What material for retaining wall?

[Black Sheep]

Hi,

 

I'm part way through building my N gauge layout and am thinking I'll need to put in a retaining wall to make a section look correct, however I'm not sure what material will suit best.

 

The railway is a fictional line set in the white peak-ish area of the peak district / Derbyshire dales. The station building is red brick (cheshire lines style) and the short (three arch) viaduct is stone built.

Most other architecture on the layout will be a mixture of dressed stone, stone and brick.

 

The station is a terminus that serves a small town nestled in the peak district and also a coal interchange between canal and rail.

 

So the question is, what should my retaining wall be built from? Stone, red brick or blue brick?

should I use the scalescenes retaining wall or make my own arched one?

 

thanks.

[jamie92208]

From my experience on a Dales based layout retaining walls were generally built from the local stone, be it gritstone or limestone. This could either be quarried in regular blocks for large or tall structures or random dry stone walling for the lower ones.

 

Jamie

[Edwin_m]

I agree stone would be more likely - the White Peak is a limestone area. Bing Maps is probably good enough to identify the material on aerial views if you look at the line around Bakewell for instance.

[Poor Old Bruce]

To some extent it depends on the function of the wall and the land behind it. Belper, for instance, has stone retaining walls through the town but in stone areas, like the cutting at the south end of Dove Holes Tunnel and much of the C&HPR, the quarried faces are left unlined. Railway builders tended to use local materials where possible to save transport costs. I can't think of any retaining walls around Bakewell where the surface land is a bit softer and slope-sided cuttings are the norm until you get past Great Longstone. I can't remember what form the approaches to Haddon Tunnel (covered way) take.

[Black Sheep]

I hadn't thought of just modeling it carved out of the ground!

 

not sure how I'd go about doing that but I think that will look the most natural

 

thanks