My 1" scale outdoor private railroad (4 3/4" gauge) has been named the Gecko Belt & Sandy Flats RR.  The trains are large enough to ride.  At the present time this is a private railroad on private property.

Phase one of track construction was completed in 2001.   I can now run continuously.  Included the initial 740' loop, two bridges and the placement of all 8 turnouts.   The existing track, including the loop, has needed ongoing maintenance.  A lot of the trouble is to do with the summer heat.  There has been a bit of uneven track (tilt) on the filled portions as it settles which, if not maintained, will lead to derailing.

The North end wye track and the last switch was completed in December of 2002.   The next section of track construction (phase two) consisting of 700' of track and 3 bridges has begun.  I'm working in two directions at once to complete the second loop.  A short bridge has been completed on the south end and that track now extends an additional 160' across the front yard.  The north side has about 110' of roadbed completed and 60' of track placed to date. Work has been very slow.

The second loop is almost completed.  The grades have been determined and bridge locations are set.  There was a lot of fill work completed in 2005. Fills are harder than cuts (believe me I know!).  I've found that a rock causeway is easier to construct when a larger fill section is needed.  There are 4 bridges on the second loop.  Two shorter ones has been completed.  Another short bridge has the foundation completed.  The fourth one will be a 40' steel trestle bridge.  It will be quite low (under 24") and less then the original 75' design.  The bridge will be constructed using 1" square tubing - that way the termites will leave it alone.

I am always on the Internet sharing information and getting helpful hints from fellow Live Steamers on the best ways to do things.  A hearty Thank You to those who have helped and given encouragement.  Building the railroad and maintaining it will no doubt be a continuous process.  I have grand plans to add additional track in the future (read years) to add  passing sidings, train sheds and a possible track extension across the driveway to make a big long outside loop..

In October, 2005, a new Pacific locomotive was acquired.  It was hydro tested and ran under steam.  It does need a bit of work but overall is good.  It was steamed once at home on the test stand but several leaks needed to been fixed.  During that steam up the water glass fractured and a new water glass is needed.  I have re plumbed the boiler water feed between the engine and the tender.

In June 2005, I traded a pair of 7 1/2" gauge trucks for an little 1" scale 0-4-0 steam engine.  The engine is 90% complete with drawings but came as a box of parts as it is totally disassembled.  It needs a complete rebuild.  Another project for rainy days.

In May, 2004 I obtained an F7B unit shell and trucks.  This was the original F7B prototype from the old Iron Pony.  I have purchased all of the remaining parts to finish it up.  I plan on doing the panels in stainless steel like the A unit.  A lot of work has been done and it I hope to finish it this year.  Also at that time, I obtained truck castings and motors for another F7 but have done little with them so far.  These were old Jack Sessums designed castings without drawings.  Sadly, Jack passed away before I could get any more information about them.

In October, 2004, I obtained the shell for another F7A.  Eventually I hope to have an A-B-A consist.

The first steam engine was acquired in 2000; a Little Engines Pacific with a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement.  This engine is 80% complete and came with a brass tender and a copper boiler.  It was started by a tool & die maker.  It has sat around for better than 25 years and was quite rusty. In 2002  I got the engine running on air.  It is now very difficult (heavy) for one person to pick up.  The next item to work on was the boiler.  I have all the plumbing hardware and was ready to get it finished. Unfortunately the boiler leaked badly when connected to a garden hose.  Attempts had been made by the previous owner to fix the leaks with soft solder.  After a lot of work by several experienced people, the boiler was declared scrap and could not be fixed.  Materials for a new boiler have been gathered but not all of what is needed has been  obtained.  It is hoped that one day this locomotive will run under steam.

The first engine is a battery powered F7 diesel unit from the Iron Pony, which is now Riding Railkits.  It came basically ready to run.   It has been completely finished and can been seen on Page 6.  It came out very well, but a lot of work was involved doing the Santa Fe war bonnet paint scheme.  I obtained some .003" stainless steel sheet (called shim stock or tool wrap) and glued these in the appropriate locations prior to painting.  I did some major rewiring on the engine controls to provide a series or parallel motor power feed.  I have added working classification lights, ditch lights, ground lights, number boards and headlights.  In addition, the engine room windows (Plexiglas) are edge lighted.  All but the headlights are powered by LEDs.  New gears sprockets for the chain drive have been obtained to provide a slightly higher speed so that the top speed running series power will be slightly higher than the existing half speed.  This will also make it possible to maintain speed as the batteries run down.
 

In March of 2009, a passenger car and caboose were added to the roster.  The passenger car is an 80' heavy weight observation car with 3 axle trucks.  The caboose is a Pennsylvania type and is a highly detailed all wood model.

In March 2007, two new center depressed riding cars were constructed.  These were difficult to make and I don't plan on making very many more.  But they ride very well with the lower center of gravity.   

My main riding car consists of a welded aluminum gondola car from 1" Scale Railroad Supply with a plywood riding car insert.  I did construct a flat car to carry a wheel barrow full of gravel.  It was of steel construction but is little used as it turned out to be very unstable with a wheel barrow on it.

I obtained 3 gondola cars (1 1/2" scale with 1" scale trucks) at Los Angeles Live Steamers Spring meet 2001.  These are used to carry gravel as their width is wide enough for my shovel.  These were quite old and rusty with Nelson Gray trucks.  They have been cleaned up and have parking brakes added.  They are also used a riding cars.  Six boat seats were purchased from K Mart, on sale, and have been adapted to fit in the gondolas.  I plan on building a couple of flat cars to be used as riding cars as they would be more stable.

The last step is placing ties and the aluminum rail.  Each ten foot piece of rail and 50 ties is assembled in 12 foot long jigs.  A two foot stagger of the joints is used.  An adjustable curved track jig fixture has been constructed to facilitate assembly of the track sections.  The ties are cut from 1¼" by 6" Trex, a plastic decking material.  It is termite and UV proof.  The ties are about 1¼" high by 3/4" wide and 9" long. Over 11,000 are needed (a lot of funny plastic sawdust).  The tie plates (2 per tie) use 2 screws each, and there are 4 bolts per rail section to join the rail together. The rail is 5/8" wide at the base, 5/8" high and 5/16" wide at the top.  Other than the aluminum color, it looks just like the real thing (including the price).  For those technically interested the aluminum rail is 6061 heat treated to T6.

A nominal track gauge of 4.77" will be used, which is within the +.040" allowed for this gauge.  This allows for some tolerance of the track jig as the minimum gauge is 4.75".  After the track is laid, a final top ballast of  crushed limestone is placed between the ties and whetted down and allowed to dry.  Over 30 total yards of ballast material will be used.

A big rainstorm revealed that some drainage was required.  I have used 1 3/4" PVC  to place some under track drainage culverts.  At least two per crossing are used, sometimes more.  Two bridges have also been completed.  Future culverts will use steel pipe 2-3" diameter.

2009 saw improvements in heat kink control.   The original rail joiners were modified to slide easier - the top was machined off to prevent then from wedging against the web.  Many track panels were warped up at the ends and these have been removed, fixed, and replaced.  Additional anti-lift strips have been added to several of the panel joiners.  These consist of a short strip of metal about 1/2" high added to the side of 4-5 ties at the joiner location.    

In 2007, the first loop was completely pulled up and replaced with bigger expansion gaps.  The track and ties were inspected at the time and found to be in excellent shape after many years on the ground.  The bigger expansion gaps resulted in the last panel being 2" longer than before.  That was the accumulated gain in expansion gap distance on the first loop.   

This is a new item added as quite a bit of maintenance has been done to the existing track.  Tilt is the biggest problem.  It has occurred in the filled part of the roadbed.  No problems have found on cut proportions of the roadbed.  This kind of uneven track will derail you you very quickly, especially if it is low towards the outside of a curve.  Also, changes in tilt from one side to another in a distance shorter than the wheel base of a car or engine will put you off the track.

We have very high temperatures here - summer of 2001 were as high as 123° F.  Four Heat kinks caused some rework of the track and one bridge. I made bigger rail gaps on the kinked sections of track.  All was OK until the summer of 2002. At the very top of Pottery Hill the track sprung up in the air. I have placed it back down and I can run on it, but very slowly.  I plan on lowering the top of the hill about 12" or so and make a cut of about 40' instead of a peak.

In 2009, gravel was ordered for additional roadbed.  The #2 chat is mostly sand so we will have to see how well it does.  3/8 minus was unavailable and some smaller gravel was delivered.  test shows that it may be all right to use.

Roadbed material is a mix of #2 Chat and crushed limestone.  A sample of the two types of gravel/limestone mix has been tested to see what worked best in the sandy soil (mostly sand).  The so called #2 Chat is crushed river rock about 3/4" diameter (I think the trade calls it 1 inch minus).  The other is called Desert Champagne and is crushed limestone about 3/8" diameter (called 3/8 minus).  The #2 chat is about  2" deep and the limestone is placed on top about the same depth, however it may be more or less as the grade is adjusted.  This is then whetted down and rolled after the grades have been finished.  The completed roadbed sets up hard as concrete.

The Trex  was delivered in 16 foot lengths (92 total).  Most boards have been cut to length but some are uncut for the longer switch ties. The poor little old Sears ½ HP radial arm saw got quite a workout.  Pulling the blade to fast through the Trex caused it to stall out with the ominous loud humm!    Ripping them to the ¾" width using a new 10" Delta table saw with more HP has been easy.  50 ties are ripped at a time as I make up the sections of the track in the fixtures. This avoids the monotonous routine of cutting ties for days at a time.

Rail, tie plates, rail joiners, 23,000 tie plate screws were all stored in the garage. They have been 70% used up.  All 8 switch kits have been completed and installed.  These consist of a cast aluminum frog, throw & tie bars, and all the hardware brackets but no screws.  The cost of materials balanced out the labor time to make all the little bits and pieces by hand. The little angle brackets and the cast frog really saved some time.

The tie plates came with a tiny hole (.078") for nailing.  I choose to use screws are used instead of nails, which necessitated drilling out the holes to .125" for #4 screws. A jig was made which held 10 columns of 11 tie plates each to speed up the hole drilling.  There is some burring after drilling but it was not a problem as the burr will help hold the tie plate in place on the tie. All the tie plates have be drilled out.