2019 Construction Progress

Rio Grande Southern Matterhorn Section

During the past year, I have begun the construction of my garden railway. After we had cleaned up after snowpocolypse, that is. I decided to start at the top of the yard, because the bottom section is waiting on a retaining wall project. The topography of my land means that this section is elevated about 4 feet off the ground, so I elected to build a “table” for this section.

The table is the portion labeled Matterhorn with the siding. Just after the top end of the table is Bridge 51A, the Trout Lake trestle to be built and installed this year.

Matterhorn Section

I used standard treated wood 2×4 frames covered with hardware cloth and then weed barrier cloth on top of that.

Because this section will be elevated close to eye-level, I thought that hand-laying the track would look nicest.

I was looking at this and thought that it would be great to have some elevated garden boxes along the table so I could plant on this section of the line as well as the filled ground-level sections. So I built a long raised plant box along the back of the table.

It’s surprising just how much dirt and mulch it takes to fill this!
I took my time and built a nice cedar face for this planter, as it will be visible from the upper patio.

I am looking forward to better weather as I have a lot of little projects to finish this section: one turnout and the final curve needs to be finished; all the track needs to be fastened down; the siding area needs to be filled and ballasted; and the garden box filled and planted. Also, a trestle to build and install just off the end of the table.

Not being a glutton for punishment, track laying will then continue apace using PVC ladder roadbed and flex track.

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