A bit of advice on building an 0 gauge garden railway.

[Cowley 47521]

13 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

As I mentioned way back up thread, my current, small garden line is on a raised retaining wall around a planting area, and is made from a combination of concrete blocks (hidden areas) and engineering brick (visible areas). 
 

That had stood solid for over ten years now, the “secret” being proper foundations, as in a foot plus square in section concrete, on rammed broken stone. It’s a ridiculously sold construction for the purpose TBH, but it does look neat thanks to very good work by the bricklayer (not me), who followed the sinuous shape that I’d defined beautifully.

 

Reclaimed brick also looks nice, in a different way. I built a low retaining wall to create a level planting area, and an “island” to accommodate a terminus on my first garden line. All the brick fr those was obtains on dg walks, which sometimes meant carrying heavy lads back! The bricks were all old, some very, found in woods, hedgerows, and alongside a former railway line (that was the best source), and many of them had the names of long-defunct brickworks pressed into them. It was quite an interesting project.

 

Something good about engineering brick and concrete is that they don’t mind soil being against them, so on a flat site you can create embankments that won’t slump by building what amounts to a low wall, then piling soil on either side, which. Think looks very good.

 

 

That really helpful Nearholmer thanks for that.

 

 I work through a builder (I’m his painter) so I’m hopeful that I should be able to pick up a few leftover bits and bobs from the various jobs we’ve currently got on the go. I think probably stockpiling materials for the time being is the best course of action because I really want to do a decent job with this and not regret any decisions made at the planning stage later on…