Hey all, Pinenut Mountain Railroad in Rural Nevada USA Online

P

pinenutmountainrr

Registered
I’m a new member; I have had G / Garden equipment for 30 years. I built a 15’ x 25’ garden layout 25 years ago, but we moved to rural Nevada and I’m starting a new layout. I hoped to get some insights here on raised RR setups, as I’m not much of a civil engineer (I’m an actual electrical engineer).

My new layout is roughly 42’ x 35’; It is on mostly level desert ground. I’m partially disabled, having a prosthetic leg. Bending over and kneeling is limited, so this railroad is going to be raised. I’ve gone back and forth on how to do walls, how high. My last layout used pre-fab blocks from Home Depot; these are too expensive for this one. I looked at railroad ties initially, but there were cost issues there too. My neighbor builds rock walls from the local rock (which I have tons of), and I started on the first section, but this was going very slowly and I was hurting my hands and back. So I’m back to ties, it turns out I can get them 1/2 price from a tie yard out near the UP line. Right now, I am looking at ~25-30” walls. So far so good, I’m half done with the base layer, and nervous about how well this is going to work.

I’m fortunate in that we get very little rain / snow here, so erosion isn’t a major concern, but I’m trying to use at least reasonable caution for drainage and stability. There is a gravel base under the ties, and as the layers go on, I’m going to pin them with rebar.

Has anyone tried this? I looked for examples here + online and couldn’t find any except for minimum retaining sides here and there.

Thank you for reading!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4997.jpeg
    IMG_4997.jpeg
    163.3 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_3975.jpeg
    IMG_3975.jpeg
    743.6 KB · Views: 0
Welcome to the forum P pinenutmountainrr , we do like a first name or simpler nick name if you have one! Looks like you are managing quite well, though I expect you are getting help with the sleepers they are devilishly heavy!
 
Welcome to the forum.

Unfortunately, my line is at ground level, so I can't help with the civil engineering....
 
Welcome to the forum. Be careful with your sleepers (ties), as John says they ain't light, and if they're second hand from a railway, the pitch will stay sticky. Have you thought about lightweight building or breeze blocks, or are they what you call Pre-Fab blocks?
 
Welcome aboard.

25" to 30" walls you say. Be sure to tie the walls back into the fill dirt that you will be placing inside of those walls. The corners will be okay, but any straight wall longer than one railroad tie will have the tendency to lean outward, due to pressure from the fill dirt behind it.
 
be welcome.
my only outdoors layout was flat in the mud. so, no construction tips from me.

my indoors layouts were elevated. i found, that the best height depends on your height.
easy to find out. best height is the height of your belt buckle. (if your belt is not longer than 40". if it is, go lower to have space for the beer belly)

edit: after looking at your plan - forget any recommendations about height! maximum reach standing and bending is about three foot.
so most of your layout is "kneeling-area".
 
Last edited:
Hi and welcome, good luck with your project . I am no expert in retaining walls , but have worked along side a few over the years .In general i was told walls fail for a few common reasons, 1 not enough drainage behind the wall, 2 ground below the wall not strong enough to support the wall, 3 the wall material is not strong/heavy enough to support the land mass behind. I have zero experience with desert soils (heavy clay soils the norm here), but I think you should be good on the first 2 points and as madman pointed out corners are strong and on the long sides brace back inside the garden . Sleepers were a common garden/retaining wall here in the 70s /80s. They nearly always failed . Either blown outwards/falling over or rotted away. The best ones which I have seen and had lasted , on every second row they had a sleeper set at 90 degrees to the wall ,every sleeper length along the wall .Going back inwards and were rebar pinned down into the ground. Over lapping the joins by half a sleeper as rows go upwards .There was a foot of 3/4 gravel directly behind the sleepers. Each row was stepped back 1/2 a inch too . Sleepers are tough on drill bits and chainsaw blades. I hope that helps , but I am not sure if that all might not be over kill in a desert seeing you probably have little rain and well draining soils ?
 
Paul M said:
Welcome to the forum. Be careful with your sleepers (ties), as John says they ain't light, and if they're second hand from a railway, the pitch will stay sticky. Have you thought about lightweight building or breeze blocks, or are they what you call Pre-Fab blocks?
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply; there are parts that are dirty / sticky but they are well worn and baked by the desert. I’ll just have to be careful! Anything pre-fab is too expensive.
 
Madman said:
Welcome aboard.

25" to 30" walls you say. Be sure to tie the walls back into the fill dirt that you will be placing inside of those walls. The corners will be okay, but any straight wall longer than one railroad tie will have the tendency to lean outward, due to pressure from the fill dirt behind it.
Click to expand...
This is a good point, I am looking at how to do that without upsetting the lay of the ties. Thank you!
 
korm kormsen said:
be welcome.
my only outdoors layout was flat in the mud. so, no construction tips from me.

my indoors layouts were elevated. i found, that the best height depends on your height.
easy to find out. best height is the height of your belt buckle. (if your belt is not longer than 40". if it is, go lower to have space for the beer belly)

edit: after looking at your plan - forget any recommendations about height! maximum reach standing and bending is about three foot.
so most of your layout is "kneeling-area".
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply; that is excellent advice on height! There will still be sections that will require empty spots where I can stand and bend over or sit to do maintenance, etc. There will be a tie stack as steps to get onto the layout surface. Most of the operable track will be somewhat near the edges; hopefully that will help minimizing the bending, crawling…
 
Welcome aboard , the only thing I could add to Stewies reply would be to stack the sleepers on their side and gain a bit of extra height .
 
pinenutmountainrr said:
This is a good point, I am looking at how to do that without upsetting the lay of the ties. Thank you!
Click to expand...

In order to keep a running bond with the ties you can use something landscapers use when building walls of masonry. It is a sort of matting, like that orange construction fence you may be familiar with. As you lay each course of ties, place the matting on top of the course you just laid, nailing it into the top of that course and spreading it back a few feet. It will be simpler if I can show you.

IMG_8954.jpeg
 
Madman said:
In order to keep a running bond with the ties you can use something landscapers use when building walls of masonry. It is a sort of matting, like that orange construction fence you may be familiar with. As you lay each course of ties, place the matting on top of the course you just laid, nailing it into the top of that course and spreading it back a few feet. It will be simpler if I can show you.

View attachment 334754
Click to expand...
This seems fairly genius! I’ve never seen this material / method but I think it’s just what I need. Available right on Amazon. Thank you!!!
 
Hi there, welcome to the nuthouse. It seems you have already met the experts and got good ideas.
I would suggest you start a 'build thread' as others have done, this means your updates don't get lost in time and, perhaps more importantly, all your questions, answers and pictures will be kept in one place and thus easier to find.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top