course' extending out to the edges of the fabric, as you can see in the picture.

Now that I've gotten to the end of my grade, I need to go out there with the laser and 'shoot some levels' to see where I need to go from there. The grade is nominally 1% downhill from the grade crossing by the Car Shed, and I'm figuring on a maximum of 2%, so I'll see how that looks 'on the ground', sometime this month.

Three-inches of clean ballast under the ties should do you fine.

Mike

[Glenn Brooks]

Thanks Mike,

Off and on I've thought about using crushed cement for ballast. It's really cheap and readily available. I need around 30 yards, maybe more if I go with the 3" ballast you recommend. But, So far, haven't been able to buy into the idea of spreading ground cement around the backyard (it will be their forever -railroad or not - even though it's about 10% of the cost of screened 5/8minus crushed rock. Probably stay with traditional rock for long term effects.

What size is your sub-base??

Glenn

[Erskine Tramway]

Thanks Mike,

What size is your sub-base??

Glenn

Around here, they call it base course, or crusher fines. It's a mix of maybe 1/2" down to dust. It's used for roads and driveways, when it gets wet, it sets up pretty hard.

Mike

[Erskine Tramway]

Well, Folks......

This morning, the son-in-law and I went out and finished putting down the base layer of ballast. So that part of the job is done. The next thing is to build a half-dozen track panels, and get them down. That will finish the trackwork for this year.

Mike

[neanderman]

Very nice, Mike. How much land have you got, and ultimately, how long do you envision your track being?

[Erskine Tramway]

Very nice, Mike. How much land have you got, and ultimately, how long do you envision your track being?

We've got 30 acres, and I expect the mainline to be about 1100 feet long. Though....that may work out differently, depending on the actual route that I take to get to the pile of dirt that shows just to the left of the little tree. I might have a spur at 100 yards back from the dirt.

Mike